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But minister communication of

A most poor issue?1

NOR.

Grievingly I think,

The peace between the French and us not values The cost that did conclude it.

BUCK.

Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd, was

"Towardys this vyage

"What in horses and other aray

"Hath compelled me for to lay
"All my land to mortgage."

Chapman has introduced the same idea into his version of the second Iliad:

"Proud-girle-like, that doth ever beare her dowre upon her backe." STEEVENS.

So, in King John:

"Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,
"Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs,
"To make a hazard of new fortunes here."

Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605: "There was a nobleman merrily conceited, and riotously given, that having lately sold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, saying, am not I a mighty man, that beare an hundred houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: ""Tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a sute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back." Edit. 1634, p. 482. WHALLEY.

1 What did this vanity,

But minister &c.] What effect had this pompous show, but the production of a wretched conclusion. JOHNSON.

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2 Every man,

66

After the hideous storm that follow'd, &c.] From Holinshed: Monday the xviii. of June was such an hideous storme of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognosticate trouble and hatred shortly after to follow between princes.' Dr. Warburton has quoted a similar passage from Hall, whom

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A thing inspir'd; and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy,―That this tempest,
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on't.

Nor.

Which is budded out;

For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach❜d Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.

ABER.

The ambassador is silenc'd?3

NOR.

Is it therefore

Marry, is't.

ABER. A proper title of a peace; and purchas'd At a superfluous rate!

BUCK.

Our reverend cardinal carried.5

NOR.

Why, all this business

'Like it your grace,

he calls Shakspeare's author; but Holinshed, and not Hall, was his author: as is proved here by the words which I have printed in Italicks, which are not found so combined in Hall's Chronicle. This fact is indeed proved by various circumstances. MALONE.

The ambassador is silenc'd?] Silenc'd for recalled. This being proper to be said of an orator; and an ambassador or publick minister being called an orator, he applies silenc'd to an ambassador. WARBURTON.

I understand it rather of the French ambassador residing in England, who, by being refused an audience, may be said to be silenc'd. JOHNSON.

A proper title of a peace;] A fine name of a peace. Ironically. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth:

5

66 0 proper stuff!

"This is the very painting of your fear." STEEVENS...

this business

Our reverend cardinal carried.] To carry a business was at this time a current phrase for to conduct or manage it. So,

in this Act:

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it so,
"To make the scepter his." REED.

The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you,
(And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
Honour and plenteous safety,) that you read
The cardinal's malice and his potency
Together to consider further, that

What his high hatred would effect, wants not
A minister in his power: You know his nature,
That he's revengeful; and I know, his sword
Hath a sharp edge: it's long, and, it may be said,
It reaches far; and where 'twill not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,
You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that
6
rock,

That I advise your shunning.

Enter Cardinal WOLSEY, (the Purse borne before him,) certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with Papers. The Cardinal in his Passage fixeth his Eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full of Disdain.

WOL. The duke of Buckingham's surveyor? ha? Where's his examination?

1 SECR.

Here, so please you.

WOL. Is he in person ready?

1 SECR.

Ay, please your grace.

WOL. Well, we shall then know more; and

Buckingham

Shall lessen this big look.

[Exeunt WOLSEY, and Train,

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·comes that rock,] To make the rock come, is not very just. JOHNSON.

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 slumber. A beggar's book Out-worths a noble's blood.

NOR.

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

BUCK.

I read in his looks Matter against me; and his eye revil'd Me, as his abject object: at this instant

9

He bores me with some trick: He's gone to the

king;

I'll follow, and out-stare him.

7

Nor.

Stay, my lord,

butcher's cur-] Wolsey is said to have been the son of a butcher. JOHNSON.

Dr. Grey observes, that when the death of the Duke of Buckingham was reported to the Emperor Charles V. he said, "The first buck of England was worried to death by a butcher's dog." Skelton, whose satire is of the grossest kind, in Why come you not to Court, has the same reflection on the meanness of Cardinal Wolsey's birth:

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"For drede of the boucher's dog,
"Wold wirry them like an hog."

A beggar's book

STEEVENS.

Out-worths a noble's blood.] That is, the literary qualifications of a bookish beggar are more prized than the high descent of hereditary greatness. 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 some trick:] He stabs or wounds me by some 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, sir.”

STEEVENS.

And let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: To climb steep hills,
Requires slow pace at first: Anger is like
A full-hot horse; who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself

As

1

you would to your friend.

BUCK.

I'll to the king; And from a mouth of honour2 quite cry down This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim, There's difference in no persons.

Nor.
Be advis'd;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: We may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In seeming to augment it, wastes it? Be advis'd:
I say again, there is no English soul

More stronger to direct you than yourself;
If with the sap of reason you would quench,

1

Anger is like

A full-hot horse ;] So, Massinger, in The Unnatural

Combat:

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

Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

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

MALONE. -from a mouth of honour-] I will crush this baseborn fellow, by the due influence of my rank, or say that all distinction of persons 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 slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego."

STEEVENS.

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