now,

That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
We now present. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree

The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry, bawdy play,
A noise of targets; or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow,

To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
(To make that only true we now intend,)
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness' sake, and, as you are
known

The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make you: Think, ye see
The very persons of our noble story,
As they were living; think, you see them great,
And follow'd with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery!
And if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK, at one door; at the other, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, and the LORD ABERGAVENNY.

Buck. Good morrow, and well met. How have you done,

Since last we saw in France?

Nor.
I thank your grace:
Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

Buck.
An untimely ague
Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.a

a Andren. So the original; so the Chroniclers. But the modern editors write the vale of Arde." "Arde, or Ardres, is the town, which in the next line is spelt Arde in the original. Andren, or Ardren, is the village near the place of meeting.

Nor.

I was then present,

back;

"Twixt Guynes and Arde: saw them salute on horse

Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement as they grew together;
Which had they, what four thron'd ones could
have weigh'd

Such a compounded one?
Buck.

All the whole time
I was my chamber's prisoner.

Nor. Then you lost The view of earthly glory: Men might say, Till this time pomp was single, but now married To one above itself. Each following day Became the next day's master, till the last Made former wonders its: To-day, the French, All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods, Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they

Made Britain, India: every man that stood
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: Now this mask
Was cry'd incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool, and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
"Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these

Censure comparison.

b It is usual, contrary to the original, to give to Norfolk the sentence beginning "all was royal," and then make Buckingham ask the question, "who did guide?" &c. Theobald made the change, and Warburton says it was improperly given to Buckingham, "for he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the solemnity." But what information does he communicate? After the eloquent description by Norfolk of the various shows of the pageant, he makes a general observation that "order" must have presided over these complicated arrangements-" gave each thing view." He then asks," who did guide ?"-who made the body and the limbs work together? Norfolk then answers "as you guess;"-(which words have been transferred to Buckingham by the revisers of the text) - according to your guess, one did guide:-" one, certes," &c.

Element-constituent quality of mind. Thus in Twelfth Night (Act II., Se. Iv.) Malvolio says, "Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element."

To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun,
And keep it from the earth.

Surely, sir,

Nor. There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends: For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon For high feats done to the crown; neither allied To eminent assistants; but, spider-like, Out of his self-drawing web,-O! give 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.b

Aber. I cannot tell What heaven hath given him, let some graver

"spider-like,

Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him," &c.

"O! give us note," the original reading, is one of Shakspere's happy parentheses to break a long sentence, and meaning only, mark what I say. The whole speech is intended to render the ironical close emphatic. Wolsey is without ancestry, without the credit of great service, without eminent assistants; but, spider-like, deriving everything from himself, the force of his own self-sustained merit makes his way -his course-his good fortune-a gift from heaven, which buys, &c. If we were to receive the passage in the sense of the revisers of the text, we ought to read "his own merit makes its way." To "make way," in Shakspere, is to go away, as in the Taming of the Shrew :

"While I make way from hence to save my life."

To make way, in the colloquial sense of to get on in the world, is, we think, a forced and unauthorised meaning of the words before us. That Wolsey should give note that he made his way only by his own merit would have been utterly at variance with the stately pomp and haughtiness of his ambition.

ACT I.]

He meant to lay upon

and his own letter, (The honourable board of council out,) Must fetch him in he papers."

(And take it from a heart that wishes towards you Honour and plenteous safety,) that you read The cardinal's malice and his potency Together to consider further, that What his high hatred would effect wants not A minister in his power: You know his nature, That he's revengeful; and I know his sword Hath a sharp edge: it's long, and 't may be said,

It reaches far; and where `t will not extend, Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel, You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes

Aber.

Is it therefore

1 Secr.

This is ordinarily read,

"for the most part such, Too, whom," &c.

To, the preposition of the original, appeared to the editors a redundancy, because we have "lay upm." But if lay upon has not here the force of a compound verb, examples of redundant prepositions are most common in Shakspere; for example, in Coriolanus:

"In what commodity is Marcius poor in ?" The feeble expletive too, with its unmetrical pause, appears to us a corruption, though unnoticed altogether by the edi

tors.

The construction of this passage is difficult; the meaning is in Holinshed: "The peers of the realm, receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent necessary cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that such a costly journey should be taken in hand, without consent of the whole board of the council." In Wolsey's letter the "board of council" was "out"-omitted; the letter alone "must fetch him in [whom] he papers"-whom he sets down in the paper. Ben Jonson in his English Grammar' gives examples of a similar want of the relative," adding, "in Greek and Latin this want were barbarous." Amongst other instances he has the passage of the 118th Psalm-" the stone the builders refused"-a parallel case with the sentence before

us.

Shall lessen this big look.

[Exeunt WOLSEY, and Train. Buck. This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd,