BUCK. This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd,

and I

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore, best Not wake him in his flumber. A beggar's book Out-worths a noble's blood.8

NOR.

What, are you chaf'd? Afk God for temperance; that's the appliance only, Which your difeafe requires.

I read in his looks

BUCK.
Matter against me; and his eye revil'd

Me, as his abject object: at this inftant

He bores me with fome trick:9 He's gone to the

king;

I'll follow, and out-ftare him.

NOR.

Stay, my lord,

7

butcher's cur-] Wolfey is faid to have been the fon

Dr. Grey obferves, that when the death of the Duke of Buckingham was reported to the Emperor Charles V. he faid, "The first buck of England was worried to death by a butcher's dog.” Skelton, whose fatire is of the groffeft kind, in Why come you not to Court, has the fame reflection on the meanness of Cardinal Wolfey's birth:

"For drede of the boucher's dog,

"Wold wirry them like an hog." STEEVENS.

-A beggar's book

Out-worths a noble's blood.] That is, the literary qualifications of a bookish beggar are more prized than the high descent of hereditary greatnefs. This is a contemptuous exclamation very naturally put into the mouth of one of the ancient, unlettered, martial nobility. JOHNSON.

It ought to be remembered that the speaker is afterward pronounced by the King himself a learned gentleman. RITSON. 9 He bores me with fome trick:] He ftabs or wounds me by fome artifice or fiction. JOHNSON.

So, in The Life and Death of Lord Cromwell, 1602:

"One that hath gull'd you, that hath bor'd you, fir."

STEEVENS,

And let your reafon with your choler queftion
What 'tis you go about: To climb steep hills,
Requires flow pace at firft: Anger is like

A full-hot horfe; who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself

As you would to your friend.

BUCK.

I'll to the king;

And from a mouth of honour' quite cry down
This Ipfwich fellow's infolence; or proclaim,
There's difference in no perfons.

NOR.
Be advis'd;
Heat not a furnace for your foe fo hot
That it do finge yourfelf:3 We may outrun,
By violent fwiftness, that which we run at,
And lofe by over-running. Know you not,
The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In feeming to augment it, waftes it? Be advis'd:
I fay again, there is no English foul

More ftronger to direct you than yourself;
If with the fap of reafon you would quench,

I

Anger is like

A full-hot horfe;] So, Maflinger, in The Unnatural Combat:

2

"Let paffion work, and, like a hot-rein'd horse,
""Twill quickly tire itself." STEEVENS.

Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"Till, like a jade, felf-will himself doth tire."

MALONE.

-from a mouth of honour-] I will cruth this bafeborn fellow, by the due influence of my rank, or say that all diftinction of perfons is at an end. JOHNSON.

3 Heat not a furnace &c.] Might not Shakspeare allude to Dan. iii. 22. ? "Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of fire flew thofe men that took up Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego.” STEEVENS.

Or but allay, the fire of paffion.4

BUCK.

Sir,

I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

By your prescription :-but this top-proud fellow,
(Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From fincere motions,5) by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in Júly, when
We fee each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

NOR.

Say not, treasonous.

BUCK. To the king I'll fay't; and make my vouch as ftrong

As fhore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both, (for he is equal ravenous,
As he is fubtle; and as prone to mischief,
As able to perform it: his mind and place
Infecting one another," yea, reciprocally,)
Only to fhow his pomp as well in France
As here at home, fuggests the king our master

5

If with the fap of reafon you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of paffion.] So, in Hamlet :
Upon the heat and flame of thy diftemper

Sprinkle cool patience." STEEVENS.

-fincere motions,)] Honeft indignation, warmth of integrity. Perhaps name not, fhould be blame not.

Whom from the flow of gall I blame not. JOHNSON.

-for he is equal ravenous,] Equal for equally. Shakfpeare frequently ufes adjectives adverbially. See King John, Vol. X. p. 523, n. 4. MALOne.

7 his mind and place

Infecting one another,] This is very fatirical. His mind he reprefents as highly corrupt; and yet he supposes the contagion of the place of firft minifter as adding an infection to it.

WARBURTON.

8 -fuggefts the king our master-] Suggests, for excites. WARBURTON.

So, in King Richard II:

"Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries." STEEVENS.

To this laft coftly treaty, the interview,

That swallow'd fo much treasure, and like a glass
Did break i' the rinsing.

NOR.

'Faith, and fo it did.

BUCK. Pray, give me favour, fir. This cunning cardinal

The articles o'the combination drew,

As himself pleas'd; and they were ratified,
As he cried, Thus let be: to as much end,
As give a crutch to the dead: But our count-car-
dinal 9

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolfey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy

To the old dam, treafon,)-Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to fee the queen his aunt,
(For 'twas, indeed, his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolfey,) here makes vifitation:
His fears were, that the interview, betwixt
England and France, might, through their amity,
Breed him fome prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: He privily1
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well; for, I am fure, the emperor
Paid ere he promis'd; whereby his fuit was granted,
Ere it was afk'd;-but when the way was made,
And pav'd with gold, the emperor thus defir'd ;-
That he would please to alter the king's course,
And break the forefaid peace. Let the king know,
(As foon he fhall by me,) that thus the cardinal

9

our count-cardinal-] Wolfey is afterwards called king cardinal. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors, read― court-cardinal. MALONE.

I

He privily-] He, which is not in the original copy, was added by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

1

Does buy and fell his honour as he pleases,*
And for his own advantage.

Nor.

I am forry

To hear this of him; and could wish, he were
Something mistaken in't.3

BUCK.

I do pronounce him in that

He shall appear in proof.

No, not a fyllable;

very shape,

Enter BRANDON; a Sergeant at Arms before him, and two or three of the Guard.

BRAN. Your office, fergeant; execute it.
SERG.
My lord the duke of Buckingham, and earl
Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I
Arrest thee of high treason, in the name
Of our most sovereign king.

BUCK.

Sir,

Lo you, my lord, The net has fall'n upon me; I fhall perish Under device and practice.4

Does buy and fell his honour as he pleafes,] This was a proverbial expreffion. See King Richard III. A& V. fc. iii. MALONE,

The fame phrafe occurs alfo in King Henry VI. Part I: from bought and fold lord Talbot." Again, in The Comedy of Errors: "It would make a man as mad as a buck, to be fo bought and fold." STEEVens.

Something mistaken in't.] That is, that he were fomething different from what he is taken or supposed by you to be.

MALONE.

4 practice.] i. e. unfair ftratagem. So, in Othello, A& V:

"Fallen in the practice of a curfed flave."

And in this play, Surrey, speaking of Wolfey, fays:

"How came his practices to light?" REED.