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Became the next day's master, till the last
Made former wonders it's: 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 luftre, were now best, now worst,
As prefence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'Twas faid, they saw but one; and no difcerner
Durst wag his tongue in cenfure. When these suns

Before this time all pompous shows were exhibited by one prince only. On this occafion the Kings of England and France vied with each other. To this circumstance Norfolk alludes. M. MASON.

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Each following day

Became the next day's master, &c.] Dies diem docet. Every day learned fomething from the preceding, till the concluding day collected all the fplendor of all the former shows. JOHNSON.

1 All clinquant, All glittering, all shining. Clarendon uses this word in his description of the Spanish Juego de Toros.

JOHNSON.

It is likewise used in A Memorable Masque, &c. performed before King James at Whitehall in 1613, at the marriage of the Palsgrave and Princess Elizabeth:

"his buskins clinquant as his other attire."

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STEEVENS

"So match'd, as each feem'd worthiest when alone."

JOHNSON.

9 Durst wag his tongue in censure.] Cenfure for determination, of

which had the noblest appearance. WARBURTON.

See Vol. III. p. 179, n. 5. MALONE.

(For so they phrase them,) by their heralds chal

leng'd The noble spirits to arms, they did perform Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous

story,

Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd.2

BUCK.

O, you go far.

3

NOR. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honesty, the tract of every thing Would by a good discourser lose some life, Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal; 4 To the disposing of it nought rebell'd, Order gave each thing view; the office did Distinctly his full function.s

BUCK.

Who did guide,

I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?

2 That Bevis was believ'd.] The old romantic legend of Bevis of Southampton. This Bevis (or Beavois) a Saxon, was for his prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton: of whom Camden in his Britannia. THEOBALD.

3

the tract of every thing &c.] The course of these triumphs and pleasures, however well related, must lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which were expressed in the real action. JOHNSON.

4

All was royal; &c.] This speech was given in all the editions to Buckingham; but improperly. For he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the folemnity. I have therefore given it to Norfolk. WARBURTON.

The regulation had already been made by Mr. Theobald.

5 -the office did

MALONE.

Diftin&ly his full function.] The commission for regulating this festivity was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular perfon and action the proper place. JOHNSON.

Nor. One, certes, that promises no element

In fuch a business.
BUCK.

I pray you, who, my lord?

NOR. All this was order'd by the good difcretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York.

BUCK. The devil speed him! no man's pie is

free'd

8

From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities?? I wonder,

That such a keech can with his very bulk

6-certes,

An obfolete adverb, fignifying-certainly, in

truth. So, in The Tempest:

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For, certes, these are people of the ifland." It occurs again in Othello, Act I. fc. i. STEEVENS.

1 - element-] No initiation, no previous practices. Elements are the first principles of things, or rudiments of knowledge. The word is here applied, not without a catachrefis, to a person.

8 - no man's pic is free'd

JOHNSON.

From his ambitious finger.] To have a finger in the pie, is a proverbial phrafe. See Ray, 244. REED.

9

fierce vanities?] Fierce is here, I think, used like the French fier for proud, unless we suppose an allusion to the mimical ferocity of the combatants in the tilt. JOHNSON.

It is certainly used as the French word fier. So, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, the puritan says, the hobby horse " is a fierco and rank idol." STEEVENS.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

Thy violent vanities can never last."

In Timon of Athens, we have

"O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!"

MALONE.

2 That fuch a keech-] A keech is a folid lump or mass. A cake of wax or tallow formed in a mould, is called yet in fome places, a keech. JOHNSON.

There may, perhaps, be a fingular propriety in this term of contempt. Wolfey was the son of a butcher, and in the Second Part of King Henry IV. a butcher's wife is called-Goody Keech.

1

1

Take up the rays o' the beneficial fun,
And keep it from the earth.

NOR.
Surely, fir,
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends :
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, (whose grace
Chalks fucceffors their way,) nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither ally'd
To eminent assistants, but, spider-like,

Out of his felf-drawing web, he gives 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.

ABER.

3

I cannot tell

What heaven hath given him, let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Out of his felf-drawing web, Thus it stands in the first edition. The latter editors, by injudicious correction, have printed:

Out of his felf-drawn web. JOHNSON.

2 he gives us note,] Old copy-O gives us, &c. Corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

3 A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys

A place next to the king.] It is evident a word or two in the sentence is mifplaced, and that we should read:

A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him
A place next to the king. WARBURTON.

It is full as likely that Shakspeare wrote:
gives to him,

which will fave any greater alteration. JOHNSON.

I am too dull to perceive the neceffity of any change. What he is unable to give himself, heaven gives or depofits for him, and that gift, or depofit, buys a place, &c. STEEVENS.

I agree with Johnfon that we should read:
A gift that heaven gives to him:

for Abergavenny fays in reply,

"I cannot tell

"What heaven hath given him:"

which confirms the justness of this amendment. I should otherwise have thought Steevens's explanation right. M. MASON.

Peep through each part of him: 4 Whence has he

that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

BUCK.

Why the devil,

Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the files

Of all the gentry; for the most part such
Too, whom as great a charge as little honour

He meant to lay upon: and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,

Must fetch him in he papers."

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- I can see his pride

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Peep through each part of him:] So, in Troilus and Creffida:

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her wanton spirits look out

" At every joint and motive of her body." STEEVENS.

the file] That is, the lift. JOHNSON.

So, in Meafure for Measure: "The greater file of the subject

held the duke for wife." Again, in Macbeth:

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"I have a file

" Of all the gentry-." STEEVENS.

council out,] Council not then fitting. JOHNSON.

The expreffion rather means, "all mention of the board of council being left out of his letter." STEEVENS.

That is, left out, omitted, unnoticed, unconfulted with. RITSON.

It appears from Holinshed, that this expreffion is rightly explained by Mr. Pope in the next note: without the concurrence of the council. "The peers of the realme receiving letters to prepare themselves to attend the king in this journey, and no apparent necessarie cause expressed, why or wherefore, seemed to grudge that fuch a coftly journey should be taken in hand-without confent of the whole boarde of the Counsaille." MALONE.

Must fetch him in he papers.) He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch in him whom he papers down. I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning. POPE.

Wolfey published a list of the several persons whom he had ap

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