To foreign princes, Ego et Rex meus Was ftill infcrib'd; in which you brought the king To be your fervant. -SUF. Then, that, without the knowledge Either of king or council, when you went Ambaffador to the emperor, you made bold To carry into Flanders the great seal. SUR. Item, you fent a large commission To Gregory de Caffalis, to conclude, Without the king's will, or the ftate's allowance, A league between his highness and Ferrara. SUF. That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the king's coin.3 SUR. Then, that you have fent innumerable fub ftance, (By what means got, I leave to your own con fcience,) To furnish Rome, and to prepare the ways 4 3 Your holy hat to be ftamp'd on the king's coin.] In the long ftring of articles exhibited by the Privy Council against Wolfey, which Sir Edward Coke tranfcribed from the original, this offence compofed one of the charges: "40. Alfo the faid Lord Cardinal of his further pompous and prefumptuous minde, hath enterprised to joyn and imprint the Cardinal's hat under your armes in your coyn of groats made at your city of York, which like deed hath not been seen to be done by any subject in your realm before this time." 4 Inft. 94. HOLT WHITE. This was certainly one of the articles exhibited against Wolfey, but rather with a view to fwell the catalogue, than from any ferious caufe of accufation; inafmuch as the Archbishops Cranmer, Bainbrigge, and Warham were indulged with the fame privilege. See Snelling's View of the Silver Coin and Coinage of England. DOUCE. to the mere undoing-] Mere is abfolute. So, in The Honeft Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Of all the kingdom. Many more there are; CHAM. O my lord, Prefs not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue: His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to fee him So little of his great self. SUR. I forgive him. SUF. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is, Because all those things, you have done of late Out of the king's protection:-This is my charge. I am as happy "In my friend's good, as if 'twere merely mine." See Vol. III. p. 9, n. 5. MALONE. STEEVENS. 5 Fall into the compass &c.] The harfhnefs of this line induces me to think that we should either read, with Sir T. Hanmer-Fall in the compass, or Fall into compass, omitting the article. 6 STEEVENS. of a præmunire,] It is almoft unneceffary to obferve that præmunire is a barbarous word used instead of præmonere. STEEVENS. 7 Chattels, and whatsoever,] The old copy-caftles. I have ventured to fubftitute chattels here, as the author's genuine word, because the judgement in a writ of Præmunire is, that the defendant fhall be out of the king's protection; and his lands and tenements, goods and chattels forfeited to the king; and that his body fhall remain in prifon at the king's pleasure. This very defcription of the Præmunire is fet out by Holinfhed, in his Life of King Henry VIII. P. 909. THEOBALD. The emendation made by Mr. Theobald, is, I think, fully justified NOR. And fo we'll leave you to your meditations How to live better. For your stubborn answer, About the giving back the great feal to us, The king fhall know it, and, no doubt, fhall thank you. So fare you well, my little good lord cardinal. [Exeunt all but WOLSEY. WOL. So farewell to the little good you bear me. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatnefs! This is the state of man; To-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope," to-morrow bloffoms, And bears his blufhing honours thick upon him: The third day, comes a froft, a killing froft; And,-when he thinks, good easy man, full furely His greatness is a ripening,-nips his root, And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur'd, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many fummers in a fea of glory; 8 by the paffage in Holinfhed's Chronicle on which this is founded; in which it is obfervable that the word chattels is fpelt cattels, which might have been eafily confounded with caftles: "After this, in the King's Bench his matter for the pramunire being called upon, two attornies which he had authorised by his warrant figned with his own hand, confeffed the action, and fo had judgement to forfeit all his landes, tenements, goods, and cattels, and to be put out of the king's protection." Chron. Vol. II. p. 909. This is the fate of man; To-day he puts forth MALONE. The tender leaves of hope, &c.] So, in our author's 25th Sonnet: "Great princes' favourites their fair leaves fpread, "And in themselves their pride lies buried, "For at a frown they in their glory die." MALONE. -nips his root,] "As fpring-frofts are not injurious to the roots of fruit-trees," Dr. Warburton reads-boot. Such capricious alterations I am fometimes obliged to mention, merely to introduce the notes of thofe, who, while they have fhewn them to be unneceffary, have illuftrated our author. MALONE. But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride Enter CROMWELL, amazedly. Why, how now, Cromwell? Vernal frofts indeed do not kill the root, but then to nip the fboots does not kill the tree or make it fall. The metaphor will not in either reading correfpond exactly with nature. JOHNSON. I adhere to the old reading, which is countenanced by the following paffage in A. W's. Commendation of Gascoigne and his Poefies: And frofts fo nip the rootes of vertuous-meaning minds." See Gascoigne's Works, 1587. STEEVENS. 9 — and their ruin,] Most of the modern editors read-our ruin. STEEVENS. Their ruin, is, their displeasure, producing the downfall and ruin him on whom it lights. So before: "He parted frowning from me, as if ruin 2 And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,] So, in Churchyard's Legend of Cardinal Wolfey, MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, 1587: Your fault not half fo great as was my pride, "For which offence fell Lucifer from the skies." MALONE. In The Life and Death of Thomas Wolfey, &c. a poem, by Tho. Storer, ftudent of Chrift-church, in Oxford, 1599, the Cardinal expreffes himself in a manner fomewhat fimilar: "If once we fall, we fall Coloffus-like, "We fall at once, like pillars of the funne," &c. STEEVENS. CROM. I have no power to speak, fir. WOL. What, amaz'd CROM. WOL. How does your grace? Why, well; Never fo truly happy, my good Cromwell. A ftill and quiet confcience. The king has cur'd me, I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders, A load would fink a navy, too much honour: CROM. I am glad, your grace has made that WOL. I hope, I have: I am able now, methinks, (Out of a fortitude of foul I feel,) To endure more miferies, and greater far, CROM. Is your displeasure with the king. WOL. 3 The heaviest, and the worst, God bless him! I am able now, methinks, (Out of a fortitude of foul I feel,) To endure more miferies, and greater far, Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer.] So, in K. Henry VI. Part II: "More can I bear, than you dare execute." Again, in Othello: "Thou haft not half the power to do me harm, "As I have to be hurt." MALONE. |