Gard. That will I. Crom. But, on your honour will you? Crom. Bear witnefs, lords. hath known you, Tell him, when he And try'd your faith but half so much as mine, Bed. Be patient, good my lord, in these extremes. Ere to the king this be delivered. ftore. Gard. But all the hafte he makes fhall be but vain. Here is a discharge for your prifoner, To fee him executed presently: [To the lieutenant. Crom. I do embrace it; welcome my last date, - you bear the tenure of your life.] You hear how fhort a period you have to live. The old copy reads, I think corruptedly, tenor. The two words are frequently confounded in our ancient dramas. MALONE. I pray commend me to my fovereign king, Lieu. Here is your fon, fir, come to take his leave. Mark, boy, the laft words that I speak to thee3: And Cromwell's virtues in thy face shall shine: Son. O father, I fhall die to fee that wound, 2To lofe his head before his caufe was tried;] Speed is the only hiftorian (that I have feen) who afferts that the bill of attainder against Cromwell did not pafs till after his death. In one fenfe indeed he might be faid to be executed before his caufe was tried, for it was never fairly tried; but the act of parliament by which he fuffered, received the royal affent four days before his execution. MALONE. Mark, boy, the laft words that I fpeak to thee:] The author has here departed from hiftorical truth. The earl of Effex's fon was arrived to manhood fome time before the execution of his father; and had been called up by fummons to the house of peers four years before that event, by the title of baron Cromwell of Wimbleton in the county of Surry. MALONE. as • Ambition, like the plague, fee thou efchew it;] To efchew is to avoid. It is a very common phrase in ancient warrantsyou will efchew that which may enfue." PERCY. upon the floor of death.] Thus the folios. The quarto has floure. MALONE, Come Come on, my child, and fee the end of all; Gard. My lord you fpeak it of an envious heart; I have done no more than law and equity. Bed. O, my good lord of Winchester, forbear: It would have better feem'd you to have been absent, Than with your words disturb a dying man 5. Crom. Who me, my lord? no: he difturbs not me. My mind he stirs not, though his mighty fhock Hath brought more peers' heads down unto the block. Farewel, my boy! all Cromwell can bequeath,- Exec. I am your death's-man; pray my lord forgive me. Crom. Even with my foul. Why man, thou art my doctor, And bring'ft me precious phyfick for my foul. Your honour'd arms are my true winding-fheet. The land of worms, which dying men difcover: 5 It would have better feem'd you to have been abfent, Than with your words difturb a dying man.] Perhaps here is a covert allufion to fir Walter Raleigh, who was reproached for having attended at the execution of his rival, the amiable earl of Effex. MALONE. * The land of worms, which dying men difcover:] Some line, or couplet, feems wanting here, to introduce what follows; or per haps we should read: Hail land of worms, which dying men discover! STEEVEN Bed Bed. Well, farewel Cromwell! fure the truest friend That ever Bedford fhall poffefs again. Well, lords, I fear that when this man is dead, Enter an Officer with Cromwell's head. Offi. Here is the head of the deceafed Cromwell. Bed. Pray thee go hence, and bear his head away Unto his body; interr them both in clay. Enter fir Ralph Sadler. [Exit Officer. Sad. How now my lords? What, is lord Cromwell dead? Bed. Lord Cromwell's body now doth want a head. Sad. O God, a little speed had fav'd his life. Suf. Ay, ay, fir Ralph, reprieves come now too late. Gard. My confcience now tells me this deed was ill 7. Would Chrift that Cromwell were alive again! Nor. Come let us to the king, who, well I know, Will grieve for Cromwell, that his death was fo. [Exeunt omnes. • Here is a kind reprieve come from the king,] No reprieve was at any time fent for Cromwell. The unfortunate ftatefinan during his confinement in the Tower wrote a pathetick letter to Henry, which brought tears into the eyes of that fanguinary tyrant, but produced no other effect. MALONE. "My confcience now tells me this deed was ill ;] So fir Piers of Exton, on the fame occafion, at the conclufion of K. Richard II: "For now the devil that told me I did well, "Says that this deed is chronicled in hell." STEEVENS. On the fall of this nobleman many fatirical ballads were compofed by the party who were adverse to him, one of which may be found in the Reliques of Anc. Poetry, vol. II. p. 64. Το To vindicate Shakspeare from having written a fingle line of this piece would be a waste of time. The poverty of the language, the barennefs of incident, and the inartificial conduct of every part of the performance, place it rather perhaps below the compofitions of even the fecond-rate dramatick authors of the age in which it was produced. Dr. Farmer thinks it was written by Thomas Heywood. That poet, according to his own account, having had either an entire hand or at leaft a main finger in two hundred and twenty plays," it is extremely probable that many of his compofitions (of which he appears to have taken little care) were printed either without a name, or, as in the prefent in stance, with initial letters calculated to deceive. MALONE, LONDON |