Page 489, line 1. January 2 was the day of Chapuys's arrival at Kimbolton. -Calendar (Hen. VIII.), X. 28.

Page 499. The late Mr. Watkiss Lloyd showed (Notes and Queries, 7th S. vii. 203, 204) that Halle was the source of the following passage in the Lord Chancellor's address to Cranmer (V. iii. 10-15):

we all are men,

In our owne natures fraile and capable

Of our flesh; few are Angels: out of which frailty
And want of wisdome, you, that best should teach vs,
Haue misdemean'd your selfe, and not a little,

Toward the King first, then his Lawes, . . .

Parallel phrases exist in a speech made on September 1, 1531, by John Stokesley, Bishop of London (Halle, 783), under these circumstances: Soon after Wolsey's death legal proceedings were commenced against the spiritual peers on the ground that the clergy had incurred the penalties of a premunire through supporting the Cardinal's exercise of his legatine powers. Convocation averted a trial of the case by voting Henry £100,000 for his pardon (Halle, 774). When soliciting the help of the priests of his diocese in raising the sum, Stokesley said:

My frendes all, you knowe well that wee bee men frayle of condicion and no Angels, and by frayltie and lacke of wysedome wee have misdemeaned our selfe toward the kyng our Soueraygne Lord and his lawes, so that all wee of the Cleargy were in the Premunire ; . . .

I. KING LEAR.

HOLINSHED's Chronicles, and a play of untraced authorship, entitled The True Chronicle History of King Leir, 1605,1 were the chief and most accessible sources whence Shakspere might have derived the main plot of his drama.2

The fountain-head for the story of Lear and his three daughters is the Historia Britonum, a chronicle which Geoffrey of Monmouth professed to have translated from a very ancient book written in the British tongue.

Comparison with the subjoined excerpt from Holinshed shows that the madness of the dramatic Lear, and the fate which befell him and his daughter, are important alterations of the original story. No source for these changes of plot has yet been discovered.*

ruler.

[Hol. i. H. E. 12/2/59.] Leir the sonne of Baldud was admitted Leir the 10. ruler ouer the Britaines, in the yeare of the world 3105, at what time Joas reigned in Juda. This Leir was a prince of right noble demeanor, gouerning his land and subiects in great wealth. He

1 Reprinted in Steevens's Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, &c., 1766, vol. iv., and in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's Library, Pt. II. vol. ii. pp. 307-387.

2 Some other sources are: Fabyan's Chronicles, 1516 (ed. Ellis, i. 14-16); William Warner's Albions England, 1586 (ed. 1612, pp. 65, 66); The firste Parte of the Mirour for Magistrates, 1587 (ed. Haslewood, i. 123-132); The Faerie Queene, 1590-96, II. x. 27-32.

3 See his dedication of the Historia Britonum to Robert Earl of Gloucester (ob. Oct. 31, 1147.-Ann. Marg., 14).

4 Mrs. Lennox (Shakespeare Illustrated, vol. iii. p. 302) first drew attention to a ballad entitled "A Lamentable Song of the Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters" (reprinted in Percy's Reliques), which makes mention of: (1) Lear's loss of his retinue through Regan's unkindness; (2) his madness, and his death immediately after the battle which restored to him his crown; (3) Cordelia's death in the battle fought for Lear's restoration. Dr. Johnson conjectured that this ballad might have been the source of Shakspere's Lear (Variorum Shakspere, 1821, x. 291); but later critics believe that the play was the earlier composition. According to Matthew of Westminster, an epithet, impeaching Lear's sanity, was applied to the old king by his daughters. After relating Lear's deposition by his sons-in-law, the chronicler then proceeds (Flores Historiarum, ed. 1601, p. 16): "Rex igitur ignarus quid ageret, deliberauit tandem filias adire, quibus regnum deuiserat, vt si fieri posset, sibi dum viueret & 40. militibus suis stipendia ministrarent. Quæ, cum indignatione verbum ex ore ipsius capientes, dixerunt eum senem esse, delirum, & mendicum, nec tanta familia dignum. Sed si vellet, relictis cæteris cum solo

B

Mat. West. Leicester is builded.

daughters.

made the towne of Caerleir now called Leicester, which standeth vpon the riuer of Sore. It is written that he had by his wife [Leir's three three daughters without other issue, whose names were Gonorilla, Regan, and Cordeilla,1 which daughters he greatly loued, but specially Cordeilla the yoongest farre aboue the two elder. When this Leir therefore was come to great yeres, & began to waxe vnweldie through age, he thought to vnderstand the affections of his daughters towards him, and preferre hir whome he best loued, to the succession ouer the kingdome. Whervpon he first asked

He loved Cordeilla best.]

Gal. Mon.

2

milite remaneret." The following lines in The Mirour for Magistrates (ed. Haslewood, stanza 21) may lead one to conjecture that John Higgins-who wrote "Queene Cordila" for the Mirour-had seen the above-quoted passage from Matthew of Westminster :

"Eke at what time hee [Leire] ask'd of them [Albany and Gonorell] to haue his gard,

To gard his noble grace where so he went :

They cal'd him doting foole," &c.

Albany and Gonorell had deprived Lear of his servants, save one.

1 The earliest occurrence of the familiar spelling "Cordelia" is, I believe, to be found in the Faerie Queene, II. x. 29. In the old churchyard at Lee, Blackheath, there is a monument erected by Cordell Lady Hervey, to the memory of her parents, Bryan Anslie, Esq., of Lee (ob. July 10, 1604), and Awdry his wife (ob. Nov. 25, 1591).-Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 465. The form "Cordell" occurs in the Mirour for Magistrates (ed. Haslewood), stanza "Cordella" is the spelling in the older Leir.

7.

? According to Hist. Britt. II. xi. 30, Lear "cogitavit regnum suum ipsis dividere," and wished to ascertain the measure of each daughter's love for him, "ut sciret quae illarum majori regni parte dignior esset." Cp. Lear, I. i. 38, 39; 49-54:

Which of you shall we say doth loue vs most?
That we our largest bountie may extend
Where Nature doth with merit challenge?"

So the Mirour for Magistrates (i. 125):

"But minding her that lou'd him best to note,
Because he had no sonne t'enjoy his land,

He thought to guerdon most where favour most he fand." The Faerie Queene and the old play make Lear propose to divide his kingdom equally between his three daughters. Percy pointed out (Var. Sh. 1821, x. 2) that Lear's test of his daughters' love, and their answers, are details paralleled in the following story:

"Ina, King of West Saxons [688-728], had three daughters, of whom, upon a time, he demanded whether they did love him, and so would during their lives, above all others; the two elder sware deeply they would; the youngest, but the wisest, told her Father, without flattery, 'That albeit she did love, honour, and reverence him, and so would whilst she lived, as much as duty and daughterly love at the uttermost could expect, yet she did think that one

4 triall of

love.

[The answer daughter.]

of the eldest

Gonorilla the eldest, how well she loued him: who calling hir gods to record, protested that she loued him more than hir owne life, which by right and reason should be most deere vnto hir. With which answer the father being well pleased, turned to the second, and demanded of hir how well she loued him: who answered (confirming hir saiengs with great othes) that she loued The answer him more than toong could expresse, and farre aboue all other daughter.] creatures of the world.

of the second

of the yoongest

daughter.

Then called he his yoongest daughter Cordeilla before him, The answer and asked of hir what account she made of him, vnto whome she made this answer as followeth: "Knowing the great loue and "fatherlie zeale that you haue alwaies borne towards me (for the "which I maie not answere you otherwise than I thinke, and as "my conscience leadeth me) I protest vnto you, that I haue loued "you ever, and will continuallie (while I liue) loue you as my "naturall father. And if you would more vnderstand of the loue "that I beare you, assertaine your selfe, that so much as you "haue, so much you are worth, and so much I loue you, and no "more." The father being nothing content with this answer, married his two eldest daughters, the one vnto Henninus the duke of Cornewall, and the other vnto Maglanus the duke of Albania,1 betwixt whome he willed and ordeined that his land should be daughters. diuided after his death, and the one halfe thereof immediatlie should be assigned to them in hand: but for the third daughter Cordeilla he reserued nothing.

Neuertheless it fortuned that one of the princes of Gallia

day it would come to pass that she should affect another more fervently,' meaning her Husband, 'when she was married, who, being made one flesh with her, as God by commandement had told, and nature had taught her, she was to cleave fast to, forsaking Father and Mother, kiffe and kin.""-Camden's Remains concerning Britain, 1674, under "Wise Speeches" (Library of Old Authors, pp. 254, 255).

1 "The third and last part of the Iland he [Brute] allotted vnto Albanact his yoongest sonne. This later parcell at the first, tooke the name of Albanactus, who called it Albania. But now a small portion onelie of the region (being vnder the regiment of a duke) reteineth the said denomination, the rest being called Scotland, of certeine Scots that came ouer from Ireland to inhabit in those quarters. It is diuided from Lhoegres [England] also by the Solue and the Firth, yet some doo note the Humber; so that Albania (as Brute left it) conteined all the north part of the Iland that is to be found beyond the aforesaid streame, vnto the point of Cathnesse."-Harrison's Description of Britain (in Hol. i. 116/2/4).

The two eldest

daughters promised to

are maried. The realme is

his two

[Aganippus (which now is called France) whose name was Aganippus, hearing

wished to

marry Cor

would give her no dower.]

deilla. Leir of the beautie, womanhood, and good conditions of the said Cordeilla, desired to haue hir in mariage, and sent ouer to hir father, requiring that he might haue hir to wife: to whome answer was made, that he might haue his daughter, but as for anie dower he could haue none, for all was promised and assured to hir other [Aganippus, sisters alreadie. Aganippus notwithstanding this answer of deniall to receiue anie thing by way of dower with Cordeilla, tooke hir to wife, onlie moued thereto (I saie) for respect of hir person and

married her.]

the third

part of

He governed amiable vertues. This Aganippus was one of the twelue kings that ruled Gallia in those daies, as in the British historie it is recorded. But to proceed.

Gallia as Gal. Mon. saith.

[Leir's sons

in-law rebel

and assign

him a por

tion to live on.]

After that Leir was fallen into age, the two dukes that had against him, married his two eldest daughters, thinking it long yer the gouernment of the land did come to their hands, arose against him in armour, and reft from him the gouernance of the land, vpon conditions to be continued for terme of life: by the which he was put to his portion, that is, to liue after a rate assigned to him for the maintenance of his estate, which in processe of time was [The unkind- diminished as well by Maglanus as by Henninus. But the

ness of his daughters

when he visited

them. They

scarcely allow him

one servant at last.]

greatest griefe that Leir tooke, was to see the vnkindnesse of his daughters, which seemed to thinke that all was too much which their father had, the same being neuer so little in so much that going from the one to the other, he was brought to that miserie, that scarslie they would allow him one seruant to wait vpon him.1

In the end, such was the vnkindnesse, or (as I maie saie) the vnnaturalnesse which he found in his two daughters, notwithstand

1 We learn from Hist. Britt. II. xii. 31 that, after the duke's revolt, Albany maintained Lear and a retinue of sixty knights. But, when two years had elapsed, "indignata est Gonorilla filia ob multitudinem militum ejus, qui convicia ministris inferebant, quia eis profusior epinomia non praebebatur " (ep. Lear, I. iv. 220-224; 262-267). Albany reduced Lear's attendance to thirty knights. Lear then went to live with Cornwall, but strife broke out between the retainers of the several households, and Regan dismissed all save five of Lear's knights. He returned to Gonorilla, who allowed him one knight. This last wrong caused Lear's departure to France. The Mirour for Magistrates mentions the successive reductions of Lear's followers; but none of the sources which I have enumerated above has aught to say about the dissensions between Lear's knights and his sons-in-laws' households.