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He folemnly had fworn, that, what he spoke,
My chaplain to no creature living, but
To me, fhould utter, with demure confidence
This paufingly enfu'd,-Neither the king, nor his
heirs,

(Tell you the duke) fhall profper: bid him ftrive
To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke
Shall govern England.

Q. KATH.

If I know you well, You were the duke's furveyor, and lost

your office On the complaint o' the tenants: Take good heed, You charge not in your spleen a noble person, And spoil your nobler foul! I fay, take heed; Yes, heartily befeech you.

K. HEN.

Go forward.

SURV.

Let him on :

On my foul, I'll fpeak but truth.

I told my lord the duke, By the devil's illufions

That is

feal?
queftion, I dare fay, none of our diligent edi-
tors afked themselves. The text must be restored, as I have
corrected it; and honeft Holinshed, [p. 863,] from whom our
author took the fubftance of this paffage, may be called in as a
teftimony." The duke in talk told the monk, that he had done
very well to bind his chaplain, John de la Court, under the feal
of confeffion, to keep fecret fuch matter." THEOBALD.

To gain the love-] The old copy reads-To the love.
STEEVENS.

For the infertion of the word gain I am answerable. From the correfponding paffage in Holinfhed, it appears evidently to have been omitted through the careleffnefs of the compofitor : "The faid monke told to De la Court, neither the king nor his heirs fhould profper, and that I fhould endeavour to purchase the good wills of the commonalty of England."

Since I wrote the above, I find this correction had been made by the editor of the fourth folio. MALONE.

It had been adopted by Mr. Rowe, and all fubfequent editors.

STEEVENS.

The monk might be deceiv'd; and that 'twas dang'rous for him,"

To ruminate on this fo far, until

It forg'd him fome defign, which, being believ'd,
It was much like to do: He answer'd, Tush!
It can do me no damage: adding further,
That, had the king in his laft fickness fail'd,
The cardinal's and fir Thomas Lovell's heads
Should have gone off.

K. HEN.

Ha! what, fo rank? Ah, ha! There's mischief in this man:-Canft thou say

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Being at Greenwich,

After your highness had reprov'd the duke
About fir William Blomer,-

K. HEN.

I remember,

-But on; What

Of such a time :-Being my fervant sworn,
The duke retain'd him his.-

hence?

SURV. If, quoth he, I for this had been com

mitted,

As, to the Tower, I thought,-I would have play'd The part my father meant to act upon

7for him,] Old copy-for this. Córrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

8

-fo rank?] Rank weeds, are weeds grown up to great height and ftrength. What, fays the King, was he advanced to this pitch? JOHNSON.

9

-Being my fervant fworn, &c.] Sir William Blomer, (Holinfhed calls him Bulmer,) was reprimanded by the King in the ftar-chamber, for that, being his fworn fervant, he had left the King's fervice for the duke of Buckingham's.

Edwards's MSS. STEEVENS.

The ufurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury, Made fuit to come in his prefence; which if granted, As he made femblance of his duty, would

Have put his knife into him.'

K. HEN.

A giant traitor!

WOL. Now, madam, may his highness live in

freedom,

And this man out of prifon?

Q. KATH.

God mend all!

K. HEN. There's fomething more would out of thee; What say'st?

SURV. After the duke his father,—with the knife,

Have put his knife into him.] The accuracy of Holinfhed, if from him Shakspeare took his account of the accufations and punishment, together with the qualities of the Duke of Buckingham, is proved in the moft authentick manner by a very curious report of his cafe in Eaft. Term, 13 Hen. VIII. in the year books published by authority, fol. 11 and 12, edit. 1597. After, in the moft exact manner, fetting forth the arrangement of the Lord High Steward, the Peers, the arraignment, and other forms and ceremonies, it fays: "Et iffint fuit arreine Edward Duc de Buckingham, le derrain jour de Terme le xij jour de May, le Duc de Norfolk donques eftant Grand fenefchal: la cause fuit, pur ceo que il avoit entend l' mort de noftre Sur. le Roy. Car premierment un Moine del' Abbey de Henton in le countie de Somerset dit a lui que il fera Roy & command' luy de obtenir le benevolence del' communalte, & fur ceo il doña certaines robbes a ceft entent. A que il dit que le moine ne onques dit ainfi a lui, & que il ne dona ceux dones a ceft intent. Donques auterfoits il dit, fi le Roy moruft fans iffue male, il voul' eftre Roy: & auxi que il difoit, fi le Roy avoit lui commis al' prifon, donques il voul' lui occire ove fon dagger. Mes touts ceux matters il denia in effect, mes fuit trove coulp: Et pur ceo il avoit jugement comme traitre, et fuit decolle le Vendredy devant le Fefie del Pentecoft que fuit le xiij jour de May avant dit. Dieu à fa ame grant mercy-car il fuit tres noble prince & prudent, et mirror de tout courtefie." VAILLANT.

He ftretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger,
Another spread on his breaft, mounting his eyes,
He did discharge a horrible oath; whofe tenour
Was,-Were he evil us'd, he would out-go
His father, by as much as a performance
Does an irrefolute purpose.

K. HEN.

To fheath his knife in us.

There's his period,

He is attach'd;

Call him to present trial: if he may

Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none,
Let him not feek't of us: By day and night,2
He's traitor to the height.

[Exeunt.

2By day and night,] This, I believe, was a phrase anciently fignifying-at all times, every way, completely. In The Merry Wives of Windfor, Falftaff, at the end of his letter to Mrs. Ford, ftyles himself:

"Thine own true knight,
"By day or night," &c.

Again, (I muft repeat a quotation I have elsewhere employed,) in the third Book of Gower, De Confeffione Amantis :

"The fonne cleped was Machayre,

"The daughter eke Canace hight,

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By daie bothe and eke by night."

The King's words, however, by fome criticks, have been confidered as an adjuration. I do not pretend to have determined the exact force of them. STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter the Lord Chamberlain,3 and Lord SANDS.4

CHAM. Is it poffible, the fpells of France should juggle

Men into fuch ftrange mysteries? 5

3

Lord Chamberlain-] Shakspeare has placed this scene in 1521. Charles Earl of Worcester was then Lord Chamberlain; but when the King in fact went in masquerade to Cardinal Wolfey's houfe, Lord Sands, who is here introduced as going thither with the Chamberlain, himself poffeffed that office.

MALONE.

Lord Chamberlain-] Charles Somerfet, created Earl of Worcester 5 Henry VIII. He was Lord Chamberlain both to Henry VII. and Henry VIII. and continued in the office until his death, 1526. REED.

4 Lord Sands.] Sir William Sands, of the Vine, near Bafingftoke, in Hants, was created a peer 1524. He became Lord Chamberlain upon the death of the Earl of Worcester in 1526.

Is it poffible, the fpells of France should juggle

REED.

Men into fuch firange myfteries?] Myfteries were allegorical fhows, which the mummers of those times exhibited in odd fantastick habits. Myfteries are used, by an easy figure, for thofe that exhibited myfteries; and the fenfe is only, that the travelled Englishmen were metamorphofed, by foreign fashions, into fuch an uncouth appearance, that they looked like mummers in a mystery. JOHNSON.

That myfteries is the genuine reading, [Dr. Warburton would read-mockeries] and that it is ufed in a different sense from the one here given, will appear in the following instance from Drayton's Shepherd's Garland:

66

even fo it fareth now with thee,

"And with these wifards of thy myfterie."

The context of which fhows, that by wifards are meant poets, and by myfterie their poetick skill, which was before called

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