SANDS. I told your grace, they would talk anon. [Drum and trumpets within: chambers discharged. WOL. What's that? CHAM. Look out there, some of you. WOL. [Exit a Servant. What warlike voice? And to what end is this?-Nay, ladies, fear not; By all the laws of war you are privileg'd. Re-enter Servant. CHAM. How now? what is't? SERV. A noble troop of strangers; For so they seem: they have left their barge and landed; And hither make, as great ambassadors From foreign princes. WOL. Good lord chamberlain, Go, give them welcome, you can speak the French tongue; And, pray, receive them nobly, and conduct them, 9 - - chambers discharged.] A chamber is a gun which stande ered on its breech. Such are used only on occafions of rejoicing, and are so contrived as to carry great charges, and thereby to make a noise more than proportioned to their bulk. They are called chambers because they are mere chambers to lodge powder; a chamber being the technical term for that cavity in a piece of ordnance which contains the combustibles. Some of them are ftill fired in the Park, and at the places oppofite to the parliamenthouse when the king goes thither. Camden enumerates them among other guns, as follows: "-- cannons, demi-cannons, chambers, arquebuse, inusquet." Again, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, 1636 : Into our prefence, where this heaven of beauty Shall shine at full upon them: Some attend him. Exit Chamberlain, attended, All arife, and You have now a broken banquet; but we'll mend it. Hautboys. Enter the King, and twelve others, as Maskers, habited like Shepherds, with fixteen torchbearers; usher'd by the Lord Chamberlain. They pass directly before the Cardinal, and gracefully Salute him. A noble company! What are their pleasures? CHAM. Because they speak no English, thus they pray'd To tell your grace;-That, having heard by fame * Enter the King, and twelve others, as Maskers,] For an account of this masquerade see Holinshed, Vol. II. p. 921. STEEVENS. The account of this masquerade was first given by Cavendish, in his Life of Wolfey, which was written in the time of Queen Mary; from which Stowe and Holinshed copied it. Cavendish was himself present. Before the king, &c. began to dance, they requested leave (lays Cavendish) to accompany the ladies at mumchance. Leave being granted, "then went the masquers, and first saluted all the dames, and then returned to the most worthiest, and then opened the great cup of gold filled with crownes, and other pieces to caft at. Thus perusing all the gentlewomen, of some they wonne, and to some they loft. And having viewed all the ladies they returned to the Cardinal with great reverence, pouring downe all their gold, which was above two hundred crownes. At all, quoth the Cardinal, and cafting the die, he wonne it; whereat was made great joy. Life of Wolsey, p. 22, edit. 1641. MALONE. Out of the great respect they bear to beauty, An hour of revels with them. WOL. Say, lord, chamberlain, They have done my poor house grace; for which I pay them A thousand thanks, and pray them take their pleafures. [Ladies chofen for the dance. The King choofes ANNE BULLEN. K. HEN. The fairest hand I ever touch'd! O, beauty, Till now I never knew thee. WOL. My lord, CHAM. [Music. Dance, Your grace? WOL. Pray, tell them thus much from me: There should be one amongst them, by his person, More worthy this place than myself; to whom, If I but knew him, with my love and duty I would furrender it. CHAM. I will, my lord. [Cham. goes to the company, and returns. WOL. What say they? CHAM. Such a one, they all confefs, There is, indeed; which they would have your grace Find out, and he will take it. 4 WOL. Let me fee then. [Comes from his state. By all your good leaves, gentlemen ;- Here I'll make My royal choice. take it.] That is, take the chief place. JOHNSON. K. HEN. You have found him, cardinal:5 [Unmasking. You hold a fair affembly; you do well, lord: I should judge now unhappily. WOL. Your grace is grown so pleasant. I am glad, My lord chamberlain, Pr'ythee, come hither: What fair lady's that? CHAM. An't please your grace, fir Thomas Bul len's daughter, The viscount Rochford, one of her highness' women. K. HEN. By heaven, she is a dainty one. --Sweet heart, I were unmannerly, to take you out, "You have found him, cardinal:) Holinshed says the Cardinal miftook, and pitched upon fir Edward Neville; upon which the king laughed, and pulled off both his own mask and Sir Edward's. Edwards MSS. STEEVENS. ει 6-unhappily. That is, unluckily, mischievously. JOHNSON. So, in A merye Feste of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: in such manner colde he cloke and hyde his unhappineffe and falsneffe." STEEVENS. See Vol. VI. p. 266. n. g. MALONE. 7 I were unmannerly, to take you out, And not to kiss you.] A kiss was anciently the established fee of a lady's partner. So, in A Dialogue between Custom and Veritie, concerning the Ufe and Abuse of Dauncing and Minstrelfie, bl. 1. no date, Imprinted at London, at the long shop adjoining unto faint Mildred's church in the Pultrie, by John Allde:" "But some reply, what foole would daunce, "He may not have at laydes lips See Vol. IV. p. 41, n. 6, MALONE. WOL. Sir Thomas Lovel, is the banquet ready 1' the privy chamber? Lov. WOL. Yes, my lord. I fear, with dancing is a little heated. K. HEN. I fear, too much. In the next chamber. Your grace, There's fresher air, my lord, K. HEN. Lead in your ladies, every one. Sweet partner. I must not yet forsake you: - Let's be merry;- [Exeunt, with trumpets. This custom is ftill prevalent, among the country people, in many, perhaps all, parts of the kingdom. When the fiddler thinks his young couple have had mufick enough, he makes his instrument squeak out two notes which all understand to say-kiss her! 8 RITSON. a little heated.] The king on being discovered and defired by Wolfey to take his place, faid that he would "first go and shift him: and thereupon, went into the Cardinal's bedchamber, where was a great fire prepared for him, and there he new appareled himselfe with rich and princely garments. And in the king's absence the dishes of the banquet were cleane taken away, and the tables covered with new and perfumed clothes. - Then the king took his feat under the cloath of eftate, commanding every person to fit still as before; and then came in a new banquet before his majestie of two hundred dishes, and so they paffed the night in banqueting and dancing untill morning. "Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. MALONE. 9 Let the mufick knock it.] So, in Antonio and Mellida, Part I. 1602: "Fla. Faith, the song will seem to come off hardly. Fla. Pert Catzo, knock it then. STEEVENS. |