BRAN. I am forry To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on BUCK. It will help me nothing, To plead mine innocence; for that die is on me, Which makes my whiteft part black. The will of heaven Be done in this and all things!-I obey. my lord Aberga'ny, fare you well. king BRAN. Nay, he must bear you company :-The [To ABERGAVENNY. Is pleas'd, you fhall to the Tower, till you know How he determines further. ABER. As the duke faid The will of heaven be done, and the king's pleasure By me obey'd. BRAND. Here is a warrant from The king, to attach lord Montacute;' and the bodies s I am forry To fee you ta'en from liberty, to look on The bufinefs prefent:] I am forry that I am obliged to be present and an eye-witnefs of your lofs of liberty. JOHNSON. 6 lord Montacute;] This was Henry Pole, grandson to George Duke of Clarence, and eldest brother to Cardinal Pole. He had married the Lord Abergavenny's daughter. He was reftored to favour at this juncture, but was afterwards executed for another treason in this reign. REED. 7 John de la Court,] The name of this monk of the Chartreux was John de la Car, alias de la Court. See Holinfhed, p. 863. STEEVENS. One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor,] The old copies have it-his counfellor; but I, from the authorities of Hall and Holinfhed, changed it to chancellor. And our poet himself, in the beginning of the fecond Act, vouches for this correction : BUCK. So, fo; These are the limbs of the plot: No more, I hope. BRAN. A monk o' the Chartreux. BUCK. BRAN. O, Nicholas Hopkins?? He. BUCK. My furveyor is falfe; the o'er-great car dinal Hath fhow'd him gold: my life is spann'd already:1 Whofe figure even this inftant cloud puts on, [Exeunt. "At which, appear'd against him his furveyor, "Sir Gilbert Peck, his chancellor." THEOBALD. I believe [in the former inftance] the author wrote-And Gilbert &c. MALONE. Nicholas Hopkins ?] The old copy has-Michael Hopkins. Mr. Theobald made the emendation, conformably to the Chronicle: "Nicholas Hopkins, a monk of an house of the Chartreux order, befide Briftow, called Henton." In the MS. Nich. only was probably fet down, and mistaken for Mich. I MALONE. my life is fpann'd already:] To Span is to gripe, or inclofe in the hand; to Span is alfo to measure by the palm and fingers. The meaning, therefore, may either be, that hold is taken of my life, my life is in the gripe of my enemies; or, that my time is measured, the length of my life is now determined. JOHNSON. Man's life, in fcripture, is faid to be but a span long. Probably, therefore, it means, when 'tis Spann'd 'tis ended. REED. 2 I am the Shadow of poor Buckingham;] So, in the old play of King Leir, 1605: "And think me but the Shadow of myself." 3 I am the Shadow of poor Buckingham; Whofe figure even this inftant cloud puts on, STEEVENS. By dark'ning my clear fun.] Thefe lines have paffed all the editors. Does the reader understand them? By me they SCENE II. The Council-Chamber. Cornets. Enter King HENRY, Cardinal WOLSEY, the Lords of the Council, Sir THOMAS LOVELL, Officers, and Attendants. The King enters leaning on the Cardinal's Shoulder. K. HEN. My life itself, and the best heart of it,4 Thanks you for this great care: I ftood i' the level are inexplicable, and must be left, I fear, to fome happier fagacity. If the usage of our author's time could allow figure to be taken, as now, for dignity or importance, we might read: Whofe figure even this inftant cloud puts out. But I cannot please myself with any conjecture. Another explanation may be given, fomewhat harsh, but the.. beft that occurs to me: I am the Shadow of poor Buckingham, Whofe figure even this inftant cloud puts on, whofe port and dignity is affumed by the Cardinal, that overclouds and oppreffes me, and who gains my place By dark ning my clear fun. JOHNSON. Perhaps Shakspeare has expreffed the fame idea more clearly in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Antony and Cleopatra, and King John: "O, how this spring of love resembleth "Th' uncertain glory of an April day, "Which now shows all the beauty of the fun, "And, by and by, a cloud takes all away." Antony, remarking on the various appearances affumed by the flying vapours, adds: 66 now thy captain is "Even fuch a body: here I am Antony, "But cannot hold this visible shape, my knave." Or yet, more appofitely, in King John: being but the fhadow of your fon "Becomes a fun, and makes your fon a shadow." Of a full-charg'd confederacy,5 and give thanks Such another thought occurs in The famous History of Thomas Stukely, 1605': "He is the fubftance of my fhadowed love." There is likewife a paffage fimilar to the conclufion of this, in Rollo, or the Bloody Brother, of Beaumont and Fletcher : is drawn fo high, that, like an ominous comet, "He darkens all your light." We might, however, read-pouts on; i. e. looks gloomily upon. So, in Coriolanus, A& V. sc. i: 66 then "We pout upon the morning, are unapt Again, in Romeo and Juliet, A&t III. fc. iii: "Thou pout'ft upon thy fortune and thy love." Wolfey could only reach Buckingham through the medium of the King's power. The Duke therefore compares the Cardinal to a cloud, which intercepts the rays of the fun, and throws a gloom over the object beneath it. "I am (fays he) but the fhadow of poor Buckingham, on whose figure this impending cloud looks gloomy, having got between me and the sunshine of royal favour." Our poet has introduced a fomewhat fimilar idea in Much Ado about Nothing: 66 the pleached bower, "Where honeyfuckles, ripen'd by the fun, "Forbid the fun to enter;-like favourites "Made proud by princes.” To pout is at this time a phrafe defcriptive only of infantine fullennefs, but might anciently have had a more confequential meaning. I fhould with, however, inftead of By dark'ning my clear fun, to read The following paffage in Greene's Doraftus and Fawnia, 1588, (a book which Shakspeare certainly had read,) adds fupport to Dr. Johnson's conjecture: "Fortune, envious of fuch happy fucceffe,-turned her wheele, and darkened their bright That gentleman of Buckingham's: in person And point by point the treafons of his mafter funne of profperitie with the miftie cloudes of mishap and mifery." Mr. M. Mafon has observed that Dr. Johnson did not do justice to his own emendation, referring the words whofe figure to Buckingham, when, in fact, they relate to Shadow. Sir W. Blackftone had already explained the paffage in this manner. 66 MALONE. By adopting Dr. Johnson's first conjecture, "puts out," for puts on," a tolerable sense may be given to these obscure lines. "I am but the shadow of poor Buckingham: and even the figure or outline of this fhadow begins now to fade away, being extinguished by this impending cloud, which darkens (or interpofes between me and) my clear fun; that is, the favour of my fovereign." BLACKSTONE. 4 and the best heart of it,] Heart is not here taken for the great organ of circulation and life, but, in a common, and popular fenfe, for the moft valuable or precious part. Our author, in Hamlet, mentions the heart of heart. Exhaufted and effete ground is faid by the farmer to be out of heart. The hard and inner part of the oak is called heart of oak. S -Stood i' the level JOHNSON. Of a full-charg'd confederacy,] To ftand in the level of a gun is to ftand in a line with its mouth, so as to be hit by the hot. JOHNSON. So, in our author's Lover's Complaint : not a heart which in his level came Again, in our author's 117th Sonnet : 66 Bring me within the level of your frown, "But thoot not at me," &c. STEEVENS. See alfo Vol. IX. p. 271, n. 4; and p. 294, n. 8. MALONE. |