When Samrah, deputy governor of Bassorah, was deposed by Moawryah, the sixth caliph, he is reported to have expressed himself in the same manner:-"If I had served God so well as I served him, he would never have condemned me to all eternity. A similar sentiment also occurs in The Earle of Murton's Tragedie, by Churchyard, 1593. Antonio Perez, the disgraced fa3 Ambition here means a criminal and inordinate am-vourite, made the same complaint. Mr. Douce has also bition, that endeavours to obtain honours unsuited to pointed out a remarkable passage in Pittscottie's Histhe state of a subject. Wolsey does not mean to con-tory of Scotland, p. 261, edit. 1789, in which there is a demn every kind of ambition, for in the preceding line he says he will instruct Cromwell how to rise.

great resemblance to these pathetic words of the cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream:- Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death.'

7 Malone's explanation of this passage is entirely er 5 This inventory is still to be seen among the Harleian roneous; royal minds are high minds, or as we still MSS. No. 599. Some of the particulars may be seen in say, princely dispositions. To avaunt himself royally Stowe's Chronicle, p. 546, ed. 1631. See also Mr. El-Magnifice se efferre.'--Baret. lis's Historical Letters, vol. ii. p. 15.

My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth,
Willing 1 leave their burden: Reach a chair;-
So, now, methinks, I feel a little ease.
Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me,
That the great child of honour, cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?

Grif. Yes, madam; but, I think, your grace,
Out of the pain you suffer'd, gave no ear to't.
Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he
died:

If well, he stepp'd before me, happily,'
For my example.
Grif.
Well, the voice goes, madam:
For after the stout Earl Northumberland
Arrested him at York, and brought him forward
(As a man sorely tainted) to his answer,
He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill,
He could not sit his mule.2

Kath.

Alas! poor man!

Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to
Leicester,

Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot,
With all his convent, honourably receiv'd him;
To whom he gave these words,-0, father abbot,
An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!

So went to bed: where eagerly his sickness
Pursu'd him still; and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, (which he himself
Foretold, should be his last,) full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,
He
gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.
Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!
Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him,
And yet with charity,-He was a man

Of an unbounded stomach,4 ever ranking
Himself with princes; one, that by suggestion
Ty'd all the kingdom: simony was fair play;
His own opinion was his law: I' the presence
He would say untruths; and be ever double,
Both in his words and meaning: He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful:

His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.

Grif.

6

Noble madam,
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues

tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other
poet, tender and pathetic, without gods, or furies, or poi-
sons, or precipices, without the help of romantic cir-
cumstances, without improbable sallies of poetical la-
mentation, and without any throes of tumultuous mi-
sery. Johnson.

And though he were unsatisfied in getting,
(Which was a sin,) yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: Ever witness for him
Those twins of learning, that he rais'd in you,
Ipswich, and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfmish'd, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being lite:
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died, fearing God.
Kath. After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.
Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth and modesty,
Now in his ashes honour: Peace be with him!-
Patience, be near me still; and set me lower;
I have not long to trouble thee.-Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me that sad note
I nam'd my knell, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.

1 Happily is sometimes used by Shakspeare for hap-sage ly, peradventure; but it here more probably means op. portunely.

2 Cardinals generally rode on mules, as a mark perhape of humility. Cavendish says that Wolsey rode like a cardinal sumptuously upon his mule, trapped altogether in crimson velvet and gilt stirrups.'

3 Roads, or rodes, here, is the same as courses, stages, or journeys. From whence also was formed out-rodes, in-rodes, &c.

May it please your highness

To hear me speak his good now?'

9 This speech is formed on the following passage in Holinshed-This cardinal (as Edmund Campion m his Historie of Ireland described him,) was a man undoubtedly born to honour; I think (saith he) some prince's bastard, no butcher's sonne; exceeding wise, faire-spoken, high-minded, full of revenge, vitious of his bodie, loftie to his enemies, were they never so bigge, 4 i. e. of unbounded pride or haughtiness. Thus Ho-to those that accepted and sought his friendship wonderlinshed:-- This cardinal was of a great stomach, for he computed himself equal with princes, and by crafty suggestions got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on simony, and was not pitifull, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open pe both in presence he would lie and seie untruth, and was speech and meaning: he would promise much and perform little he was vicious of his bodie, and gave the clergie evil example.' Ed. 1587, p. 922.

5 Suggestion here, I think, means wicked prompting. It is used in this sense in The Tempest. I have no doubt that we should read tyth' instead of ty'd, as Dr. Farmer proposed, and as the passage quoted from Holinshed warrants. The word tythes was not exclusively used to signify the emoluments of the clergy.

6 To be ill, evil, or naught of body, was to be addicted to women: to be lewd in life and manners. 7 This passage has been absurdly pointed in all the modern editions:

ful courteous; a ripe schooleman, thrall to affections,
brought a bed with flatterie; insaciable to get, and
more princelie in bestowing, as appeareth by his two
colleges at Ipswich and Oxenford, the one overthrown
for an house of studentes (considering all the appur
with his fall, the other unfinished, and yet as it lyeth,
tenances) incomparable throughout Christendom.-He
held and injoied at once the bishoprickes of Yorke,
Duresme, and Winchester, the dignities of lord cardinall,
legatt, and chancellor, the abbie of St. Albans, diversa
priories, sundrie fat benefices in commendam; a great
preferrer of his servants, an advauncer of learning,
stoute in every quarrel, never happy till this his over-
throw; wherein he shewed such moderation, and ended
so perfectlie, that the houre of his death did him more
honour than all the pomp of his life passed.' We have
a similar thought in Macbeth :-

-nothing in his life
Became him like the leaving it.'

that held the garland, deliver the same to the other | Sends you his princely commendations,
next two, who observe the same order in their And heartily entreats you take good comfort.
changes, and holding the garland over her head: Kath. O my good lord, that comfort comes too
which done, they deliver the same garland to the
late;
last two, who likewise observe the same order; at
which (as it were by inspiration) she makes in her
sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her hands
to heaven: and so in their dancing they vanish,
carrying the garland with them. The music con-

tinues.

1 Gray had probably this passage in his mind when he made his Bard exclaim on a similar occasion:

Stay, O stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn.' 2 Queen Katharine's servants, after the divorce at Dunstable, and the Pope's curse stuck up at Dunkirk, were directed to be sworn to serve her not as queen but as princess dowager. Some refused to take the oath, and so were forced to leave her service; and as for those who took it and stayed, she would not be served by them, by which means she was almost destitute of attendants. See Hall's Chronicle, fol. 219. Bishop Burnet says that all the women about her still called her queen. Hist. of the Reformation, p. 162.

3

perceiving hirselfe to waxe verie weake and feeble, and to feele death approaching at hand, caused one of hir gentle women to write a letter to the king,

"Tis like a pardon after execution:
That gentle physic given in time, had cur'd me;
But now I am past all comforts here, but prayers.
How does his highness?
Cap.

Madam, in good health.
Kath. So may he ever do! and ever flourish,
When I shall dwell with worms, and my poor name
Banish'd the kingdom!-Patience, is that letter,
caus'd you write, yet sent away?

Pat. No, madam. [Giving it to KATHARINE.
Kath. Sir, I most humbly pray you to deliver
This to my lord the king."

Cap.
Most willing, madam.
Kath. In which I have commended to his goodness
The model of our chaste loves, his young daugh-

ter: 5

The dews of heaven fall thick in blessings on her!-
Beseeching him, to give her virtuous breeding,
(She is young, and of a noble modest nature;
I hope, she will deserve well ;) and a little
To love her for her mother's sake, that lov'd him,
Heaven knows how dearly. My next poor petition
Is, that his noble grace would have some pity
Upon my wretched women, that so long
Have follow'd both my fortunes faithfully:
Of which there is not one, I dare avow,
(And now I should not lie,) but will deserve,
For virtue and true beauty of the soul,
For honesty, and decent carriage,

A right good husband, let him be a noble;
And, sure, those men are happy that shall have

them.

The last is, for my men: they are the poorest,
But poverty could never draw them from me;-
That they may have their wages duly paid then
And something over to remember me by

If heaven had pleas'd to have given me longer life,
And able means, we had not parted thus.
These are the whole contents:-And, good my
lord,

By that you love the dearest in this world,

Stand these poor people's friend, and urge the king
As you wish christian peace to souls departed,
To do me this last right.

Cap.
By heaven, I will;
Or let me lose the fashion of a man!

In all humility unto his highness;
Kath. I thank you, honest lord. Remember me

Say, his long trouble now is passing
Out of this world: tell him, in death I bless'd him,
My lord.-Griffith, farewell.-Nay, Patience,
For so I will.-Mine eyes grow dim.-Farewell,
You must not leave me yet. I must to bed;
Call in more women.-When I am dead, good
wench,

Let me be us'd with honour; strew me over
With maiden flowers, that all the world may know
I was a chaste wife to my grave: embalm me,
Then lay me forth: although unqueen'd, yet like
A queen, and daughter to a king, inter me.
I can no more.-

[Exeunt, leading KATHARINE.

commending to him hir daughter and his, beseeching
him to stand good father unto hir; and further desired
him to have consideration of hir gentlewomen that had
Further, that it would please him to appoint that hir
served hir, and to see them bestowed in marriage.
servants might have their due wages, and a yeares
wages beside.' Holinshed, p. 939. This letter probably
fell into the hands of Polydore Virgil, who was then in
England, and has preserved it in the twenty-seventh
book of his history. Lord Herbert has given a translation
of it in his History of King Henry VIII.

the language of our ancestors, a representation or
4 Model, it has been already observed, signified, in
image. Thus in The London Prodigal, 1609 :-
'Dear copy of my husband! O let me kiss thee!"
[Kissing a picture-
5 Afterwards Queen Mary. 6 Even if he should be

ACT V.

SCENE I. A Gallery in the Palace. Enter GAR-
DINER, Bishop of Winchester, a Page with a
Torch before him, met by SIR THOMAS LOVELL.
Gar. It's one o'clock, boy, is't not?
Boy.

It hath struck.
Gar. These should be hours for necessities,
Not for delights: times to repair our nature
With comforting repose, and not for us
To waste these times.-Good hour of night, Sir
Thomas!

Whither so late?
Lov.
Came you from the king, my lord?
Gar. I did, Sir Thomas; and left him at pri-
mero2

With the duke of Suffolk.

Lov.
I must to him too,
Before he go to bed. I'll take my leave.

A most arch heretic, a pestilence
That does infect the land: with which they moved,
Have broken with the king; who hath so far
Given ear to our complaint (of his great grace
And princely care; foreseeing those fell mischiefs
Our reasons laid before him,) he hath commanded
To-morrow morning to the council board
He be convented. He's a rank weed, Sir Thomas,
And we must root him out. From your affairs,
I hinder you too long: good night, Sir Thomas.
Lov. Many good nights, my lord: I rest your
servant. [Exeunt GARDINER and Page.

As LOVELL is going out, enter the King, and the
DUKE of SUFfole.

K. Hen. Charles, I will play no more to-night;
My mind's not on't, you are too hard for me.
Suf. Sir, I did never win of you before.
K. Hen. But little, Charles;

Gar. Not yet, Sir Thomas Lovell. What's the Nor shall not, when my fancy's on my play.

matter?

It seems, you are in haste: an if there be

No great offence belongs to't, give your friend
Some touch of your late business: Affairs, that

walk

(As they say, spirits do) at midnight, have
In them a wilder nature, than the business
That seeks despatch by day.

Lov.
My lord, I love you;
And durst commed a secret to your ear
Much weightier than this work. The queen's in

labour,

They say, in great extremity; and fear'd
She'll with the labour end.

Gar.

The fruit, she goes with,
I pray for heartily; that it may find
Good time, and live; but for the stock, Sir Tho-

mas,

I wish it grubb'd up now.

Lov.
Methinks, I could
Cry the amen; and yet my conscience says
She's a good creature, and, sweet lady, does
Deserve our better wishes.

Gar.
But, sir, sir,-
Hear me, Sir Thomas: You are a gentleman
Of mine own way;4 I know you wise, religious;
And, let me tell you, it will ne'er be well,-
"Twill not, Sir Thomas Lovell, take't of me,
Till Cranmer, Cromwell, her two hands, and she,
Sleep in their graves.

Lov.
Now, sir, you speak of two
The most remark'd i' the kingdom. As for Crom-
well,-

Beside that of the jewel-house, he's made master
O' the rolls, and the king's secretary: further, sir,
Stands in the gap and trades of more preferments,
With which the time will load him: The arch-

bishop
Is the king's hand and tongue; And who dare
speak

One syllable against him?

Gar.

Yes, yes, Sir Thomas,
There are that dare; and I myself have ventur'd
To speak my mind of him: and, indeed, this day,
Sir, I may tell it you,) I think, I have
Incens'd the lords o' the council, that he is
(For so I know he is, they know he is)

1 Gardiner himself is not much delighted. The delights at which he hints seem to be the king's diversions, which keep him in attendance.

Now, Lovell, from the queen what is the news?
Lov. I could not personally deliver to her
What you commanded me, but by her woman
I sent your message: who return'd her thanks
In the greatest humbleness, and desir'd your high

others, only means instructed, informed: still in use in Staffordshire. It properly signifies to infuse into the 2 Primero, prime, or primavista. A game at cards, mind, to prompt or instigate. Invidia stimulo mentes said by some writers to be one of the oldest known in Patrum fodit Saturnia: Juno incenseth the senators* England. It is described by Duchat in his notes on Ra-minds with secret envy against,' &c.-Cooper. belais, Mr. Daines Barrington in the Archæologia, vol. 7 That is, have broken silence; told their minds to viii. p. 132, and more fully by Mr. Nares in his Glossary, the king. and in an Essay on the Origin of Playing Cards, 1916, to which our limits oblige us to refer the reader desirous of further information.

3 i. e. some hint of the business that keeps you awake so late.

4 Of mine own opinion in religion.

5 i. e. course or way. 'Iter pro incepto et instituto,

a way, trade or course.'-Cooper.

6 Incens'd or insensed in this instance, and in some

8 i. e. summoned, convened.

9 We have almost the same sentiment before in Act ii. Sc. 3:

it is a sufferance panging As soul and body's severing.'

10 The substance of this and the two following scenes is taken from Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Chris tian Martyrs, &c. 1533

11 i. e. luckily, opportunely. Vide note i, p. 146.