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 discretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York.

BUCK. The devil fpeed 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 Tempeft:

66

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

7-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 perfon. JOHNSON.

8 no man's pie is free'd 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 fuppofe an allufion to the mimical ferocity of the combatants in the tilt. JOHNSON.

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

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

66

Thy violent vanities can never last.”

In Timon of Athens, we have

"O the fierce wretchednefs 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. Wolley was the fon of a butcher, and in the Second Part of King Henry IV. a butcher's wife is called-Goody Keech.

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 affiftants, but, fpider-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.3

ABER. I cannot tell What heaven hath given him, let fome graver eye Pierce into that; but I can fee his pride

9 Out of his felf-drawing web,] Thus it ftands in the first edition. The latter editors, by injudicious correction, have printed: Out of his felf-drawn ueb. 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 fentence 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 himfelf, heaven gives or depofits for him, and that gift, or depofit, buys a place, &c. STEEVENS.

I

agree with Johnson 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 juftnefs of this amendment. I fhould otherwife have thought Steevens's explanation right. M. MASON.

Peep through each part of him: 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 fhould attend on him? He makes up the files
Of all the gentry; for the most part fuch
Too, whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon: and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,"
Muft fetch him in he papers."

4

I can fee his pride

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

66

her wanton fpirits look out

"At every joint and motive of her body." STEEVENS. 5the file] That is, the lift. JOHNSON.

So, in Meafure for Meafure: "The greater file of the subject held the duke for wife." Again, in Macbeth:

66

-I have a file

"Of all the gentry.

6 -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 Holinfhed, 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 neceffarie caufe expreffed, why or wherefore, feemed to grudge that fuch a coftly journey fhould be taken in hand-without confent of the whole boarde of the Counfaille." MALONE.

7 Muft fetch him in he papers.] He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own fingle authority, and without the concurrence of the council, muft fetch in him whom he papers down. I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning. POPE.

Wolfey published a lift of the feveral perfons whom he had ap

ABER.

I do know

Kinsmen of mine, three at the leaft, that have
By this fo ficken'd their estates, that never
They fhall abound as formerly.

BUCK.

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on them For this great journey." What did this vanity, But minifter communication of

pointed to attend on the king at this interview. See Hall's Chrenicle, Rymer's Fadera, Tom. XIII. &c. STEEVENS.

1 Have broke their backs with laying manors on them

For this great journey.] In the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, but apparently printed in the reign of King Henry VIII. there feems to have been a fimilar ftroke aimed at this expensive expedition:

"Pryde. I am unhappy, I fe it well,

For the expence of myne apparell
Towardys this vyage

"What in horfes and other aray

"Hath compelled me for to lay

"All my land to mortgage." STEEVENS.

So, in King John:

"Rafh, inconfiderate, fiery voluntaries,

"Have fold their fortunes at their native homes,

Bearing their birth-rights proudly on their backs, "To make a hazard of new fortunes here."

Again, in Camden's Remains, 1605: "There was a nobleman merrily conceited, and riotoufly given, that having lately fold a mannor of an hundred tenements, came ruffling into the court, faying, am not I a mighty man that beare an hundred houses on my backe?" MALONE.

See alfo Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, edit. 1780, Vol. V. p. 26; Vol. XII. p. 395. REED.

So alfo, Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy:

66 'Tis an ofdinary thing to put a thousand oakes, or an hundred oxen, into a fute of apparell, to weare a whole manor on his back." Edit. 1634, p. 482. WHALLEY.

8 What did this vanity,

But minifter &c.] What effect had this pompous fhow, but the production of a wretched conclufion. JOHNSON.

NOR.

Grievingly I think,

The peace between the French and us not values
The coft that did conclude it.

BUCK.
Every man,
After the hideous ftorm that follow'd," was
A thing inspir'd; and, not confulting, broke
Into a general prophecy, That this tempeft,
Dafhing the garment of this

The fudden breach on't.

Nor.

peace, aboded

Which is budded out;

For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.

ABER.

The ambaffador is filenc'd?"

Nor.

Is it therefore

Marry, is't.

ABER. A proper title of a peace;' and purchas'd At a fuperfluous rate!

9 Every man,

After the hideous form that follow'd, &c.] From Holinfhed: "Monday the xviii. of June was fuch an hideous forme of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognofticate trouble and hatred fhortly after to follow between princes."-Dr. Warburton has quoted a fimilar paffage from Hall, whom he calls Shakspeare's author; but Holinfhed, and not Hall, was his author; as is proved here by the words which I have printed in Italicks, which are not found fo combined in Hall's Chronicle. This fact is indeed proved by various circumftances. MALONE.

2 The ambasador is filenc'd?] Silenc'd for recall'd. This being proper to be faid of an orator; and an ambassador or public minister being called an orator, he applies filenc'd to an ambassador.

WARBURTON.

I understand it rather of the French ambaffador refiding in England, who, by being refused an audience, may be said to be filenc'd. JOHNSON.

3 A proper title of a peace;] A fine name of a peace. Ironically.

So, in Macbeth:

"O proper stuff!

JOHNSON.

"This is the very painting of your fear." STEEVENS,