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AND springhalt is sense; spavin A springhalt is non

sense.

13 Chambers-] Chambers are very small guns, used only on occasions of rejoicing. They are so contrived as to carry great charges, and thereby to make a noise more than proportioned to their size. Some of them are still fired in the Park, and at the places opposite to the parliament-house, when the king goes thither. Camden enumerates them among other guns, as follows,- cannons, demi-cannons, chambers, arquebuse, musquet.'

STEEVENS.

14 You have found him, cardinal.] Holinshed says the cardinal mistook, and pitched upon sir Edward Neville; upon which the king laughed, and pulled off both his own mask and sir Edward's. Edwards's MSS.

15

STEEVENS.

-You few, that lov'd me, &c.] These lines are

remarkably tender and pathetick.

JOHNSON.

16 -poor Edward Bohun:] The duke of Buckingham's name was Stafford. Shakspeare was led into the mistake by Holinshed.

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I be not found a talker.] I take the meaning to be, "Let care be taken that my promise be perform"ed, that my professions of welcome be not found empty talk."

19

JOHNSON.

18 -our best having.} That is, our best possession. -your soft cheveril conscience-] A cheveril conscience, is a conscience that will yield or stretch;

a conscience made of kid-skin. French, chevreau, a kid.

20

-is it bitter? forty pence, no.] Mr. Roderick, in his appendix to Edwards's book, proposes to read,

-for two pence.

Forty pence was in those days the proverbial expression of a small wager. Money was then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty pence is half a noble, or the sixth part of a pound. Forty pence, or three and four pence, still remains in many offices the legal and established fee.

21

-—sennet,] I know not the meaning of this word, which is in all the editions, except that Hanmer, not understanding it, has left it out.

JOHNSON.

Dr. Burney, to whom the world is under great obligations on the subject of musick, undertook to trace the etymology, and discover the certain meaning of this word, but without success. The following conjecture of his should not, however, be withheld from the public.

Senné ou sennie, de l'Allemand sen, qui signifie assemblee. Dict. de vieux Langage.

Senne assemblee a son de cloche. Menage.

Perhaps, therefore, says he, sennet may mean a flourish for the purpose of assembling chiefs, or apprizing the people of their approach.

I believe Dr. Burney is right in supposing sennet to signify a flourish. Mr. Malone quotes Florio's dic

tionary to prove that the Italian word sonata had formerly no other meaning. Sennet, therefore, in the directions, should be placed before trumpets.

22 -pillars;] Pillars were some of the ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Sir Thomas More, when he was speaker to the commons, advised them to admit Wolsey into the house with his maces and his pillars. More's Life of Sir T. More.

23

JOHNSON.

-hulling-] For a ship to hull, is when all her mast and rigging are carried away, and she drives without government, or assistance from her sails.

24 I am wife in,] That is, if you come to examine the title by which I am the king's wife; or, if you come to know how I have behaved as a wife. The meaning, whatever it be, is so coarsely and unskilfully expressed, that the latter editors have liked nonsense better, and, contrarily to the antient and only copy, have published,

And that way I am wife in. JOHNSON. 25 And hedges, his own way.--] To hedge, is to creep along by the hedge: not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions.

JOHNSON.

26 Enter the king, reading a schedule;] That the cardinal gave the king an inventory of his own private wealth, by mistake, and thereby ruined himself, is a known variation from the truth of history. Shakspeare, however, has not injudiciously represented the fall of that great man, as owing to an incident which

he had once improved to the destruction of another. See Holinshed; vol. ii. p. 796 and 797.

"Thomas Ruthall, bishop of Durham, was, after "the death of king Henry VII. one of the privy "council to Henry VIII. to whom the king gave in

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charge to write a book of the whole estate of the

kingdom, &c. Afterwards, the king commanded "cardinal Wolsey to go to this bishop, and to bring "the book away with him.-This bishop having "written two books (the one to answer the king's "command, and the other intreating of his own pri"vate affairs), did bind them both after one sort in vellum, &c. Now, when the cardinal came to demand the book due to the king, the bishop unadvisedly commanded his servant to bring him the book "bound in white vellum, lying in his study, in such "a place. The servant accordingly brought forth "one of the books so bound, being the book intreating of the state of the bishop, &c. The cardinal having the book, went from the bishop, and after "(in his study by himself) understanding the contents "thereof, he greatly rejoiced, having now occasion "(which he long sought for) offered unto him, to "bring the bishop into the king's disgrace.

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"Wherefore he went forthwith to the king, deli"vered the book into his hands, and briefly informed "him of the contents thereof; putting further into "the king's head, that if at any time he were destitute " of a mass of money, he should not need to seek fur"ther therefore than to the coffers of the bishop.

"Of all which when the bishop had intelligence, &c. "he was stricken with such grief of the same, that "he shortly, through extreme sorrow, ended his life "at London, in the year of Christ 1523. After "which, the cardinal, who had long before gaped "after his bishoprick, in singular hope to attain there"unto, had now his wish in effect, &c."

STEEVENS.

27 ——the sacring bell,-] The little bell, which is rung to give notice of the host approaching when it is carried in procession, as also in other offices of the Romish church, is called the sacring, or consecration bell; from the French word, sacrer.

THEOBALD.

28 a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!] The chancellor is the general guardian of orphans. A tomb of tears is very harsh.

JOHNSON.

29 cherish those hearts that hate thee:] Though this be good divinity; and an admirable precept for our conduct in private life; it was never calculated or designed for the magistrate or public minister. Nor could this be the direction of a man experienced in affairs to his pupil. It would make a good christian, but a very ill and very unjust statesman. And we have nothing so infamous in tradition, as the supposed advice given to one of our kings, to cherish his enemies, and be in no pain for his friends. I am of opinion the poet wrote,

--cherish those hearts that wait thee;

i. e. thy dependants. For the contrary practice had

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