To the difpofing of it nought rebell'd, BUCK. Who did guide, I mean, who fet the body and the limbs BUCK. I pray you, who, my lord? NOR. All this was order'd by the good difcretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York. BUCK. The devil speed him! no man's pie is free'd From his ambitious finger. What had he To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder, $ the office did Diftinctly his full function.] The commiffion for regulating this feftivity was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular person and action the proper place. JOHNSON. 6 certes,] An obfolete adverb, fignifying-certainly, in truth. So, in The Tempeft: "For, certes, thefe are people of the island." It occurs again in Othello, A& I. fc. i. It is remarkable, that, in the present inftance, the adverb certes must be founded as a monofyllable. It is well understood that old Ben had no fkill in the pronunciation of the French language; and the fcene before us appears to have had some touches from his pen. By genuine Shakspeare certes is conftantly employed as a diffyllable. STEEVENS. 7 element] No initiation, no previous practices. Elements are the first principles of things, or rudiments of knowledge. The word is here applied, not without a catachrefis, to a perfon. JOHNSON, 8 no man's pie is free'd From his ambitious finger.] To have a finger in the pie, is a proverbial phrafe. See Ray, 244. REED. 9-fierce vanities ?] Fierce is here, I think, ufed like That fuch a keech' can with his very bulk NOR. Out of his felf-drawing web,' he gives us note,3 the French fier for proud, unless we fuppofe an allufion to the mimical ferocity of the combatants in the tilt. JOHNSON. It is certainly used as the French word fier. So, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, the puritan fays, the hobby horse "is a fierce and rank idol." STEEVENS. 2 Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : "Thy violent vanities can never last.” In Timon of Athens, we have "O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings !" MALONE. * That fuch a keech-] A heech is a folid lump or mafs. A cake of wax or tallow formed in a mould, is called yet in fome places, a keech. JOHNSON. There may, perhaps, be a fingular propriety in this term of contempt. Wolfey was the fon of a butcher, and in The Second Part of King Henry IV. a butcher's wife is called-Goody Keech. STEEVENS. 2 Out of his felf-drawing web,] Thus it ftands in the firft edition. The latter editors, by injudicious correction, have printed: Out of his felf-drawn web. JOHNSON. TYT 3 — he gives us note,] Old copy-O gives us &c. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. 4 A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys A place next to the king.] It is evident a word or two in the fentence is misplaced, and that we should read: ABER. I cannot tell What heaven hath given him, let fome graver eye Pierce into that; but I can fee his pride Peep through each part of him :5 Whence has he that? If not from hell, the devil is a niggard; BUCK. Why the devil, Upon this French going-out, took he upon him, A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him It is full as likely that Shakspeare wrote: gives to him, which will fave any greater alteration. JOHNSON. I am too dull to perceive the neceffity of any change. What he is unable to give himself, heaven gives or depofits for him, and that gift, or depofit, buys a place, &c. STEEVens. Ι agree with Johnfon that we should read: A gift that heaven gives to him: for Abergavenny fays in reply, "I cannot tell "What heaven hath given him :" which confirms the juftnefs of this amendment. I fhould otherwife have thought Steevens's explanation right. M. MASON. I can fee his pride Peep through each part of him :] So, in Troilus and Creffida: her wanton fpirits look out "At every joint and motive of her body." STEEVENS. the file-] That is, the lift. JOHNSON. So, in Meafure for Measure: "The greater file of the fubject held the duke for wife." Again, in Macbeth: 66 I have a file "Of all the gentry." STEEVENs. Too, whom as great a charge as little honour Must fetch him in he papers.8 ABER. I do know Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have BUCK. O, many Have broke their backs with laying manors on them For this great journey.9 What did this vanity, 7 council out,] Council not then fitting. JOHNSON, The expreffion rather means, "all mention of the board of council being left out of his letter." STEEVENS. That is, left out, omitted, unnoticed, unconfulted with. RITSON. It appears from Holinfhed, that this expreffion is rightly explained by Mr. Pope in the next note: without the concurrence of the council. "The peers of the realme receiving letters to prepare themfelves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent neceffarie caufe expreffed, why or wherefore, feemed to grudge that fuch a coftly journey fhould be taken in handwithout confent of the whole boarde of the Counsaille.” MALONE. Muft fetch him in he papers.] He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own fingle authority, and without the concurrence of the council, muft fetch him in whom he papers down.—I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning. POPE. Wolfey published a lift of the feveral perfons whom he had appointed to attend on the King at this interview. See Hall's Chronicle, Rymer's Foedera, Tom. XIII. &c. STEEVENS. 9 Have broke their backs with laying manors on them For this great journey.] In the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, but apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. there feems to have been a fimilar ftroke aimed at this expenfive expedition: Pryde. I am unhappy, I fe it well, "For the expence of myne apparell But minifter communication of A most poor iffue?1 Nor. Grievingly I think, The peace between the French and us not values The coft that did conclude it. BUCK. Every man, After the hideous ftorm that follow'd, was "Towardys this vyage "What in horfes and other aray Chapman has introduced the fame idea into his version of the fecond Iliad: 65 Proud-girle-like, that doth ever beare her dowre upon her backe." STEEVENS. So, in King John: "Rash, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries, "Have fold their fortunes at their native homes, Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605: "There was a nobleman merrily conceited, and riotously given, that having lately fold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, faying, am not I a mighty man that beare an hundred houfes on my backe?" MALONE. See also Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED. So alfo Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: ""Tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a fute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back." Edit. 1634, p. 482. WHALLEY. • What did this vanity, But minifter &c.] What effect had this pompous fhow, but the production of a wretched conclufion. JOHNSON. 2 Every man, After the hideous Storm that follow'd, &c.] From Holinfhed: 66 Monday the xviii. of June was fuch an hideous forme of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognofticate trouble and hatred fhortly after to follow between princes.". Dr. Warburton has quoted a fimilar paffage from Hall, whom VOL. XV. C |