Both in his words and meaning: He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful:

His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and

The clergy ill example.

GRIF.

gave

Noble madam,

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues

legally accruing to him from his own various pluralities, but that he extorted something equivalent to them throughout all the kingdom. So, Buckingham says, Act I. Sc. I.: "No man's pie is freed from his ambitious finger." So, again, Surrey says, Act III. Sc. ult.: "Yes, that goodness of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion ;" and ibidem: "You have sent innumerable substance (by what means got, I leave to your own conscience) to the mere undoing of all the kingdom." This extortion is so frequently spoken of, that perhaps our author purposely avoided a repetition of it in the passage under consideration, and therefore gave a different sentiment declarative of the consequence of his unbounded pride, that must humble all others. TOLlet.

The word tythes was not exclusively used to signify the emolument of priests. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth :

66

Why, sir, the kingdom's his; and no man now

"Can come to Corinth, or from Corinth go,

"Without his licence; he puts up the tithes

66

Of every office through Achaia.' BOSWELL.

8-as he is now, nothing,] So, in Massinger's Great Duke of Florence:

Great men,

"Till they have gain'd their ends, are giants in

"Their promises; but those obtain'd, weak pygmies
"In their performance." STEEVENS.

9 Of his own body he was ill,] A criminal connection with women was anciently called the vice of the body. Thus, in The Manciple's Tale, by Chaucer:

"If of hire body dishonest she be."

Again, in Holinshed, p. 1258: "he laboured by all meanes to cleare mistresse Sanders of committing evill of her bodie with him." STEEVENS.

So, the Protector says of Jane Shore, Hall's Chronicle, Edw. IV. p. 16: "She was naught of her bodye." MALone.

We write in water 1. May it please your highness To hear me speak his good now?

We write in WATER.] Beaumont and Fletcher have the same thought in their Philaster:

all your better deeds

"Shall be in water writ, but this in marble." STEEVENS. This reflection bears a great resemblance to a passage in Sir Thomas More's History of Richard III. whence Shakspeare undoubtedly formed his play on that subject. Speaking of the ungrateful turns which Jane Shore experienced from those whom she had served in her prosperity, More adds, " Men use, if they have an evil turne, to write it in marble, and whoso doth us a good turne, we write it in duste."

More's Works, bl. 1. 1557, p. 59. PERCY. In Whitney's Emblemes, printed at Leyden, 4to. 1586, p. 183, is the following:

"Scribit in marmore læsus.

“In marble harde our harmes wee alwayes grave,
"Because, wee still will beare the same in minde:
"In duste wee write the benefittes wee have,
"Where they are soone defaced with the winde.

66

So, wrongs wee houlde, and never will forgive; "And soone forget, that still with us shoulde live. Again, as Mr. Ritson quotes from Harrington's Ariosto: "Men say it, and we see it come to pass,

"Good turns in sand, shrewd turns are writ in brass." To avoid an unnecessary multiplication of instances, I shall just observe, that the same sentiment is found in Massinger's Maid of Honour, Act V. Sc. II. and Marston's Malcontent, Act II. Sc. III. REED.

2 This cardinal, &c.] This speech is formed on the following passage in Holinshed: "This cardinal, (as Edmund Campion, in his Historie of Ireland, described him,) was a man undoubtedly born to honour; I think, (saith he,) some prince's bastard, no butcher's sonne; exceeding wise, faire-spoken, high-minded, full of revenge, vitious of his bodie, loftie to his enemies, were they never so bigge, to those that accepted and sought his friendship wonderful courteous; a ripe schooleman, thrall to affections, brought a bed with flatterie; insaciable to get, and more princelie in bestowing, as appeareth by his two colleges at Ipswich, and Oxenford, the one overthrown with his fall, the other unfinished,

5

Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashion'd to much honour 3. From his cradle,

and yet as it lyeth, for an house of studentes, (considering all the appurtenances,) incomparable throughout Christendome.He held and injoied at once the bishoprickes of Yorke, Duresme, and Winchester, the dignities of Lord Cardinall, Legat, and Chancellor, the abbaie of St. Albons, diverse priories, sundrie fat benefices in commendam; a great preferrer of his servants, an advauncer of learning, stoute in every quarrel, never happy till this his overthrow: wherein he shewed such moderation, and ended so perfectlie, that the houre of his death did him more honour than all the pomp of his life passed *.”

66 a scholar from his When Shakspeare says that Wolsey was cradle," he had probably in his thoughts the account given by Cavendish, which Stowe has copied: Cardinal Wolsey was an honest, poor man's sonne-who, being but a child, was very apt to learne; wherefore by means of his parents and other his good friends he was maintained at the university of Oxford, where in a short time he prospered so well, that in a small time, (as he told me with his owne mouth,) he was made bachelour of arts, when he was but fifteen years of age, and was most commonly called the boy batchelour." See also Wolsey's Legend, Mirrour for Magistrates, 1587.

I have here followed the punctuation of the old copy, where there is a full point at honour, and "From his cradle " begins a new sentence. This punctuation has likewise been adopted in the late editions. Mr. Theobald, however, contends that we ought to point thus:

"Was fashion'd to much honour from his cradle." And it must be owned that the words of Holinshed, here thrown into verse, "This cardinall was a man undoubtedly BORN to honour," strongly supports his regulation. The reader has before him the arguments an each side. I am by no means confident that I have decided rightly. MALONE.

The present punctuation,

66

From his cradle

"He was a scholar

seems to be countenanced by a passage in King Henry V.:

"Never was such a sudden scholar made." STEEVENs. I have made no alteration in the text, but I am convinced that Theobald was right. "To be a scholar from his cradle," is being a very sudden scholar indeed. BOSWELL.

66

* So, in Macbeth:

nothing in his life

"Became him like the leaving it." STEEVENS.

4

He was a scholar, and a ripe, and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading *:
Lofty, and sour, to them that lov'd him not;
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as sum-

mer.

And though he were unsatisfied in getting,
(Which was a sin,) yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: Ever witness for him
Those twins of learning, that he rais'd in you,
Ipswich, and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it

;

The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little :
And, to add greater honours to his age,

4

fair spoken, and persuading:] Eloquence constituted a part of the Cardinal's real character. In the charges exhibited against him, it was alledged that at the Privy Council" he would have all the words to himself, and consumed much time with a fair

tale." See 4 Inst. 91. HOLT WHITe.

5 Ipswich,] "The foundation-stone of the College which the Cardinal founded in this place, was discovered a few years ago. It is now in the Chapter-house of Christ-Church, Oxford." Seward's Anecdotes of distinguished Persons, &c. 1795.

STEEVENS.

6 Unwilling to outlive the good THAT did it ;] Unwilling to survive that virtue which was the cause of its foundation, Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-the good he did it; which appears to me unintelligible. "The good he did it," was laying the foundation of the building and endowing it; if therefore we suppose the college unwillingly to outlive the good he did it, we suppose it to expire instantly after its birth.

The college unwilling to live longer than its founder, or the goodness that gave rise to it," though certainly a conceit, is sufficiently intelligible. MALONE.

Good, I believe, is put for goodness. So, in p. 447:

66

May it please your highness

"To hear me speak his good now?" STEEVENS.

VOL. XIX.

2 G

Than man could give him, he died, fearing God.
KATH. After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,

To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.
Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth, and modesty,

Now in his ashes honour: Peace be with him !—
Patience, be near me still; and set me lower:
I have not long to trouble thee.-Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me that sad note
I nam'd my knell, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.

Sad and solemn musick.

GRIF. She is asleep: Good wench, let's sit down quiet,

For fear we wake her;-Softly, gentle Patience.

8

The Vision. Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six Personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces; branches of bays, or palm, in their hands. They first congee unto her, then dance; and, at certain changes, the first two hold a spare garland over her head; at which, the other four make reverend curt'sies ; then the two, that held the garland, deliver the

7

SOLEMNLY TRIPPING one after another,] This whimsical stage direction is exactly taken from the old copy. STEEVENS. Of this stage-direction I do not believe our author wrote one word. Katharine's next speech probably suggested this tripping dumb-show to the too busy reviver of this play. MALONE.

8 - golden vizards-] These tawdry disguises are also mentioned in Hall's account of a maske devised by King Henry VIII.: thei were appareled, &c. with visers and cappes of golde."

STEEVENS.