Lov. I do beseech your grace, for charity, If ever any malice in your heart Wére hid against me, now to forgive me frankly. Buck. Sir Thomas Lovell, I as free forgive you, As I would be forgiven: I forgive all; prayers There cannot be those numberless offences my Lov. To the water side I must conduct your grace; Then give my charge up to Sir Nicholas Vaux, Who undertakes you to your end. Vaux. Prepare there, The duke is coming: see, the barge be ready; And fit it with such furniture, as suits The greatness of his Buck. person. Nay, Sir Nicholas, Let it alone; my state now will but mock me. When I came hither, I was lord high constable, And duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun 8: 7 Shakspeare, by this expression, probably meant to make the duke say, No action expressive of malice shall close my life. Envy is elsewhere used by Shakspeare for malice or hatred. Unless with Warburton we read mark my grave;' a very plausible emendation of an error easily made; and which has indeed happened in an instance in King Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2, where the old copy erroneously reads: To make the full fraught man, and best endued With some suspicion.' The name of the duke of Buckingham most generally known Yet I am richer than my base accusers, That never knew what truth meant: I now seal it9; And with that blood will make them one day groan for't. My noble father, Henry of Buckingham, Heaven has an end in all: Yet, you that hear me, Where you are liberal of your loves, and counsels, Be sure, you be not loose 10; for those you make friends, And give your hearts to, when they once perceive The least rub in your fortunes, fall away Like water from ye, never found again was Stafford; it is said that he affected the surname of Bohun, because he was lord high constable of England by inheritance of tenure from the Bohuns. Shakspeare follows Holinshed. 9 I now seal my truth, my loyalty with blood, which blood shall one day make them groan. 10 This expression occurs again in Othello : There are a kind of men so loose of soul That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs.' But where they mean to sink ye. All good people, Pray for me! I must now forsake ye; the last hour Of my long weary life is come upon me. Farewell: And when you would say something that is sad 11, Speak how I fell.-I have done; and God forgive me! [Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Train. 1 Gent. O, this is full of pity!-Sir, it calls, I fear, too many curses on their heads, That were the authors. 2 Gent. If the duke be guiltless, "Tis full of woe: yet I can give you inkling Of an ensuing evil, if it fall, Greater than this. 1 Gent. Good angels keep it from us! Where may it be? You do not doubt my faith, sir? 2 Gent. This secret is so weighty, 'twill require A strong faith 12 to conceal it. 1 Gent. I do not talk much. 2 Gent. Let me have it; I am confident: You shall, sir: Did you not of late days hear Between the king and Katharine ? 1 Gent. Yes, but it held 13 not: For when the king once heard it, out of anger He sent command to the lord mayor, straight To stop the rumour, and allay those tongues That durst disperse it. 11 Thus also in King Richard II. : : 'Tell thou the lamentable tale of me, And send the hearers weeping to their beds.' 12. Great fidelity. 13 Steevens erroneously explains this passage, saying to hold is to believe: it held not' here rather means it did not sustain itself,' the rumour did not prove true. So in King Richard III. Act ii. Sc. 2: 'Doth the news hold of good King Edward's death?' But that slander, sir, 2 Gent. "Tis the cardinal; 1 Gent. 2 Gent. I think, you have hit the mark: But is't not cruel, That she should feel the smart of this? The cardinal Will have his will, and she must fall. 1 Gent. We are too open here to argue this; "Tis woful. [Exeunt. SCENE II. An Antechamber in the Palace. Enter the Lord Chamberlain, reading a Letter. Cham. My lord,-The horses your lordship sent for, with all the care I had, I saw well chosen, ridden, and furnished. They were young, and handsome; and of the best breed in the north. When they were ready to set out for London, a man of my lord cardinal's, by commission, and main power, took 'em from me; with this reason, -His master would be served before a subject, if not before the king: which stopped our mouths, sir. Í fear, he will, indeed: Well, let him have them: He will have all, I think. Enter the Dukes of NORFOLK and Suffolk. Nor. Well met, my good lord chamberlain. Cham. Good day to both your graces. Suf. How is the king employ'd? Cham. I left him private, What's the cause? Full of sad thoughts and troubles. Nor. Cham. It seems, the marriage with his brother's wife Has crept too near his conscience. Suf. Has crept too near another lady. No, his conscience "Tis so; Nor. This is the cardinal's doing, the king-cardinal: That blind priest, like the eldest son of fortune, Turns what he list. The king will know him one day. Suf. Pray God, he do! he'll never know himself else. Nor. How holily he works in all his business! And with what zeal! For, now he has crack'd the league Between us and the emperor, the queen's great nephew, He dives into the king's soul; and there scatters See The Winter's Tale, Act. ii. Sc. 2, p. 20, note 43. |