The usurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury, Made suit to come in his presence; which if granted, As he made semblance of his duty, would

Have put his knife into him 21.

K. Hen.

A giant traitor!

Wol. Now, madam, may his highness live in

freedom,

And this man out of prison?

Q. Kath.

God mend all!

K. Hen. There's something more would out of thee; What say'st?

Surv. After the duke his father, -with the knife,

He stretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger,
Another spread on his breast, mounting his eyes,
He did discharge a horrible oath; whose tenour
Was,-Were he evil us'd, he would outgo
His father, by as much as a performance
Does an irresolute purpose.

K. Hen.

There's his period,

To sheath his knife in us. He is attach'd;
Call him to present trjal: if he may

Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none,

Let him not seek't of us: By day and night, He's traitor to the height. [Exeunt.

21 The accuracy of Holinshed, from whom Shakspeare took his account of the accusations and punishment, together with the qualities of the duke of Buckingham, is proved in the most authentic manner by a very curious report of his case in East. Term. 13 Hen. VIII. in the year books published by authority, edit. 1597, f. 11, 12.

22 Steevens takes unnecessary pains to explain this phrase. I wonder he could doubt that it was an adjuration. Horatio, in 'Hamlet, Act i, Sc. 5, says :

O day and night, but this is wond'rous strange.'

SCENE III. A Room in the Palace.

Enter the Lord Chamberlain, and LORD SANDS1.

Cham. Is it possible, the spells of France should

juggle

Men into such strange mysteries??

Sands.

Though they be never so ridiculous,

New customs,

Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are follow'd.

Cham. As far as I see, all the good our English Have got by the late voyage, is but merely

A fit or two o' the face3; but they are shrewd ones; For when they hold them, you would swear directly, Their very noses had been counsellors

To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep state so.

Sands. They have all new legs, and lame ones; one would take it,

That never saw them pace before, the spavin,
A springhalt reign'd among them.

1 Shakspeare has placed this scene in 1521. Charles earl of Worcester was then lord chamberlain, and continued in the office until his death, in 1526. But Cavendish, from whom this was originally taken, places this event at a later period, when Lord Sands himself was chamberlain. Sir William Sands, of the Vine, near Basingstoke, Hants, was created a peer in 1524. He succeeded the earl of Worcester as chamberlain.

2 Mysteries are arts, and here artificial fashions.

3 A fit of the face seems to be a grimace, an artificial cast of the countenance. Fletcher has more plainly expressed the same thought in The Elder Brother :

To vary his face as seamen do their compass.'

The springhalt or stringhalt is a disease incident to horses, which makes them limp in their paces. It is a humorous comparison of the mincing gait of the Frenchified courtiers to this convulsive motion. Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair, uses it:

'Poor soul, she has had a stringhalt.'

Cham.

Death! my lord,

Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too,

That, sure, they have worn out christendom. How

now?

What news, Sir Thomas Lovell?

Lov.

Enter SIR THOMAS LOVELL.

?Faith, my lord,

What is't for?

I hear of none, but the new proclamation
That's clapp'd upon the court gate.

Cham.
Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants,
That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors.
Cham. I am glad, 'tis there: now I would pray
our monsieurs

To think an English courtier may be wise,
And never see the Louvre.

Lov.
They must either
(For so run the conditions) leave these remnants
Of fool, and feather 5, that they got in France,
With all their honourable points of ignorance,
Pertaining thereunto (as fights, and fireworks;

5 The text may receive illustration from Nashe's Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594:- At that time (viz. in the court of King Henry VIII.) I was no common squire, no undertrodden torchbearer, I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop, my French doublet gelte in the belly, as though (lyke a pig readie to be spitted) all my guts had beene pluckt out, a paire of side paned hose that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheeses, my long stock that sate close to my dock,-my rapier pendant, like a round sticke, &c. my blacke cloake of cloth, overspreading my backe lyke a thornbacke or an elephant's eare; and in consummation of my curiositie, my handes without gloves, all a more French,' &c. Mr. Douce justly observes that Sir Thomas Lovell's is an allusion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps, as may be seen in a print of Jordan's after Voert; and which is alluded to in the Ballad of News and no News:

'And feathers wagging in a fool's cap.'

VOL. VII.

S

Abusing better men than they can be,

Out of a foreign wisdom), renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings,
Short blister'd breeches, and those types of travel,
And understand again like honest men;

Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it,
They may, cum privilegio, wear away

The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at. Sands. "Tis time to give them physick, their dis

eases

Are grown so catching.

Cham.

What a loss our ladies

Will have of these trim vanities!

Lov. Ay, marry, There will be woe indeed, lords; the sly whoresons Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies; A French song, and a fiddle, has no fellow.

Sands. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're going

(For, sure, there's no converting of them): now An honest country lord, as I am, beaten

A long time out of play, may bring his plain song, And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r lady,

Held current musick too.

Cham.

Your colt's tooth is not cast yet.

Sands.

Nor shall not, while I have a stump.

Cham.

Whither were you a going?

Lov.

Well said, Lord Sands:

No, my lord;

Sir Thomas,

To the cardinal's ;

O, 'tis true:

Your lordship is a guest too.

Cham.

6 i. e. breeches puffed or swelled out like blisters.

7 The late edition by Mr. Boswell reads hold, noticing that

held is the reading of the first folio.

This night he makes a supper, and a great one,
To many lords and ladies; there will be
The beauty of this kingdom, I'll assure you.

Lov. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,

A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us;
His dews fall every where.

Cham.

No doubt, he's noble; He had a black mouth, that said other of him. Sands. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal;

in him,

Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine : Men of his way should be most liberal,

They are set here for examples.

Cham. True, they are so : But few now give so great ones. My barge stays 8; Your lordship shall along:-Come,good Sir Thomas, We shall be late else: which I would not be, For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guildford, This night to be comptrollers.

Sands.

I am your lordship's.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

The Presence Chamber in York Place.

Hautboys. A small table under a state for the Cardinal, a longer table for the guests. Enter at one door ANNE BULLEN, and divers Lords, Ladies, and Gentlewomen, as guests; at another door, enter SIR HENRY GUILDFord.

Guild. Ladies, a general welcome from his grace Salutes ye all: This night he dedicates

To fair content, and you: none here, he hopes,

8 The speaker is now in the king's palace at Bridewell, from whence he is proceeding by water to York Place (Cardinal Wolsey's house), now Whitehall.