Being of those virtues vacant. I fear nothing King. Know you not [world? How your state stands i' the world, with the whole Your enemies are many, and not small; their 5 practices Must bear the same proportion: and not ever Cran. God, and your majesty, Protect mine innocence, or I fall into King. Be of good cheer; y to. 10 15 20 They shall no more prevail, than we give way t He's honest, on mine honour. God's blest mother! [Exit Butts. The king's physician: As he pass'd along, How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me! 30 Pray heaven he sound not my disgrace! For certain, This is of purpose lay'd, by some that hate me, (God turn their hearts! I never sought theirmalice) To quench mine honour: they would shame to make me [sures 35 Wait else at door; a fellow counsellor, Enter an Old Lady. bring King. Now, by thy looks I guess thy message. Is the queen deliver'd? Lady. Ay, ay, my liege; And of a lovely boy: The God of heaven Acquainted with this stranger; 'tis as like you, King. Lovel, Lov. Sir. queen. Enter Lovel. Butts. I think, your highness saw this many a day. Butts. There, my lord: The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury; 45 Who holds his state at door,'mongst pursuivants, Pages, and foot-boys. King. Ha! 'Tis he, indeed: Is this the honour they do one another? 'Tis well, there's one above 'em yet. I had thought, 50 They had parted so much honesty among 'em, (At least, good manners) as not thus to suffer A man of his place, and so near our favour, To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures, And at the door too, like a post with packets. 55 By holy Mary, Butts, there's knavery: King. Give her an hundred marks. I'll to the Let 'em alone, and draw the curtain close: Enter the Lord Chancellor, places himself at the up- ! Toween is to think, to imagine. Obsolete, Nor. Who waits there? D. Keep. Without, my noble lords? D. Keep. My lord archbishop: And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures. D. Keep. Your grace may enter now. [Cranm r approaches the council table. And, by that virtue, no man dare accuse you. Gard. Mylord, because we have business of more moment, [pleasure, We will be short with you. "Tis his highness' 5 And our consent, for better trial of you, From hence you be committed to the Tower; Where, being but a private man again, You shall know many dare accuse you boldly, Tis my undoing: Love, and meekness, lord, Of our flesh, few are angels: out of which frailty, Gard. Which reformation must be sudden too, To one man's honour) this contagious sickness, Cran. My good lords, hitherto, in all the progress Dare bite the best. I do beseech your lordships, Suf. Nay, my lord, That cannot be; you are a counsellor, Gard. My lord, my lord, you are a sectary, Crom. My lord of Winchester, you are a little, I Gard. Good master Secretary, cry your honour mercy; you may, worst Of all this table, say so. Crom. Why, my lord? Gard. Do not I know you for a favourer 35 Of this new sect? ye are not sound. 40 45 Gard. Not sound, I say. Crom. 'Would you were half so honest! Men's prayers then would seek you, not their fears. Gard. I shall remember this bold language. Crom. Do: Chan. Then thus for you, my lord,-It stands 551 Cran. Is there no other way of mercy, Cran. For me? 'This lord chancellor, though a character, has hitherto had no place in the Dramatis Persona. In the last scene of the fourth act, we heard that Sir Thomas More was appointed lord chancellor: but it is not he, whom the poet here introduces. Wolsey, by command, delivered up the seals on the 18th of November, 1529; on the 25th of the same month, they were delivered to Sir Thomas More, who surrender'd them on the 16th of May, 1532. Now the conclusion of this scene taking notice of queen Elizabeth's birth (which brings it down to the year 1534), Sir Thomas Audlie must necessarily be our poet's chancellor; who succeeded Sir Thomas More, and held the seals many years. Meaning, perhaps, Few are perfect, while they remain in their mortal capacity. 3i. e. your fair outside. Must I have a little yet to say. Look there, my lords; 5 Sur. 'Tis no counterfeit. Suf. 'Tis the right ring, by heaven: I told ye all, When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling, 'Twould fall upon ourselves. Nor. Do you think, my lords, Cham. 'Tis now too certain: How much more is his life in value with him? Crom. My mind gave me, Ye blew the fire that burns ye: Now have at ye. Not as a groom: There's some of ye, I see, Chan. Thus far, My most dread sovereign, may it like your grace (If there be faith in men) meant for his trial, King. Well, well, my lords, respect him; Am, for his love and service, so to him. 20I have a suit which you must not deny me: 25 Cran. The greatest monarch now alivemay glory spoons: you shall have [Norfolk, Two noble partners with you: the old dutchess of And lady marquis Dorset; Willthese please you?— 30 Once more, my lord of Winchester, I charge you, Embrace and love this man. In daily thanks, that gave us such a prince ; Bishop of Winchester. But know, I come not 50 Gard. With a true heart, Cran. And let heaven Witness how dear I hold this confirmation. King. Good man, those joyful tears shew thy The Palace Yard. Within. Good master porter, I belong to the larder. Port. Belong to the gallows, and be hang'd, you rogue. Is this a place to roar in? — Fetch me a dozen crab-tree staves, and strong ones; these are 55 but switches to 'em.-I'll scratch your heads; You must be seeing christenings? Do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals? Man. Pray, sir, be patient; 'tis as much impossible 'Mr. Steevens says, "It was the custom, long before the time of Shakspeare, for the sponsors at christenings to offer gilt spoons as a present for the child. These spoons were called apostle spoons, because the figures of the apostles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve; those who were either more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expence of the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint in honour of whom the child received its name." The bear-garden of that time, and in a line with Bridewell. (Unless (Unless we sweepthem fromthedoor with cannons) Port. You did nothing, sir. 5 10 Man. I am not Sampson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand2, tó mow 'em down before me: but, if] spar'd any, that had a head to hit, either young or old, he or she, cuckold or cuckold-maker, let me never hope to see a chine again; and that I would 15 not for a cow, God save her. Within. Do you hear, master Porter? Port. I shall be with you presently, good master puppy. Keep the door close, sirrah. (to endure. I have some of 'em in Limbo Patrum, and there they are like to dance these three days besides the running banquet of two beadles, that 20 Man. What would you have me do? Port. What should you do, but knock 'em down by the dozens? Is this Morefields to muster in? or have we some strange Indian with the great tool come to court, the women so besiege us? Bless me, what a cry of fornication is at door! 25 O' my christian conscience, this one christening will beget a thousand: here will be father, godfather, and all together. is to come. Enter the Lord Chamberlain. Cham. Mercy o' nie, what a multitude are here! There's a trim rabble let in: Are all these [have Port. Please your honour, We are but men; and what so many may do,` Man. The spoons will be the bigger, sir. There is a fellow somewhat near the door, he should be 30 a brasier by his face, for, o' my conscience, twenty of the dog-days now reign in's nose; all that stand about him are under the line, they need no other penance: that fire-drake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his nose 35 discharg'd against me; he stands there like a mortar-piece,to blow us up. There was a haberdasher's wife of small wit near him, that rail'd upon me 'till her pink'd porringer fell off her head, for kindling such a combustion in the state. I miss'd 40 the meteor' once, and hit that woman, who cry'd out, clubs ! when I might see from far some forty trunchioneers draw to her succour, which were the hope of the strand, where she was quarter'd. They fell on; I made good my place; at length 45 they came to the broomstaff with me, I defy'd'em still; when suddenly a file of boys behind 'em, loose shot, deliver'd such a shower of pebbles, that 1 was fain to draw mine honour in, and let 'em winf the work: the devil was amongst 'em, I think, 50 surely. Port.These are the youths thatthunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples; that no audience, but the tribulation of Tower-hill', or the Cham. As I live, If the king blame me for 't, I'll lay ye all Port. You i' the camblet, get up o'the rail; I'll SCENE IV. The Palace. EnterTrumpets, sounding; then two Aldermen, Lord Major, Garter, Cranmer, Duke of Norfolk with his Marshal's staff, Duke of Suffolk, two Noblemen bearing two great standing bowls for the christening gifts; then four Noblemen bearing a canopy, under which the Dutchess of Norfolk, godmother, bearing the child richly Labited in a mantle, c. Train borne by a Lady: then follow the Marchioness of Dorset, the other godmother, and Ladies. The troop pass once about the stage, and Garter speaks. Gar. Heaven, from thy endless goodness, send prosperous life, long, and ever happy, to the high and mighty princess of England, Elizabeth! Flourish. Enter King, and Train. Cran. [Kneeling]. And to your royal grace, and the good queen, 4 My noble partners, and myself, thus pray;All comfort, joy, in this most gracious lady, limbs of Limehouse, their dear brothers, are able 55 Heaven ever laid up to make parents happy, It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a-maying on the first of May. 2 Of Guy of Warwick every one has heard.-Colbrand was the Danish giant, whom Guy subdued at Winchester. A brasier signifies a man that manufactures brass, and a reservoir for charcoal occasionally heated to convey warmth. Both these senses are here understood. A fire-drake is both a serpent, anciently called a brenning-drake, or dipsas, and a name formerly givento a Willo' th' Wisp, or ignis fatuus. A fire-drake was likewise an artificial firework. i.e. the brasier. The prices of seats for the vulgar in our ancient theatres were so very low (viz. a penny, two-pence, and six-pence, each, for the ground, gallery, and rooms:-the boxes were somewhat higher, being a shilling and half-a-crown), that we cannot wonder if they were filled with the tumultuous company described by Shakspeare in this scene; espe cially when it is added, that tobacco was smoaked, and ale drunk in them. "Dr. Johnson suspects the Tribulation to have been a puritanical meeting-house. A public whipping. To bait bumbards is to tipple, to lie at the spigot. Bumbards were large vessels in which the beer was carried to soldiers apon duty: they resembled black jacks of leather. 6 9 May 5 [As great in admiration as herself; So shali she leave her blessedness to one, (When heaven shall call her from this cloud of Who, from the sacred ashes of her honour, For heaven now bids me; and the words I utter King. Thou speakest wonders.] And all that shall succeed: Sheba was never To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. 25 Thou hast made me now a man; never, before In her days, every man shall eat in safety, 40 Ye must all see the queen, and she must thank ye, [Exeunt EPILOGUE.3 TIS ten to one this play can never please All that are here: Some come to take their ease, For this play at this time, is only in These lines, to the interruption by the king, seem to have been inserted at some revisal of the play, after the accession of king James. "Theobald remarks, that the transition here from the complimentary address to king James the first is so abrupt, that it seems to him, that compliment was inserted after the accession of that prince. If this play was written, as in his opinion it was, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, we may easily determine where Cranmer's eulogium of that princess concluded. He makes no question but the poet rested here: And claim by those their greatness, not by blood. All that the bishop says after this, was an occasional homage paid to her successor, and evidently inserted after her demise. Dr. Johnson is of opinion, with other Critics, that both the Prologue and Epilogue to Henry VIII. were written by Ben Jonson. In the character of Katharine. CORIOLANUS. |