(For so they phrase them,) by their heralds chal

leng'd The noble spirits to arms, they did perform Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous

story,

Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd. 2

BUCK.

O, you go far.

NOR. As I belong to worship, and affect
In honour honesty, the tract of every thing
Would by a good discourser lose some life,
Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal;4
To the disposing of it nought rebell'd,
Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function.

BUCK.
Who did guide,
I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?

• That Bevis was believ'd. The old romantic legend of Bevis of Southampton. This Bevis (or Beavois) a Saxon, was for his prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton: of whom Camden in his Britannia. THEOBALD.

3

the tract of every thing &c.] The course of these triumphs and pleasures, however well related, muft lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which were expressed in the real adion. JOHNSON.

4

All was royal; &c.) This speech was given in all the editions to Buckingham; but improperly. For he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the folemnity. I have therefore given it to Norfolk. WARBURTON.

The regulation had already been made by Mr. Theobald.

the office did

MALONE.

Distinctly his full function.] The commission for regulating this feftivity was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular person and action the proper place. JOHNSON.

1

6

NOR. One, certes, that promises no element

In fuch a business.

BUCK.

I pray you, who, my lord? NOR. As this was order'd by the good difcretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York.

BUCK. The devil speed him! no man's pie is

free'd

From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder,
That fuch

6

---

a

2

keech can with his very bulk

certes,] An obsolete adverb, signifying - certainly, in truth. So, in The Tempest:

"For, certes, these are people of the island." It occurs again in Othello, A& I. fc. i. STEEVENS.

7

-

element- No initiation, no previous practices. Elements are the first principles of things, or rudiments of knowledge. The word is here applied, not without a catachrefis, to a person.

no man's pie is free'd

JOHNSON.

From his ambitious finger.] To have a finger in the pie, is a proverbial phrase. See Ray, 244. REED.

9

fierce vanities? Fierce is here, I think, used like the French fier for proud, unless we suppose an allusion to the mimical ferocity of the combatants in the tilt. JOHNSON.

It is certainly used as the French word fier. So, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, the puritan says, the hobby horse " is a fierce and rank idol." STEEVENS.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :

"Thy violent vanities can never laft."

In Timon of Athens, we have

2

"O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!"

MALONE,

That fuch a keech - ) A keech is a folid lump or mass. A cake of wax or tallow formed in a mould, is called yet in some places, a keech. JOHNSON.

There may, perhaps, be a fingular propriety in this term of contempt. Wolsey was the son of a butcher, and in the Second Part of King Henry IV. a butcher's wife is called - Goody Keech.

STEEVENS.

1

Take up the rays o' the beneficial fun,
And keep it from the earth.

NOR.
Surely, fir,
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends:
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, (whose grace
Ghalks fucceffors their way,) nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither ally'd
To eminent assistants, but, spider-like,
Out of his felf-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

2

What heaven hath given him, let some graver eye Pierce into that; but I can fee his pride

9 Out of his felf-drawing web,] Thus it ftands in the first edition. The latter editors, by injudicious correction, have printed:

2

Out of his felf-drawn web. JOHNSON.

he gives us note, Old copy - O gives us, &c. Corre&ed by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys

A place next to the king. It is evident a word or two in the

sentence is misplaced, and that we should read:

A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him
A place next to the king. WARBURTON.

It is full as likely that Shakspeare wrote:
gives to him, --

which will fave any greater alteration. JOHNSON.

I am too dull to perceive the neceffity of any change. What he is unable to give himself, heaven gives or depofits for him, and that gift, or depofit, buys a place, &c. STEEVENS.

I agree with Johnson that we should read:

A gift that heaven gives to him:

for Abergavenny says in reply, "I cannot tell

"What heaven hath given him: " which confirms the juftness of this amendment. wife have thought Steevens's explanation right.

I should other M. MASON.

Peep through each part of him: 4 Whence has he

that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

BUCK.

Why the devil,

Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
Of all the gentry; for the most part such
Too, whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out, 6

Must fetch him in he papers.

4

I can see his pride

5

Peep through each part of him:) So, in Troilus and Creffida:

her wanton spirits look out

"At every joint and motive of her body."

STEEVENS.

6

council out, Council not then fitting. JOHNSON.

The expression rather means, "all mention of the board of council being left out of his letter." STEEVENS.

That is, left out, omitted, unnoticed, unconfulted with. RITSON. It appears from Holinshed, that this expression is rightly explained by Mr. Pope in the next note: without the concurrence of the council. "The peers of the realme receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent neceffarie cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that such a costly journey should be taken in hand - without consent of the whole boarde of the Counfaille. MALONE.

Must fetch him in he papers.) He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch in him whom he papers down. - I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning. POPE.

Wolfey published a lift of the several persons whom he had ABER.

I do know

Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have

By this so ficken'd their estates, that never

They shall abound as formerly.

BUCK.

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on them For this great journey." What did this vanity,

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?*

)

appointed to attend on the king at this interview. See Hall's Chronicle, Rymer's Federa, Tom. XIII. &c. STEEVENS.

I Have broke their backs with laying manors on them

For this great journey. ) In the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, but apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. there seems to have been a similar stroke aimed at this expensive expedition:

Pryde. I am unhappy, I se it well,
" For the expence of myne apparell

"Towardys this vyage

"What in horses and other aray

" Hath compelled me for to lay

" All my land to mortgage." STEEVENS.

So, in King John:

" Rash, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,
" Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs,
"To make a hazard of new fortunes here."

Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605:

"There was a nobleman

merrily conceited, and riotously given, that having lately fold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, saying, am not I a mighty man that beare an hundred houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So also, Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy: 'Tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a fute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back. "

1634, p. 482. WHALLEY.

8 What did this vanity,

But minifter &c.]

}

Edit.

What effe& had this pompous show, but

the production of a wretched conclusion. JOHNSON.

1