Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself
As you would to your friend.

Buck.
I'll to the king:
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim
There's difference in no persons.

Nor.
Be advis'd.
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: We may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not
The fire that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In seeming to augment it, wastes it? Be advis'd:
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself;
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.

30

(For 't was, indeed, his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolsey,) here makes visitation:
His fears were, that the interview betwixt
England and France might, through their amity,
Breed him some prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: He privily
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor
Paid ere he promis'd; whereby his suit was
granted

Ere it was ask'd;-but when the way was made,
And pav'd with gold, the emperor thus desir'd,
That he would please to alter the king's course,
And break the foresaid peace. Let the king

'Faith, and so it did.

Nor. Buck. Pray, give me favour, sir. This cunning cardinal

The articles o' the combination drew

As himself pleas'd; and they were ratified,
As he cried, Thus let be: to as much end,
As give a crutch to the dead: But our count-
cardinal

Has done this, and 't is well; for worthy Wolsey,
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,

The business present: "Tis his highness' plea

John de la Car-the name of the original and of the Chronicles; but ordinarily printed John de la Court.

Michael Hopkins. So the original. The same personthe "Chartreux friar"-is in the next scene called by "the Surveyor" Nicholas Henton: in both these passages the name is changed by the modern editors to Nicholas Hopkins. Some confusion is probably saved by this; but we also think that the poet might intend Buckingham to give the Nicholas Hopkins of the Chronicles' a wrong Christian-name in his precipitation; and that the Surveyor might call him by his more formal surname, Nicholas Henton-Nicholas of Henton -to which convent he belonged. With this explanation we retain the original text, in both cases.

This passage is not easy to be understood. Is the comparison a single or a double one? Douce says it is double : "Buckingham is first made to say that he is but a shadow; in other terms a dead man. He then adverts to the sudden cloud of misfortune that overwhelms him, and, like a shadow, obscures his prosperity." Johnson treats the comparison as single: "I am the shadow of poor Buckingham, whose post and dignity is assumed by the cardinal that overclouds and oppresses me, and who gains my place by darkening my clear sun." Offering another explanation, Johnson would read puts out; and Steevens inclines to pouts on. We think the comparison is continuous, though not exactly single: I am the shadow of poor Buckingham-Buckingham is no longer a reality-but even this figure of himself is absorbed, annihilated, by the instant cloud. The metaphor, however, forgets that

"the shadow proves the substance true.”

He shall again relate.

The KING takes his State. The Lords of the Council take their several places. The CARDINAL places himself under the KING's feet, on his right side.

A noise within, crying, Room for the Queen! Enter the QUEEN, ushered by the DUKES OF NORFOLK and SUFFOLK: she kneels. The KING riseth from his State, takes her up, kisses, and placeth her by him.

Q. Kath. Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a suitor.

K. Hen. Arise, and take place by us :-Half your suit

Never name to us; you have half our power;
The other moiety, ere you ask, is given;
Repeat your will, and take it.

Q. Kath.

Thank your majesty.

Q. Kath. I am solicited, not by a few, And those of true condition, that your subjects Are in great grievance: there have been commissions

Sent down among them, which have flaw'd the heart

Of all their loyalties:wherein, although,
My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter-on

Of these exactions, yet the king our master,
(Whose honour heaven shield from soil!) even
he escapes not

Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
In loud rebellion.
Nor.

Not almost appears,

It doth appear: for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger,
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And Danger serves among them.a
K. Hen.
Taxation!
Wherein? and what taxation?-My lord car-
dinal,

Danger is often personified by our old poets.

doubted,

Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when

we,

Almost with ravish'd list'ning, could not find
His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall
hear

(This was his gentleman in trust) of him
Things to strike honour sad.-Bid him recount
The fore-recited practices; whereof
We cannot feel too little, hear too much.

Wol. Stand forth; and with bold spirit relate what you,

Most like a careful subject, have collected
Out of the duke of Buckingham.

'T would prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk: 'that oft,' says he,
Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour
To hear from him a matter of some moment:
Whom after under the confession's seal
He solemnly had sworn, that, what he spoke,
My chaplain to no creature living, but
To me, should utter, with demure confidence
This pausingly ensued-Neither the king, nor
his heirs,

(Tell you the duke) shall prosper: bid him strive To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke Shall govern England.'

Q. Kath. If I know you well, You were the duke's surveyor, and lost your office

On the complaint o' the tenants: Take good heed You charge not in your spleen a noble person, And spoil your nobler soul! I say, take heed; Yes, heartily beseech you.

And never see the Louvre.
Lov.
They must either
(For so run the conditions,) leave those remnants
Of fool, and feather, that they got in France,
With all their honourable points of ignorance,
Pertaining thereunto, (as fights, and fireworks;
Abusing better men than they can be,
Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis and tall stockings,
Short blister'd breeches, and those types of travel,
And understand again like honest men;
Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it,
They may, cum privilegio, wear away

The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at. Sands. 'Tis time to give them physic, their diseases

And have an hour of hearing; and, by 'r lady, Held current music too.

Cham. Well said, lord Sands; Your colt's tooth is not cast yet. Sands.

Nor shall not, while I have a stump.

Cham.

Whither were you a going?

Lov.

Your lordship is a guest too,

No, my lord;

Sir Thomas,

To the cardinal's;