?

8

Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the king our master
To this last costly treaty, the interview,
That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass

Did break i' the rinfing.

NOR.

'Faith, and so it did.

BUCK Pray, give me favour, fir. This cunning

cardinal

The articles o' the combination drew,
As himself pleas'd; and they were ratify'd.
As he cry'd, Thus let be: to as much end,

As give a crutch to the dead: But our count-car

dinal 9

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolfey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
To the old dam, treason,)-Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,
(For 'twas, indeed, his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolfey,) here makes visitation:
His fears were, that the interview, betwixt
England and France, might, through their amity,
Breed him fome prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: He privily *

represents as highly corrupt; and yet he supposes the contagion of the place of first minifter as adding an infection to it.

8

WARBURTON.

suggests the king our master - Suggests, for excites.

So, in King Richard II:

9

WARBURTON.

Suggest his foon-believing adversaries." STEEVENS. our count cardinal-) Wolfey is afterwards called king cardinal. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-court-cardinal. MALONE.

2

he privily] He, which is not in the original copy,

was added by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow, -
Which I do well; for, I am fure, the emperor
Pay'd ere he promis'd; whereby his fuit was granted,
Ere it was afk'd; but when the way was made,
And pav'd with gold, the emperor thus defir'd ;-
That he would please to alter the king's course,
And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know,
(As foon he shall by me,) that thus the cardinal
Does buy and fell his honour as he pleases,
And for his own advantage.

3

To hear this of him; and could wish, he were
Something mistaken in't.4

BUCK.

No, not a fyllable;

I do pronounce him in that very shape,

He shall appear in proof.

Enter BRANDON; a Sergeant at arms before him, and two or three of the guard.

BRAN. Your office, sergent; execute it.

SERG.

My lord the duke of Buckingham, and earl
Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I

Sir,

Does buy and sell his honour as he pleafes, This was a pro

verbial expreffion. See King Richard III. Ad V. fc. iii.

The fame phrase occurs also in King Henry VI. Part I: " from bought and fold lord Talbot."

MALONE.

Again, in The Comedy of Errors: "It would make a man as mad as a buck, to be so bought and fold." STEEVENS.

Something mistaken in't.) That is, that he were something different from what he is taken or supposed by you to be. MALONE.

1

Arrest thee of high treason, in the name

Of our most sovereign king.

BUCK.

The net has fall'n upon me;
Under device and practice. 5

BRAN.

Lo you, my lord,
I shall perish

I am forry
To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on
The business present: 'Tis his highness' pleasure,

You shall to the Tower.

BUCK.
It will help me nothing,
To plead mine innocence; for that die is on me,
Which makes my whitest part black. The will of

heaven

Be done in this and all things!-I obey.-
O my lord Aberga'ny, fare you well.

BRAN. Nay, he must bear you company: The
[To ABERGAVENNY.

king

Is pleas'd, you shall to the Tower, till you know
How he determines further.

ABER.

As the duke faid,

The will of heaven be done, and the king's plea

: fure

By me obey'd.

BRAN.

Here is a warrant from

The king, to attach lord Montacute; ' and the bodies

practice,] i. e, unfair stratagem. So, in Othello, A& V:

" Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave."

And in this play, Surry, speaking of Wolfey, says:

"How came his practices to light?" REED,

• I am Sorry

To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on
The business present:]

1 am forry that I am obliged to be

present and an eye-witness of your loss of liberty. JOHNSON.

7

lord Montacute;) This was Henry Pole, grandfon to George Duke of Clarence, and eldeft brother to Cardinal Pole.

Of the duke's confefsfor, John de la Court,
One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor,

BUCK.

So, fo;

These are the limbs of the plot: No more, I hope.

BRAN. A monk o' the Chartreux.

BUCK.

BRAN.

O, Nicholas Hopkins??

He,

1

BUCK. My surveyor is false; the o'er-great car

dinal

Hath show'd him gold: my life is spann'd already :3
I am the shadow of poor Buckingham;

He had married the Lord Abergavenny's daughter.
He was
restored to favour at this juncture, but was afterwards executed for
another treason in this reign.

8

REED.

John de la Court, ] The name of this monk of the Chartreux was John de la Car, alias de la Court. See Holinshed, p. 863. STEEVENS.

t

9 One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor,) The old copies have ithis counfellor; but I, from the authorities of Hall and Holinshed, changed it to chancellor. And our poet himself, in the beginning of the fecond act, vouches for this correction:

"At which, appear'd against him his surveyor,
"Sir Gilbert Peck, his chancellor." THEOBALD.

I believe [in the former instance) the author wrote - And
Gilbert &c. MALONE.

2

Nicholas Hopkins?] The old copy has - Michael Hopkins: Mr. Theobald made the emendation, conformably to the Chronicle: "Nicholas Hopkins, a monk of an house of the Chartreux order, beside Bristow, called Henton." In the MS. Nich. only was probably set down, and mistaken for Mich. MALONE.

3

my life is spann'd already:] To span is to gripe, or inclofe in the hand; to span is also to measure by the palm and fingers. The meaning, therefore, may either be, that hold is taken of my life, my life is in the gripe of my enemies; or, that my time is meafured, the length of my life is now determined. JOHNSON.

Man's life in Scripture is faid to be but a span long. Probably therefore it means, when 'tis spann'd 'tis ended. REED.

Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,
By dark'ning my clear fun. -My lord, farewell.

[Exeunt.

I am the Shadow of poor Buckingham;

Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,

By darkning my clear fun.] These lines have passed all the editors. Does the reader understand them? By me they are inexplicable, and must be left, I fear, to some happier sagacity. If the usage of our author's time could allow figure to be taken, as now, for dignity or importance, we might read:

Whose figure even this instant cloud puts out.

But I cannot please myself with any conjecture.
Another explanation may be given, somewhat harsh, but the
best that occurs to me:

I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,

Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,

whose port and dignity is assumed by the cardinal, that overclouds and oppresses me, and who gains my place

By darkning my clear fun. JOHNSON.

Perhaps Shakspeare has expressed the same idea more clearly in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Antony and Cleopatra, and King John:

"O, how this spring of love resembleth

" Th' uncertain glory of an April day,

"Which now shows all the beauty of the fun,

"And, by and by, a cloud takes all away.

Antony remarking on the various appearances assumed by the flying

vapours, adds:

"Even such a body: here I am Antony,

"But cannot hold this visible shape, my knave."

Or yet more appofitely in King John:

- being but the thadow of your fon

" Becomes a fun, and makes your son a shadow."

Such another thought occurs in the famous History of Tho. Stukely, 1605:

"He is the fubftance of my shadowed love."

There is likewife a paffage similar to the conclufion of this, in

Rollo, or the Bloody Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher:

is drawn so high, that, like an ominous comet,

" He darkens all your light."

We might, however, read-pouts on; i. e. looks gloomily upon. So, in Coriolonus, Act V. fc. i:

1