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Crom. The next is, that sir Thomas More is chosen

Lord chancellor in your place.

Wol.

That's somewhat sudden:

But he's a learned man. May he continue
Long in his highness' favour, and do justice.

For truth's sake, and his conscience; that his bones,
When he has run his course, and sleeps in blessings,
May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!1
What more?

Crom.

That Cranmer is return'd with welcome,

Install'd lord archbishop of Canterbury.
Wol. That's news indeed.
Crom.

Last, that the lady Anne',

Whom the king hath in secrecy long marry'd,
This day was view'd in open,2 as his queen,
Going to chapel; and the voice is now
Only about her coronation.

1 — a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!] The chancellor is the general guardian of orphans. A tomb of tears is very harsh. Johnson. This idea will appear not altogether indefensible to those who recollect the following epigram of Martial:

"Flentibus Heliadum ramis dum vipera serpit,
"Fluxit in obstantem succina gemma feram:
"Quæ dum miratur pingui se rore teneri,
"Concreto riguit vincta repente gelu.
"Ne tibi regali placeas Cleopatra sepulchro,
"Vipera si tumulo nobiliore jacet."

The Heliades certainly wept a tomb of tears over the viper. The same conceit, however, is found in Drummond of Hawthornden's Teares for the Death of Moeliades:

"The Muses, Phœbus, Love, have raised of their teares "A crystal tomb to him, through which his worth appeares." Steevens.

A similar conceit occurs in King Richard II, Act III, sc. iii. Henley. The old copy has-on him. The error, which probably arose from similitude of sounds, was corrected by Mr. Steevens. Malone. in open,] A Latinism, [in aperto] perhaps introduced by Ben Jonson, who is supposed to have tampered with this play. Et castris in aperto positis: Liv. I, 33, i. e. in a place exposed on all sides to view. Steevens.

2

Wol. There was the weight that pull'd me down. ✪
Cromwell,

The king has gone beyond me, all my glories
In that one woman I have lost for ever:

No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours,
Or gild again the noble troops that waited

Upon my smiles.3 Go, get thee from me, Cromwell;
I am a poor fallen nian, unworthy now

To be thy lord and master: Seek the king;
That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him
What, and how true thou art: he will advance thee;
Some little memory of me will stir him,

(I know his noble nature) not to let

Thy hopeful service perish too: Good Cromwell,
Neglect him not; make use now, and provide
For thine own future safety.

Crom.

O my lord,

3 Or gild again the noble troops that waited

Upon my smiles.] The number of persons who composed Car. dinal Wolsey's household, according to the printed account, was eight hundred. "When (says Cavendish, in his Life of Wolsey,) shall we see any more such subjects, that shall keepe such a noble house?-Here is an end of his houshold. The number of persons in the cheyne-roll [check-roll] were eight hundred persons."

But Cavendish's work, though written in the time of Queen Mary, was not published till 1641; and it was then printed most unfaithfully, some passages being interpolated, near half of the MS. being omitted, and the phraseology being modernised throughout, to make it more readable at that time; the covert object of the publication probably having been, to render Laud odious, by shewing how far church-power had been extended by Wolsey, and how dangerous that prelate was, who, in the opinion of many, followed his example. The persons who procured this publication, seem to have been little solicitous about the means they employed, if they could but obtain their end; and therefore, among other unwarrantable sophistications, they took care that the number" of troops who waited on Wolsey's smiles," should be sufficiently magnified; and, instead of ove hundred and eighty, which was the real number of his household, they printed eight hundred. This appears from two MSS. of this work in the Museum; MSS. Harl. No. 428, and MSS. Birch, 4233.

In another manuscript copy of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in the Publick Library at Cambridge, the number of the Cardinal's household, by the addition of a cypher, is made 1800. Malone.

4

·make use-] i. e. make interest. So, in Much Ado about Nothing:"- I gave him use for it." Steevens.

Must I then leave you? must I needs forego
So good, so noble, and so true a master?

Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron,
With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.-
The king shall have my service; but my prayers
For ever, and for ever, shall be yours.

Wol. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear
In all my miseries; but thou hast forc'd me
Out of thy honest truth to play the woman.
Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, Cromwell;
And,-when I am forgotten, as I shall be;

And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of,—say, I taught thee,
Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,—
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in;
A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it.
Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;5
By that sin fell the angels, how can man then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?
Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;'
Corruption wins not more than honesty.

5

fing away ambition;] Wolsey does not mean to condemn every kind of ambition; for in a preceding line he says he will instruct Cromwell how to rise, and in the subsequent lines he evidently considers him as a man in office: “— then if thou fall’st,” &c. Ambition here means a criminal and inordinate ambition, that endeavours to obtain honours by dishonest means.

6 By that sin fell the angels,] See p. 298, n. 8.

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Malone.
Steevens.

cherish those hearts that hate thee;] Though this be good divinity, and an admirable precept for our conduct in private life, it was never calculated or designed for the magistrate or publick minister. Nor could this be the direction of a man, experienced in affairs, to his pupil. It would make a good christian, but a very ill and very unjust statesman. And we have nothing so infamous in tradition, as the supposed advice given to one of our kings, to cherish his enemies, and be in no pain for his friends. I am of opinion the poet wrote:

cherish those hearts that wait thee;

i. e. thy dependants. For the contrary practice had contributed to Wolsey's ruin. He was not careful enough in making dependants by his bounty, while intent in amassing wealth to himself. The following line seems to confirm this correction:

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends, thou aim'st at, be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. Serve the king;
And, Pr'ythee, lead me in:

There take an inventory of all I have,

8

To the last penny; 'tis the king's: my robe,
And my integrity to heaven, is all.

I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell,
Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal9

i. e. You will never find men won over to your temporary occasions by bribery, so useful to you as friends made by a just and generous munificence. Warburton.

I am unwilling wantonly to contradict so ingenious a remark, but that the reader may not be misled, and believe the 'emendation proposed to be necessary, he should remember that this is not a time for Wolsey to speak only as a statesman, but as a christian. Shakspeare would have debased the character, just when he was employing his strongest efforts to raise it, had he drawn it otherwise. Nothing makes the hour of disgrace more irksome, than the reflection, that we have been deaf to offers of reconciliation, and perpetuated that enmity which we might have converted into friendship. Steevens.

8 · Pr'ythee, lead me in:

There take an inventory of all I have,] This inventory Wolsey actually caused to be taken upon his disgrace, and the particulars may be seen at large in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 546, edit. 1631.

Among the Harl. MSS. there is one intitled, "An Inventorie of Cardinal Wolsey's rich Housholde Stuffe. Temp. Hen. VIII, The original book, as it seems, kept by his own officers." See Harl. Catal. N°. 599. Douce.

9 Had I but serv'd my God &c.] This sentence was really uttered by Wolsey. Johnson.

When Samrah, the deputy governor of Basorah, was deposed by Moawiyah the sixth caliph, he is reported to have expressed himself in the same manner: "If I had served God so well as I have served him, he would never have condemned me to all eternity." A similar sentiment also occurs in The Earle of Murton's Tragedy, by Churchyard, 1593:

"Had I serv'd God as well in euery sort,

"As I did serue my king and maister still;

66

My scope had not this season beene so short,

"Nor world haue had the power to doe me ill." Steevens. Antonio Perez, the favorite of Philip the Second of Spain, made the same pathetick complaint: "Mon zele etoit si grand vers ses benignes puissances [la cour de Turin,] que si j'en eusse

I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
Crom. Good sir, have patience.
Wol.

The hopes of court! my hopes in heaven do dwell.

So I have. Farewel

[Exeunt.

ACT IV..... SCENE I.

A Street in Westminster.

Enter Two Gentlemen, meeting.

1 Gent. You are well met once again.1 2 Gent.

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And so are you.2 1 Gent. You come to take your stand here, and behold The lady Anne pass from her coronation?

2 Gent. 'Tis all my business. At our last encounter, The duke of Buckingham came from his trial.

1 Gent. 'Tis very true: but that time offer'd sorrow; This, general joy.

2 Gent.

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'Tis well: The citizens, I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds;

eu autant pour Dieu, je ne doubte point qu'il ne m'eut deja recompensé de son paradis." Malone.

This was a strange sentence for Wolsey to utter, who was disgraced for the basest treachery to his King in the affair of the divorce: but it shows how naturally men endeavour to palliate their crimes even to themselves. M. Mason.

There is a remarkable affinity between these words and part of the speech of Sir James Hamilton, who was supposed, by King James V, thus to address him in a dream: "Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God, as I was to thee, I had not died that death." Pinscottie's History of Scotland, p. 261, edit. 1788, 12mo.

Douce.

1- once again,] Alluding to their former meeting in the second Act. Johnson.

2 And so are you.] The conjunction-And was supplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer, to complete the measure. Steevens.

3

their royal minds;] i. e. their minds well affected to their King. Mr. Pope unnecessarily changed this word to loyal. In King Henry IV, Part II, we have "royal faith," that is, faith due VOL. XI.

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