'The cardinal's and Sir Thomas Lovell heads Should have gone off. King. Ha! what, so rank? Ah, ha! There's mischief in this man. Canst thou say further? Surv I can, my liege. King. Surv. Proceed. Being at Greenwich, After your highness had reprov'd the duke About Sir William Blomer, King. Of such a time: I remember Being my servant sworn, The duke retain'd him his. But on: what hence? 66 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 The usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury, Made suit to come in 's presence; which if granted, As he made semblance of his duty, would 99 10 Have put his knife into him." 10 It will have been observed that the business of this scene is carried with somewhat the precision of legal proceedings. The matter was derived originally from Hall who was himself a lawyer, was of a manly age at the time, and had access to the official records of the trial. Here, as in many other places, Holinshed Copied Hall so closely as to leave it uncertain from which of them the Poet drew. The following passage will further illustrate the point of the preceding note: "The same duke, on the fourth of November, in the eleventh yere of the kings reigne, at east Green. wich in the countie of Kent, said unto one Charles Knevet esquier, after that the king had reprooved the duke for reteining William Bulmer knight in his service, that if he had perceived that he should have been committed to the Tower, bee would have so wrought, that the principall dooers therein should not have had cause of great rejoising. For he would have plaied the part which his father intended to have put in practise against king Richard the third at Salisburie, who made earenest sute to have come unto the presence of the same king Richard; which sute if he might King. A giant traitor! Wol. Now, madam, may his highness live in freedom, And this man out of prison? Kath. God mend all! King. There's something more would out of thee: what say'st? Surv. After "the duke his father," with "the knife," Ile stretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger His father by as much as a performance King. To sheath 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 seek't of us. By day and night," [Exeunt have obteined, he, having a knife secretlie about him, would have thrust it into the bodie of king Richard, as he had made semblance to kneele downe before him. And in speaking these words he maliciouslie laid his hand upon his dagger, and said that if he were so evill used, he would doo his best to accomplish his purpose, swearing, to confirme his word, by the bloud of our Lord." See King Richard III., Act v. sc. 1, note 1. H. 11 By day and night is simply an adjuration; not meaning that Le is a traitor night and day; which were a little too flat. H SCENE III. A Room in the Palace. Enter the Lord Chamberlain, and Lord SANDS.' Cham. Is't possible, the spells of France should juggle Men into such strange mysteries ?? Sands. Though they be never so ridiculous, New customs, Nay, let 'em be unmanly, yet are follow'd. Cham. As far as I see, all the good our English Have got by the late voyage is but merely A fit or two o' the face; but they are shrewd ones; For when they hold 'em, you would swear directly, Their very noses had been counsellors To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep state so. Sands. They have all new legs, and lame ones: one would take it, That never saw 'em pace before, the spavin 1 Shakespeare has placed this scene in 1521. Charles Somerset, earl of Worcester, was then lord chamberlain, and continued in the office until his death, in 1526. But Cavendish, from whom this was originally taken, places, this event at a later period, when Lord Sands himself was chamberlain. Sir William Sands, of the Vine, near Basingstoke, Hants, was created a peer in 1527. He succeeded the earl of Worcester as chamberlain. 2 Mysteries are arts, and here artificial fashions. A fit of the face seems to be a grimace, an artificial cast of the countenance. 4 The spavin, it scarce need be said, and the springhalt, or stringhalt, as it is sometimes called, are two diseases of horses, altogether different in their origin, nature, symptoms, and effects. Which being the case, it would seem that no one, so well acquainted with horse-flesh as Shakespeare elsewhere shows himself to be, could possibly confound them, either name or thing. Yet the original reads, "the spavin A springhalt reign'd among them," as if they were one and the same disease. So that there can be little doubt that A was a misprint for Or; unless it should be And, Cham. Death! my lord, Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too, now! What news, Sir Thomas Lovell ? How Lov Enter Sir THOMAS LOVELL. 'Faith, my lord, I hear of none, but the new proclamation Cham. What is't for? Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. Cham. I am glad 'tis there: now, I would pray our monsieurs To think an English courtier may be wise, Lov. They must either (For so run the conditions) leave those remnants Of fool and feather," that they got in France, With all their honourable points of ignorance Pertaining thereunto, as fights and fireworks; Abusing better men than they can be, as Mr. Verplanck has it. Or is derived from Mr. Collier's newlydiscovered folio of 1632. H. 5 The text may receive illustration from Nashe's Life of Jackę Wilton, 1594: "At that time I was no common squire, no undertrodden torchbearer: I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop; my French doublet gelte in the belly; a paire of side-paned hose, that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheeses; my long stock that sate close to my dock; my rapier pendant, like a round sticke; my blacke cloake of cloth, overspreading my backe lyke a thornbacke or an elephant's eare; and, in consummation of my curiositie, my handes without gloves, all a mode French." Mr. Douce justly observes that Sir Thomas Lovell's is an allusion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps, as may be seen in a print of Jordan's after Voert; and which are alluded to in the Ballad of News and no News: "And feathers wagging in a fool's cap." Out of a foreign wisdom; renouncing clean 6 Short blister'd breeches and those types of travel, And understand again like honest men; Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it, They may, cum privilegio, wear away The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at. Sands. 'Tis time to give 'em physic, their dis There will be woe indeed, lords: the sly whoresons Sands. The devil fiddle 'em! I am glad they are going, For, sure, there's no converting of 'em: now, A long time out of play, may bring his plain song, Held current music too. Cham. Your colt's tooth is not cast yet. Sands. Nor shall not, while I have a stump. Cham. Whither were you a-going? Lov. Well said, Lord Sands: No, my lord; Sir Thomas, To the cardinal's: O! 'tis true: Your lordship is a guest too. Cham. This night he makes a supper, and a great one, That is breeches puffed or swelled out like blisters |