OLD L. Beshrew me, I would, And venture maidenhead for't; and so would you, You, that have so fair parts of woman on you, Which, to say sooth, are blessings: and which gifts (Saving your mincing) the capacity Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive, ANNE. be a queen? ANNE. No, not for all the riches under heaven. OLD L. 'Tis strange; a three-pence bowed would hire me, Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you, ANNE. No, in truth. OLD L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a little; 2 cheveril-] Is kid-skin, soft leather. JOHNSON. So, in Histriomastix, 1610: 3 "The cheveril conscience of corrupted law." STEEVENS. Pluck OFF a little, &c.] What must she pluck off? I think we may better read: 66 Pluck up a little." Pluck up! is an idiomatical expression for take courage, JOHNSON. The old lady first questions Anne Bullen about being a queen, which she declares her aversion to; she then proposes the title of a duchess, and asks her if she thinks herself equal to the task of sustaining it; but as she still declines the offer of greatness, 66 Pluck off a little," says she; i. e. let us still further divest preferment of its glare, let us descend yet lower, and more upon a level with your own quality; and then adds: "I would not be a young count in your way," which is an inferior degree of honour to any before enumerated. STEEVENS. I would not be a young count in your way, For more than blushing comes to: if your back Ever to get a boy. ANNE. How you do talk! I swear again, I would not be a queen For all the world. OLD L. In faith, for little England You'd venture an emballing: I myself Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd. 4 In faith, for LITTLE ENGLAND You'd venture an EMBALLING: I myself Would for CARNARVONSHIRE,] Little England seems very properly opposed to all the world; but what has Carnarvonshire to do here? Does it refer to the birth of Edward II. at Carnarvon? or may not this be the allusion? By little England is meant, perhaps, that territory in Pembrokeshire, where the Flemings settled in Henry First's time, who speaking a language very different from the Welsh, and bearing some affinity to the English, this fertile spot was called by the Britons, as we are told by Camden, Little England beyond Wales; and, as it is a very fruitful country, may be justly opposed to the mountainous and barren county of Carnarvon. WHALLEY. So, in A Short Relation of a Long Journey, &c. by John Taylor the Water Poet: "Concerning Pembrookshire, the people do speak English in it almost generally, and therefore they call it Little England beyond Wales, it being the farthest south and west county in the whole principality." STEEVENS. Surely she means,-You would for little England. I would for a single Welsh county. Boswell. "You'd venture an emballing." You would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's explanation cannot be right, because a queenconsort, such as Anne Bullen was, is not distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty, nor has the poet expressed that she was so distinguished. TOLLET. Mr. Tollet's objection to Johnson's explanation is an hypercriticism. Shakspeare did not probably consider so curiously his distinction between a queen consort and a queen regent. M. MASON. Might we read "You'd venture an empalling; i. e. being invested with the pall or robes of state? The word occurs in the old tragedy of King Edward III. 1596 : 66 As with this armour I impall thy breast-." No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes here ? Enter the Lord Chamberlain. CHAM. Good morrow, ladies. What were't worth to know The secret of your conference? ANNE. A CHAM. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women: there is hope, All will be well. ANNE. Now I pray God, amen! CHAM. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly blessings Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady, Ta'en of your many virtues, the king's majesty And, in Macbeth, the verb to pall is used in the sense of enrobe: "And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell." Malone. The word recommended by Mr. Malone occurs also in Chapman's version of the eighth book of Homer's Odyssey : 66 such a radiance as doth round empall "Crown'd Cytherea-." STEEvens. Might we not read-" an embalming?" A queen consort is anointed at her coronation; and in King Richard II. the word is used in that sense: "With my own tears I wash away my balm." Dr. Johnson properly explains it, the oil of consecration. WHALLEY. 5 Commends his good opinion to you,] Thus the old copy and subsequent editors. Mr. Malone proposed to read : "Commends his good opinion of you." The phrase I found in the text I have not disturbed, as it is supported by a passage in Antony and Cleopatra: Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand." Again, in King Lear: 66 "I did commend your highness' letters to them." STEEVENS. Does purpose honour to you no less flowing Out of his grace he adds. I do not know, ANNE. What kind of my obedience I should tender; More than my all is nothing: nor my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd', nor my wishes More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers, and wishes, Are all I can return. 'Beseech your lordship, Vouchsafe to speak my thanks, and my obedience, As from a blushing handmaid, to his highness; Whose health, and royalty, I pray for. Снам. Lady, • More than my ALL is nothing:] Not only my all is nothing, but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. So, in Macbeth: JOHNSON. "More is thy due than more than all can pay." 7 -NOR my prayers STEEVENS. Are NOT words duly hallow'd, &c.] It appears to me absolutely necessary, in order to make sense of this passage, to read: -for my prayers 66 "Are not words duly hallow'd," &c. instead of " nor my prayers." Anne's argument is this: "More than my all is nothing, for my prayers and wishes are of no value, and yet prayers and wishes are all I have to return." M. MASON. The double negative, it has been already observed, was commonly used in our author's time. For my prayers, a reading introduced by Mr. Pope, even if such arbitrary changes were allowable, ought not to be admitted here, this being a distinct proposition, not an illation from what has gone before. I know not, (says Anne,) what external acts of duty and obeisance I ought to return for such unmerited favour. All I can do of that kind, and even more, if more were possible, would be insufficient: nor are any prayers that I can offer up for my benefactor sufficiently sanctified, nor any wishes that I can breathe for his happiness, of more value than the most worthless and empty vanities. MALONE. I shall not fail to approve the fair conceit®, Beauty and honour in her are so mingled, [Aside. That they have caught the king: and who knows yet, But from this lady may proceed a gem, To lighten all this isle1?-I'll to the king, ANNE. My honour'd lord. [Exit Lord Chamberlain. OLD L. Why, this it is; see, see! I have been begging sixteen years in court, (Am yet a courtier beggarly,) nor could 8 I shall not fail, &c.] I shall not omit to strengthen, by my commendation, the opinion which the King has formed. 9 JOHNSON. I have perus'd her well;] From the many artful strokes of address the poet has thrown in upon Queen Elizabeth and her mother, it should seem that this play was written and performed in his royal mistress's time: if so, some lines were added by him in the last scene, after the accession of her successor, King James. THEOBALD. To lighten all this isle?] Perhaps alluding to the carbuncle, a gem supposed to have intrinsick light, and to shine in the dark any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it. So, in Titus Andronicus : "A precious ring, that lightens all the hole." JOHNSON. STEEVENS. Thus, in a palace described in Amadis de Gaule, Trans. 1619, fol. b. iv. p. 5: "In the roofe of a chamber hung two lampes of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchafed two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light." With a reference to this notion, I imagine, Milton, speaking of the orb of the sun, says: "If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite." Paradise Lost, b. iii. v. 596. And that we have in Antony and Cleopatra : were it carbuncled 66 "Like holy Phœbus' car." HOLT WHITE. |