NOR. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde: 4 I was then present, faw them falute on horfeback; Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung In their embracement, as they grew together; 5 Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd Such a compounded one? BUCK. All the whole time I was my chamber's prisoner. Nor. Then you loft The view of earthly glory: Men might say, Till this time, pomp was fingle; but now married To one above itself. Each following day fometimes difficult to determine which is meant; fun, or fon. However, the subsequent part of the line, and the recurrence of the fame expreffion afterwards, are in favour of the reading of the original copy. MALONE. Pope has borrowed this phrase in his Imitation of Horace's Epiftle to Auguftus, v. 22: "Thofe funs of glory please not till they fet." STEEVENS. 4 Guynes and Arde:] Guynes then belonged to the English, and Arde to the French; they are towns in Picardy, and the valley of Ardren lay between them. Arde is Ardres, but both Hall and Holinfhed write it as Shakspeare does. REED. 5 -as they grew together;] So, in All's well that ends well: "I grow to you, and our parting is as a tortured body." Again, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "So we grew toge ther." STEEVENS. as they grew together;] That is, as if they grew together. We have the fame image in our author's Venus and Adonis : — a sweet embrace; Incorporate then they seem; face grows to face." • Till this time, pomp was fingle; but now married To one above itfelf.] The thought is odd and whimsical; andi obfcure enough to need an explanation. Till this time (fays Became the next day's mafter, till the laft the fpeaker) pomp led a fingle life, as not finding a husband able to fupport her according to her dignity; but the has now got one in Henry VIII. who could fupport her, even above her condition, in finery. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton has here discovered more beauty than the author intended, who only meant to fay in a noify periphrase, that pomp was encreased on this occafion to more than twice as much as it had ever been before. Pomp is no more married to the English than to the French King, for to neither is any preference given by the speaker. Pomp is only married to pomp, but the new pomp is greater than the old. JOHNSON. Before this time all pompous fhows were exhibited by one prince only. On this occafion the Kings of England and France vied with each other. To this circumstance Norfolk alludes. M. MASON. 7 Each following day Became the next day's mafter, &c.] Dies diem docet. Every day learned fomething from the preceding, till the concluding day collected all the splendor of all the former fhows. JOHNSON. All clinquant,] All glittering, all fhining. Clarendon ufes this word in his defcription of the Spanish Juego de Toros. JOHNSON. It is likewise used in A Memorable Mafque, &c. performed before King James at Whitehall in 1613, at the marriage of the Palfgrave and Princess Elizabeth: 66 his bufkins clinquant as his other attire." STEEVENS. As prefence did present them; him in eye, Still him in praife:9 and, being present both, 'Twas faid, they faw but one; and no difcerner Durft wag his tongue in cenfure. When these funs (For fo they phrase them,) by their heralds challeng'd The noble spirits to arms, they did perform Beyond thought's compafs; that former fabulous ftory, Being now seen poffible enough, got credit, BUCK. O, you go far. NOR. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honefty, the tract of every thing 3 Would by a good difcourfer lofe fome life, Which action's felf was tongue to. All was royal;4 1 "So match'd, as each feem'd worthieft when alone." JOHNSON. Durft wag his tongue in cenfure.] Cenfure for determina tion, of which had the noblest appearance. See Vol. IV. p. 190, n. 4. MALONE. WARBURTON. 2 That Bevis was believ'd.] The old romantick legend of Bevis of Southampton. This Bevis, (or Beavois,) a Saxon, was for his prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton of whom Camden in his Britannia. THEOBALD. 3 the tract of every thing &c.] The course of these triumphs and pleasures, however well related, must lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which were expreffed in the real action. JOHNSON. 4 All was royal; &c.] This speech was given in all the editions to Buckingham; but improperly: for he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the folemnity. I have therefore given it to Norfolk. WARBURTON. The regulation had already been made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. To the difpofing of it nought rebell'd, BUCK. Who did guide, I mean, who set 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 fpeed him! no man's pie is free'd From his ambitious finger. What had he To do in these fierce vanities? 9 I wonder, 3 the office did Diftinctly his full function.] The commiffion for regulating this feftivity was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular perfon 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 scene 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. fierce vanities ?] Fierce is here, I think, used 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. Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : 66 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 keech is a folid lump or mass. 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 : 3 Out of his felf-drawn web. JOHNSON. he gives us note,] Old copy-O gives us &c. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. * 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 mifplaced, and that we should read: |