Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Come pat betwixt too early and too late,
For any suit of pounds: and you, (O fate!)
A very fresh-fish here, (fye, fye upon

This compell❜d fortune!) have your mouth fill'd up, Before you open it.

ANNE.

This is strange to me.

OLD L. How tastes it? is it bitter? forty pence,

no 2.

There was a lady once, ('tis an old story,)

That would not be a queen, that would she not, For all the mud in Egypt:-Have you heard it? ANNE. Come, you are pleasant.

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
Is longer than his foreskirt. By this time,

I know, your back will bear a duchess ;-Say,
Are you not stronger than you were?

2

is it bitter? FORTY PENCE, no.] Mr. Roderick, in his appendix to Mr. Edwards's book, proposes to read:

66

for two-pence,

[ocr errors]

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." Again, in Green's Groundwork of Coneycatching: 66 - wagers 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 :

66

Nay, that I will not for forty pence." STEEVENS.

3 For all the MUD in Egypt :] The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and slime of the Nile.

STEEVENS.

ANNE.

Good lady,

Make yourself mirth with your particular fancy,
And leave me out on't. 'Would I had no being,
If this salute my blood a jot; it faints me,
To think what follows.

The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful
In our long absence: Pray, do not deliver
What here you have heard, to her.
OLD L.

What do you think me?
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Hall in Black-fryars.

Trumpets, Sennet1, and Cornets.

Enter Two Vergers, with short Silver Wands; next them, Two

4-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:

66

66

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 approach. I have likewise been informed, (as is elsewhere noted,) that senestie is the name of an antiquated French tune." See Julius Cæsar, Act I. 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. Part III. after the King and the Duke of York have entered into a compact in the parliament-house, we find this marginal 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, 'Sennet on cornets.'

In Marlowe's King Edward II. we find "Cornets sound a signate."

Senet or signate was undoubtedly nothing more than a flourish

Scribes, 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

6

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:

"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, xii d.

"Item. Paid unto the clerk of the Senette, 40 s." MALONE. 5 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.

6 - Pillars ;] Pillars were some of the ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Sir Thomas Móre, 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 edition 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 rydeth two prestes stronge:
"And they bear two crosses right longe,

66

Gapynge in every man's face :

"After them folowe two laye men secular,

"And each of theym holdyn a pillar,

"In their hondes steade of a mace." STEEVENS.

after them, side by side, the two Cardinals WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS; two Noblemen with the Sword and Mace. Then enter the King and Queen, and their Trains. The King takes place under the cloth of state; the two Cardinals sit under him as judges. The Queen takes place at some distance from the King. The Bishops place themselves on each side the court, in manner of a consistory; between them, the Scribes. The Lords sit next the Bishops. The Crier and the rest of the Attendants stand in convenient order about the stage.

WOL. Whilst our commission from Rome is read, Let silence be commanded.

K. HEN.

What's the need?

It hath already publickly been read,
And on all sides the authority allow'd;
You may then spare that time.

WOL.
Be't so:-Proceed.
SCRIBE. Say, Henry king of England, come into
the court.

CRIER. Henry King of England, &c.

At the end of Fiddes's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, is a curious letter of 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 whithersoever 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 the token of a cardinal, and perhaps he bore the other pillar as an archbishop. TOLLET.

One of Wolsey's crosses certainly denoted his being Legate, as the other was borne before him either as cardinal or archbishop. "On the day of the same moneth (says Hall) the cardinall removed out of his house called Yorke-place, with one crosse, saying, that he would he had never borne more, meaning that by hys crosse which he bore as legate, which degree-taking was his confusion." Chron. Henry VIII. 101, b. MALONE.

[ocr errors]

K. HEN. Here.

SCRIBE. Say, Katharine queen of England, come into court.

CRIER. Katharine, queen of England, &c.

[The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court', comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks.]

Q. KATH. Sir, I desire you, do me right and justice R;

8

And to bestow your pity on me: for

I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
In what have I offended you? what cause
Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure,
That thus you should proceed to put me off,
And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness,
I have been to you a true and humble wife,
At all times to your will conformable 9:
Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,

Yea, subject to your countenance; glad, or sorry,
As I saw it inclin'd. When was the hour,

I ever contradicted your desire,

7 goes about the court,] "Because (says Cavendish) she could not come to the king directlie, for the distance severed between them." MALONE.

8 Sir, I desire you, do me right and justice ; &c.] This speech of the Queen, and the King's reply, are taken from Holinshed, with the most trifling variations. STEEVENS.

9 At all times to your will CONFORMABLE:] The character Queen Katharine here prides herself for, is given to another Queen in The Historie of the Uniting of the Kingdom of Portugall to the Crowne of Castill, fo. 1600, p. 238: “ at which time Queene Anne his wife fell sicke of a rotten fever, the which in few daies brought her to another life; wherewith the King was much grieved, being a lady wholly conformable to his humour." REED.

« AnteriorContinua »