That gentleman of Buckingham's: in person And point by point the treasons of his master The King takes his State. The Lords of the Council take their several Places. The Cardinal places himself under the King's Feet, on his right side. A Noise within, crying, Room for the Queen. Enter the Queen, ushered by the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK: she kneels. The King riseth from his State, takes her up, kisses, and placeth her by him. -Half Q. Kath. Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a suitor. K. Hen. Arise, and take place by us :-) your suit Never name to us; you have half our power: The other moiety, ere you ask, is given; Repeat your will, and take it. Q. Kath. Thank your majesty. That you would love yourself; and, in that love, The dignity of your office, is the point Of my petition. K. Hen. Lady mine, proceed, Q. Kath. I am solicited, not by a few, And those of true condition, that your subjects Are in great grievance: there have been commissions My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches 2 Of these exactions, yet the king our master, So, in our author's Lover's Complaint: not a heart which in his level came "Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim." Steevens. 2 — as putter-on Of these exactions,] The instigator of these exactions; the per son who suggested to the King the taxes complained of, and incited him to exact them from his subjects. So, in Macbeth: 66 The powers above "Put on their instruments." Again, in Hamlet: "Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause." Malone. (Whose honour heaven shield from soil!) even he es capes not Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks In loud rebellion. Nor. Not almost appears, It doth appear: for, upon these taxations, And lack of other means, in desperate manner K. Hen. Taxation! Wol. Please you, sir, I know but of a single part, in aught Pertains to the state; and front but in that files 3 The many to them 'longing,] The many is the meiny, the train, the people. Dryden is, perhaps, the last that used this word: "The kings before their many rode." Johnson. I believe the many is only the multitude, the oi onnoì. Thus, Coriolanus, speaking of the rabble, calls them: 66 the mutable rank-scented many." Steevens. 4 And Danger serves among them.] Could one easily believe that a writer, who had, but immediately before, sunk so low in his expression, should here rise again to a height so truly sublime? where, by the noblest stretch of fancy, Danger is personalized as serving in the rebel army, and shaking the established government. Warburton. Chaucer, Gower, Skelton, and Spenser, have personified Danger. The first, in his Romaunt of the Rose; the second, in his fifth Book, De Confessione Amantis; the third, in his Bouge of Court "With that, anone out start dangere," and the fourth, in the 10th Canto of the fourth Book of his Fairy Queen, and again in the fifth Book and the ninth Canto. Steevens. 5- -front but in that file-] I am but primus inter pares. I am but first in the row of counsellors. Johnson. This was the very idea that Wolsey wished to disclaim. It was not his intention to acknowledge that he was the first in the row of counsellors, but that he was merely on a level with the rest, and stept in the same line with them. M. Mason. Where others tell steps with me. Q. Kath. No, my lord, You know no more than others: but you frame Things, that are known alike ; which are not wholesome To those which would not know them, and yet must. Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions, Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are Most pestilent to the hearing; and, to bear them, The back is sacrifice to the load. They say, They are devis'd by you; or else you suffer Too hard an exclamation. K. Hen. Still exaction! The nature of it? In what kind, let 's know, Q. Kath. I am much too venturous In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd Under your promis'd pardon. The subject's grief Is nam'd, your wars in France: This makes bold mouths: Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass, To each incensed will.7* I would, your highness There is no primer business.8 6 You know no more than others: &c.] That is, you know no more than other counsellors, but you are the person who frame those things which are afterwards proposed, and known equally by all. M. Mason. 7 tractable obedience &c.] i. e. those who are tractable and obedient, must give way to others who are angry. Musgrave. The meaning of this is, that the people were so much irritated by oppression, that their resentment got the better of their obedience. M. Mason The meaning, I think, is-Things are now in such a situation, that resentment and indignation predominate in every man's breast over duty and allegiance. Malone. *I coincide in opinion with Musgrave-I think the meaning this, So powerful and numerous are the incensed, that those who were disposed to be tractable and obedient have become slaves to their will. Am. Ed. K. Hen. This is against our pleasure. Wol. By my life, And for me, I have no further gone in this, than by A single voice; and that not pass'd me, but If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know The chronicles of my doing,-let me say, To cope2 malicious censures; which ever, 8 There is no primer business.] In the old edition→→→ There is no primer baseness. men. The queen is here complaining of the suffering of the commons, which, she suspects, arose from the abuse of power in some great But she is very reserved in speaking her thoughts concerning the quality of it. We may be assured then, that she did not, in conclusion, call it the highest baseness; but rather made use of a word that could not offend the Cardinal, and yet would incline the King to give it a speedy hearing. I read therefore: There is no primer business. i. e. no matter of state that more earnestly presses a despatch. Warburton. Dr. Warburton (for reasons which he has given in his note) would read: — no primer business: but I think the meaning of the original word is sufficiently clear. No primer baseness is no mischief more ripe or ready for redress. So, in Othello: "Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkies 9 If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know, Steevens. My faculties, nor person,] The old copy-by ignorant tongues. But surely this epithet must have been an interpolation, the ignorance of the supposed speakers being sufficiently indicated by their knowing neither the faculties nor person of the Cardinal. I have, therefore, with Sir T. Hanmer, restored the measure, by the present omission. Steevens. 1 We must not stint -] To stint is to stop, to retard. Many instances of this sense of the word are given in a note on Romeo and Juliet, Act I, sc. iii. Steevens. * We must not stint -] i. e. we must not limit, we must not restrain our necessary actions:-We must not do less than what is necessary to be done, because we may encounter malicious censures. Am. Ed. As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow K. Hen. Things done well," And with a care, exempt themselves from fear; From every tree, lop, bark, and part o' the timber; 8 2 To cope-] To engage with; to encounter. The word is still used in some counties. Johnson. 3 once weak ones,] The modern editors read-or weak ones; but once is not unfrequently used for sometime, or at one time or other, among our ancient writers. So, in the 13th Idea of Drayton : "This diamond shall once consume to dust." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:-"I pray thee, once tonight give my sweet Nan this ring." Again, in Leicester's Commonwealth: ". if God should take from us her most excellent majesty (as once he will) and so leave us destitute 4 Steevens. or not allow'd;] Not approved. See Vol. III, p. 72, n. 8. 5 what worst, as oft, Malone. Hitting a grosser quality,] The worst actions of great men are commended by the vulgar, as more accommodated to the grossness of their notions. Johnson. 6 For our best act.] I suppose, for the sake of measure, we should read-action. Perhaps the three last letters of this word were accidentally omitted by the compositor. Steevens. 7 Things done well,] Sir T. Hanmer, very judiciously in my opinion, completes the measure by reading: Things that are done well. Steevens. 8 From every tree, lop, bark, and part o' the timber;] Lop is a substantive, and signifies the branches. Warburton. VOL. XI. X |