BUCK.

Our reverend cardinal carry'd.*

Nor.

Why, all this business

'Like it your grace,

The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you,
(And take it from a heart that wishes towards
you

Honour and plenteous fafety,) that you read
The cardinal's malice and his potency
Together to confider 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 fword
Hath a fharp edge: it's long, and, it may be said,
It reaches far; and where 'twill not extend,
Thither he darts it. Bofom up my counsel,
You'll find it wholefome. Lo, where comes that
rock,'

That I advise your fhunning.

Enter Cardinal WOLSEY, (the purfe borne before him,) certain of the guard, and two Secretaries with papers. The Cardinal in his paffage fixeth his eye on Buckingham, and Buckingham on him, both full of difdain.

WOL. The duke of Buckingham's furveyor? ha? Where's his examination?

I. SECR.

-this business

Here, so please you.

Our reverend cardinal carry'd.] To carry a business was at this time a current phrafe for to conduct or manage it. So, in this Act;

he'd carry it fo,

"To make the fcepter his." REED.

comes that rock,] To make the rock come, is not very just.

JOHNSON.

WOL. Is he in person ready?

1. SECR.

Ay, please your grace.

WOL. Well, we fhall then know more; and Buckingham

Shall leffen this big look.

[Exeunt WOLSEY, and train. BUCK. This butcher's cur" is venom-mouth'd,

and I

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore, best Not wake him in his flumber. A beggar's book Out-worths a noble's blood."

Nor.

What, are you chaf'd? Afk God for temperance; that's the appliance

only,

Which your difeafe requires.

I read in his looks

BUCK.
Matter against me; and his eye revil'd
Me, as his abject object: at this inftant

6

-] Wolfey is faid to have been the son of

butcher's cura butcher. JOHNSON.

Dr. Grey obferves, that when the death of the Duke of Buckingham was reported to the Emperor Charles V. he faid, "The firft buck of England was worried to death by a butcher's dog.' Skelton, whofe fatire is of the groffeft kind, in Why come you not to Court, has the fame reflection on the meannefs of Cardinal Wolfey's birth:

7

"For drede of the boucher's dog,

"Wold wirry them like an hog." STEEVENS.

A beggar's book

Out-worths a noble's blood.] That is, the literary qualifications of a bookish beggar are more prized than the high descent of hereditary greatnefs. This is a contemptuous exclamation very naturally put into the mouth of one of the ancient, unlettered, martial nobility. JOHNSON.

It ought to be remembered that the fpeaker is afterward pronounced by the king himself a learned gentleman. RITSON.

He bores me with fome trick: He's gone to the

king;

I'll follow, and out-ftare him.

NOR.
Stay, my lord,
And let your reafon with your choler queftion
What 'tis you go about: To climb fteep hills,
Requires flow pace at firft: Anger is like
A full-hot horfe;' who being allow'd his way,
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 Ipfwich fellow's infolence; or proclaim,
There's difference in no perfons.

NOR.

Be advis'd;

Heat not a furnace for your foe fo hot
That it do finge yourself:' We may outrun,

8 He bores me with fome trick:] He ftabs or wounds me by fome

artifice or fiction. JOHNSON.

So, in The Life and Death of Lord Cromwell, 1602:

9

"One that hath gull'd you, that bath bor'd you, fir.”

Anger is like

STEEVENS.

A full-hot horfe;] So, Maflinger, in The Unnatural Combat:
"Let paflion work, and, like a hot-rein'd horfe,
""Twill quickly tire itself." STEEVENS,

Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

2

“Till, like a jade, felf-will himself doth tire.”

MALONE.

-from a mouth of honour-] I will crush this bafc-born fellow, by the due influence of my rank, or fay that all diftinction of perfons is at an end. JOHNSON.

3 Heat not a furnace &c.] Might not Shakspeare allude to Dan. iii. 22.? Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of fire flew thofe men that took up Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego."

STEEVENS.

By violent fwiftnefs, that which we run at,
And lofe by over-running. Know you not,
The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In feeming to augment it, waftes it? Be advis'd:
I fay again, there is no English foul

More ftronger to direct you than yourself;
If with the fap of reafon you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of paffion.*

BUCK.

Sir,

I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

By your prescription :-but this top-proud fellow,
(Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From fincere motions,') by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in Júly, when
We fee each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

NOR.

Say not, treasonous.

BUCK. To the king I'll fay't; and make my vouch as ftrong

As fhore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both, (for he is equal ravenous,"
As he is fubtle; and as prone to mischief,
As able to perform it: his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally,)

If with the fap of reafon you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of paffion.] So, in Hamlet:
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience." STEEVENS.

66

3 - fincere motions,)] Honeft indignation; warmth of integrity. Perhaps name not, fhould be blame not.

Whom from the flow of gall I blame not. JOHNSON.

6 - for he is equal ravenous,] Equal for equally. Shakspeare frequently ufes adjectives adverbially. See King John, Vol. VIII. p. 176, n. 6. MALONE.

7

his mind and place

Infecting one another,] This is very fatirical. His mind he

Only to fhow his pomp as well in France
As here at home, fuggefts the king our master'
To this laft coftly treaty, the interview,

That swallow'd fo much treasure, and like a glass
Did break i' the rinfing.

Nor.

'Faith, and fo it did.

Buck. Pray, give me favour, fir. This cunning cardinal

The articles o' the combination drew,

As himself pleas'd; and they were ratify'd,
As he cry'd, Thus let be: to as much end,

As give a crutch to the dead: But our count-cardinal 9

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolfey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
To the old dam, treafon,)-Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to fee the queen his aunt,
(For 'twas, indeed, his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolfey,) here makes vifitation:
His fears were, that the interview, betwixt
England and France, might, through their amity,
Breed him fome prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: He privily

2

reprefents as highly corrupt; and yet he fuppofes the contagion of the place of firft minifter as adding an infection to it. WARBURTON.

8

fuggefts the king our mafter-] Suggefts, for excites. WARBURTON.

So, in King Richard II:

"Suggeft his foon-believing adverfaries." STEEVENS.

our count-cardinal-] Wolfey is afterwards called king cardinal. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read—court-cardinal. MALONE.

2—he privily-] He, which is not in the original copy, was added by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.