Commends his good opinion to you,' and Anne. 1 Commends his good opinion to you,] Thus the old copy, and subsequent editors. Mr. Malone reads: Commends his good opinion of you. Steevens. The words to you, in the next line, must in construction be understood here. The old copy, indeed, reads: Commends his good opinion of you to you, and· but the metre shows that cannot be right. The words-to you were probably accidentally omitted by the compositor in the second line, and being marked by the corrector as out, (to speak technically) were inserted in the wrong place. The old error being again marked, the words that were wanting were properly inserted in the second line where they now stand, and the new error in the first was overlooked. In the printing-house this frequently happens. Malone. It is as probable that, in the present instance, a correction and the erasure that was designed to make room for it, have both been printed The phrase I found in the text I have not disturbed, as it is supported by a passage in Antony and Cleopatra: "Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand.” Again, in King Lear: “I did commend your highness' letters to them." Steevens. 2 More than my all is nothing:] Not only my all is nothing, but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. Johnson. So, in Macbeth: "More is thy due than more than all can pay." Steevens. 3 —— nor my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd, &c.] It appears to me absolutely necessary, in order to make sense of this passage, to read: for my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd, &c. instead of "nor my prayers." Anne's argument is this: "More than my all is nothing, for my prayers and wishes are of no value, and yet prayers and wishes are all I have to return." M Mason. The double negative, it has been already observed, was cominonly used in our author's time For my prayers, a reading introduced by Mr. Pope, even if VOL. XI. A a More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers, and wishes, Cham. Lady, [Aside. Beauty and honour in her are so mingled, such arbitrary changes were allowable, ought not to be admitted here, this being a distinct proposition, not an illation from what has gone before. I know not, (says Anne) what external acts of duty and obeisance I ought to return for such unmerited favour. All I can do of that kind, and even more, if more were possible, would be insufficient: nor are any prayers that I can offer up for my benefactor sufficiently sanctified, nor any wishes that I can breathe for his happiness, of more value than the most worthless and empty vanities. Malone. 5 4 I shall not fail &c.] I shall not omit to strengthen, by my com mendation, the opinion which the King has formed. Johnson. I have perus'd her well;] From the many artful strokes of address the poet has thrown in upon Queen Elizabeth and her mother, it should seem that this play was written and performed in his royal mistress's time: if so, some lines were added by him in the last scene, after the accession of her successor, King James. Theobald. To lighten all this isle?] Perhaps alluding to the carbuncle, a gem supposed to have intrinsick light, and to shine in the dark: any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it. Johnson. So, in Titus Andronicus: "A precious ring, that lightens all the hole." Steevens. Thus, in a palace described in Amadis de Gaule, Trans. 1619, fol B. IV, p 5: "In the roofe of a chamber hung two lampes of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchased two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light." With a reference to this notion, I imagine, Milton, speaking of the orb of the sun, says: "If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite " Paradise Lost, B. III, v. 596. And that we have in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 were it carbuncled "Like holy Phabus' car." H. White. And say, I spoke with you. Anne. My honour'd lord. Old L. Why, this it is; see, see! [Exit Ld. Cham. I have been begging sixteen years in court, This compell'd fortune!) have your mouth fill'd up, Anne. This is strange to me. Old L. How tastes it? is it bitter? forty pence, no.7 There was a lady once, ('tis an old story) That would not be a queen, that would she not, Old L. With your theme, I could O'ermount the lark. The marchioness of Pembroke! A thousand pounds a year! for pure respect; No other obligation: By my life, That promises more thousands: Honour's train I know, your back will bear a duchess ;-Say, 71 is it bitter? forty pence, no.] Mr. Roderick, in his appendix to Mr. Edwards's book, proposes to read: for two-pence, The old reading may, however, stand. Forty pence was, in those days, the proverbial expression of a small wager, or a small sum. Money was then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty pence is half a noble, or the sixth part of a pound. Forty pence, or three and four pence, still remains, in many offices, the legal and established fee. So, in King Richard II, Act V, sc. v: "The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear." Again in All's Well that Ends Well, Act II, the Clown says: "As fit as ten groats for the hand of an attorney.” wagers Again, in Green's Groundwork of Coneycatching: " laying, &c. forty pence gaged against a match of wrestling." Again, in The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, 1570: “I dare wage with any man forty pence.” Again, in The Storye of King Darius, 1565, an interlude : Nay, that I will not for fourty pence." Steevens. 8. For all the mud in Egypt:] The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and slime of the Nile. Steevens. Are you not stronger than you were? Anne. Good lady, The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful Old L. What do you think me? SCENE IV. A Hall in Black-Fryars. 9 [Exeunt. Trumpets, Sennet, and Cornets. Enter Two Vergers, with short Silver Wands; next them, Two Scribes, 9- Sennet,] Dr. Burney (whose General History of Musick has been so highly and deservedly applauded) undertook to trace the etymology, and discover the certain meaning of this term, but without success. The following conjecture of his should not, however, be withheld from the publick: "Senné or sennie, de l'Allemand sen, qui signifie assemblee. Dict. de vieux Language: "Senne, assemblee a son de cloche." Menage. Perhaps, therefore, (says he,) sennet may mean a flourish for the purpose of assembling chiefs, or apprizing the people of their apBroach. I have likewise been informed, (as is elsewhere noted) that seneste is the name of an antiquated French tune." See Ju lius Cæsar, Act 1, sc. ii. Steevens. in the second part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida "Cornets sound a cynet." Farmer A senet appears to have signified a short flourish on cornets. In King Henry VI, P. III, after the King and the Duke of York have entered into a compact in the parliament-house, we find this mar. ginal direction: "Senet. Here they [the lords] come down [from their seats]." In that place a flourish must have been meant. The direction which has occasioned this note should be, I believe, Dennet on cornets. In Marlowe's King Edward II, we find "Cornets sound a sig nate." Senet or signate was undoubtedly nothing more than a flourish or sounding. The Italian Sonata formerly signified nothing more. See Florio's Italian Dict. 1611, in v. That senet was merely the corrupt pronunciation of signate, is ascertained by the following entry in the folio MS. of Mr. Henslowe, who appears to have spelt entirely by the ear: 1 in the Habits of Doctors; after them, the Archbishop of Canterbury alone; after him, the Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, Rochester, and Saint Asaph; next them, with some small distance, follows a Gentleman bearing the Purse, with the Great Seal, and a Cardinal's Hat; then two Priests, bearing each a Silver Cross; then a Gentleman-Usher bare-headed, accompanied with a Sergeant at Arms, bearing a Silver Mace; then two Gentlemen, bearing two great Silver Pillars; after them, "Laid out at sundry times, of my own ready money, abowt the gainynge of ower comysion, as followeth, 1597. "Laid out for goinge to the corte to the Master of the Requeasts, xiid. "Item. Paid unto the clerk of the Senette, 40s." Malone. 11 Archbishop of Canterbury,Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, Rochester, and Saint Asaph;] These were, William Warham, John Longland, Nicholas West, John Fisher, and Henry Standish. West, Fisher, and Standish, were counsel for the Queen. Reed. 2 Pillars; Pillars were some of the ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Sir Thomas More, when he was speaker to the commons, advised them to admit Wolsey into the house with his maces and his pillars. More's Life of Sir T. More. Johnson. So, in The Treatous, a satire on Cardinal Wolsey, no date, but published between the execution of the Duke of Buckingham and the repudiation of Queen Katharine. Of this curiosity the reader will find a particular account in Herbert's improved edit. of Ames's Typographical Antiquities, Vol. III, p. 1538, &c. The author of this invective was William Roy. See Bale de Script. Brit. edit. 1548, p. 254, b: "With worldly pompe incredible, "Before him rideth two prestes stronge; Gapynge in every man's face: "After them folowe two laye men secular, "In their hondes steade of a mace." Steevens. At the end of Fiddes's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, is a curious letof Mr. Anstis's, on the subject of the two silver pillars usually borne before Cardinal Wolsey. This remarkable piece of pageantry did not escape the notice of Shakspeare. Percy. Wolsey had two great crosses of silver, the one of his archbishoprick, the other of his legacy, borne before him whitbersoever he went or rode, by two of the tallest priests that he could get within the realm. This is from Vol. III, p. 920, of Holinshed, and it seems from p. 837, that one of the pillars was a token of a cardinal, and perhaps he bore the other pillar as an archbishop. Tollet. |