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Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.a

Nor.

"Twixt Guynes and Arde: I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;

Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement as they grew together;

Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd
Such a compounded one?

Buck.

All the whole time

Then you lost

I was my chamber's prisoner.

Nor.

The view of earthly glory: Men'might say,
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's master, till the last
Made former wonders its: To-day, the French,
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain, India: every man that stood
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: Now this mask
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool, and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'T was said they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure." When these suns
(For so they phrase them) by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous story,

a Andren. So the original; so the Chroniclers. But the modern editors write "the vale of Arde." Arde, or Ardres, is the town, which in the next line is spelt Arde in the original. Andren, or Ardren, is the village near the place of meeting. b Clinquant-bright with gingling ornaments.

c Censure comparison.

Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd.

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Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honesty, the tract of everything Would by a good discourser lose some life, Which action's self was tongue to.

Buck.

All was royal;

To the disposing of it nought rebell'd,
Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function. Who did guide?
I mean, who set the body and the limbs

a

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Nor. All this was order'd by the good discretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York.

Buck. The devil speed him! no man's pie is freed
From his ambitious finger. What had he

To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun,

And keep it from the earth.

a It is usual, contrary to the original, to give to Norfolk the sentence beginning "All was royal," and then make Buckingham ask the question, "Who did guide?" &c. Theobald made the change, and Warburton says it was improperly given to Buckingham, "for he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the solemnity." But what information does he communicate? After the eloquent description by Norfolk of the various shows of the pageant, he makes a general observation that "order" must have presided over these complicated arrangements

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gave each thing view." He then asks, “Who did guide?”—who made the body and the limbs work together? Norfolk then answers, "As you guess ;"-(which words have been transferred to Buckingham by the revisers of the text)—according to your guess, one did guide:-"one, certes," &c.

b Element-constituent quality of mind. Thus in 'Twelfth Night' (Act III., Scene 4) Malvolio says, "Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element."

© Keech. Steevens thinks this term has a peculiar application to Wolsey, as the son of a butcher ;-as a butcher's wife is called in 'Henry IV., Part II.,' "Goody Keech." But Falstaff, in the First Part, is called by Prince Henry "a greasy tallow keech." A "keech" is a lump of fat; and it appears to us that Bucking.

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There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends:
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but, spider-like,

Out of his self-drawing web,-O! give us note!—
The force of his own merit makes his way

A gift that Heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king."

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What Heaven hath given him, let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him: Whence has he that?
If not from hell, the devil is a niggard,

Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

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Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,

Without the privity o' the king, to appoint

ham here denounces Wolsey, not as a butcher's son, but as an overgrown bloated favourite, that

Take

66 can with his very bulk

up the rays o' the beneficial sun.'

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a This passage has been corrupted by the modern editors, and, as we think, misunderstood. It is ordinarily printed thus:

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Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that Heaven gives for him," &c.

"O! give us note," the original reading, is one of Shakspere's happy parentheses to
break a long sentence, and meaning only, mark what I say. The whole speech is
intended to render the ironical close emphatic. Wolsey is without ancestry, with-
out the credit of great service, without eminent assistants; but, spider-like, deriving
everything from himself, the force of his own self-sustained merit makes his way—
his course-
se—his good fortune-a gift from Heaven, which buys, &c. If we were to
receive the passage in the sense of the revisers of the text, we ought to read "his own
merit makes its way." To "make way," in Shakspere, is to go away, as in 'The
Taming of the Shrew :-

"While I make way from hence to save my life."

To make way, in the colloquial sense of to get on in the world, is, we think, a forced and unauthorised meaning of the words before us. That Wolsey should give note that he made his way only by his own merit would have been utterly at variance with the stately pomp and haughtiness of his ambition.

Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
Of all the gentry; for the most part such
To whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon :a and his own letter
(The honourable board of council out)
Must fetch him in he papers.b

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Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
By this so sicken'd their estates, that never
They shall abound as formerly.

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Have broke their backs with laying manors on them
For this great journey. What did this vanity,
But minister communication of

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

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After the hideous storm that follow'd, was
A thing inspir'd; and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy,-That this tempest,

a This is ordinarily read,

"for the most part such,

Too, whom," &c.

To the preposition of the original, appeared to the editors a redundancy, because we have "lay upon." But if lay upon has not here the force of a compound verb, examples of redundant prepositions are most common in Shakspere; for example, in Coriolanus :'

"In what commodity is Marcius poor in ?"

The feeble expletive too, with its unmetrical pause, appears to us a corruption, though unnoticed altogether by the editors.

b The construction of this passage is difficult; the meaning is in Holinshed:« The peers of the realm, receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent necessary cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that such a costly journey should be taken in hand, without consent of the whole board of the council." In Wolsey's letter the "board of council" was "out"—omitted; the letter alone "must fetch him in [whom] he papers' whom he sets down in the paper. Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar,' gives examples of a similar “want of the relative," adding, “in Greek and Latin this want were barbarous." Amongst other instances he has the passage of the 118th Psalm-"the stone the builders refused"-a parallel case with the sentence before us.

6

Dashing the garment of this

The sudden breach on 't.

Nor.

peace,

aboded

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?

Nor.

Is it therefore

Marry, is 't.

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

Buck.

Why, all this business

'Like it your grace,

Our reverend cardinal carried.

Nor.

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 't may be said,
It reaches far; and where 't will not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,

You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that 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.

Wol. Well, we shall then know more; and Buckingham

Shall lessen this big look.

Ay, please your grace.

[Exeunt WOLSEY and Train.

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