ABER.

I cannot tell

What heaven hath given him, let some 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;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

BUCK

Why the devil,

Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who fhould attend on him? He makes up
the file
Of all the gentry; for the most part such

A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him
A place next to the king. WARBURTON.

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.

I

agree with Johnson that we fhould 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 spirits 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
He meant to lay upon: and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,"
Muft fetch him in he papers.8

I do know

ABER.
Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
By this fo ficken'd their eftates, that never
They fhall abound as formerly.

BUCK.

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on them For this great journey. What did this vanity,

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 themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent neceffarie caufe expreffed, why or wherefore, feemed to grudge that fuch a coftly journey should be taken in hand→→→ without confent of the whole boarde of the Counfaille."

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
"Hath compelled me for to lay
"All my land to mortgage."

Chapman has introduced the fame idea into his verfion of the fecond Iliad:

66

Proud-girle-like, that doth ever beare her dowre upon her backe." STEEVENS.

So, in King John:

"Rafh, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
"Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs,
"To make a hazard of new fortunes here."

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 houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See also Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So also 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.

But minifter &c.] What effect had this pompous show, but the production of a wretched conclufion. JOHNSON.

2

Every man,

After the hideous form that follow'd, &c.] From Holinfhed: 66 Monday the xviii. of June was fuch an hideous Storme 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

A thing infpir'd; and, not confulting, broke
Into a general prophecy, That this tempeft,
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded

The fudden breach on't.

NOR.

Which is budded out;

For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.

ABER.

The ambaffador is filenc'd ? 3

NOR.

Is it therefore

Marry, is't.

ABERS A proper title of a peace; and purchas'd' At a fuperfluous rate!

BUCK.

Why, all this business

Our reverend cardinal carried.5

NOR.

'Like it your grace,

he calls Shakspeare's author; but Holinfhed, and not Hall, was his author: as is proved here by the words which I have printed in Italicks, which are not found fo combined in Hall's Chronicle. This fact is indeed proved by various circumstances. MALONE.

3 The ambajador is filenc'd?] Silenc'd for recalled. This being proper to be faid of an orator; and an ambaffador or publick minifter being called an orator, he applies filenc'd to an ambaffador. WARBURTON.

I understand it rather of the French ambaffador refiding in England, who, by being refused an audience, may be faid to be filenc'd. JOHNSON.

4 A proper title of a peace;] A fine name of a peace. Ironically. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth:

"O proper stuff!

fear." STEEVENS.

"This is the very painting of your fear."

S this business

--

Our reverend cardinal carried.] To carry a bufinefs was at this time a current phrafe for to conduct or manage it. So,

in this Act:

you

The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you,
(And take it from a heart that wishes towards
Honour and plenteous fafety,) that you read
The cardinal's malice and his potency
Together to confider further, that
What his high hatred would effect, wants not
A minifter in his power: You know his nature,
That he's revengeful; and I know, his sword
Hath a fharp edge: it's long, and, it may be faid,
It reaches far; and where 'twill not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bofom up my counsel,
You'll find it wholefome. Lo, where comes that
rock,6

That I advise your fhunning.

Enter Cardinal WOLSEY, (the Purse borne before him,) certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with Papers. The Cardinal in his Passage fixeth his Eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM: on him, both full of Difdain.

WOL. The duke of Buckingham's furveyor? ha? Where's his examination ?

1 SECR.

WOL. Is he in perfon ready?

1 SECR.

Here, so please you.

Ay, please your grace.

WOL. Well, we fhall then know more; and

Buckingham

Shall leffen this big look.

6

[Exeunt WOLSEY, and Train.

comes that rock,] To make the rock come, is not very

juft. JOHNSON.