The cardinal of Winchester forbids: From him I have express commandement, Arrogant Winchester? that haughty prelate, Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could brook? Thou art no friend to God, or to the king: 1 SERV. Open the gates unto the lord protector; Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly. Enter WINCHESTER, attended by a Train of WIN. How now, ambitious Humphry? what means this?4 3-tawny coats.] It appears from the following passage in a comedy called, A Maidenhead well lost, 1634, that a tawny coat was the dress of a summoner, i. e. an apparitor, an officer whose business it was to summon offenders to an ecclesiastical court: "Tho I was never a tawny-coat, I have played the summoner's part." These are the proper attendants therefore on the Bishop of Winchester. So, in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 822: "—and by the way the bishop of London met him, attended on by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawny-coats," &c. Tawny was likewise a colour worn for mourning, as well as black; and was therefore the suitable and sober habit of any person employed in an ecclesiastical court: "Á croune of bayes shall that man weare "That triumphs over me; "For blacke and tawnie will I weare, "Whiche mourning colours be." The Complaint of a Lover wearing blacke and tawnie; by E. O. [i. e. the Earl of Oxford.] Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1576. STEEVENS. How now, ambitious Humphry? what means this?] The GLO. Piel'd priest,5 dost thou command me to be shut out? WIN. I do, thou most usurping proditor, And not protector of the king or realm. GLO. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator; Thou, that contriv'dst to murder our dead lord; Thou, that giv'st whores indulgences to sin :" 6 first folio has it-umpheir. The traces of the letters, and the word being printed in Italicks, convince me that the Duke's christian name lurked under this corruption. THEOBALD. Piel'd priest,] Alluding to his shaven crown. POPE. In Skinner (to whose Dictionary I was directed by Mr. Edwards) I find that it means more: Pill'd or peel'd garlick, cui pellis, vel pili omnes ex morbo aliquo, præsertim è lue venerea, defluxerunt. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, the following instance occurs: "Ill see them p-'d first, and pil'd and double pil'd.” STEEVENS. In Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 364, Robert Baldocke, bishop of London, is called a peel'd priest, pilide clerk, seemingly in allusion to his shaven crown alone. So, bald-head was a term of scorn and mockery. TOLLEt. The old copy has-piel'd priest. Piel'd and pil'd were only the old spelling of peel'd. So, in our poet's Rape of Lucrece, 4to. 1594: "His leaves will wither, and his sap decay, "So must my soul, her bark being pil'd away." See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: Pelare. To pill or pluck, as they do the feathers of fowle; to pull off the hair or skin" MALONE. 6 • Thou, that giv'st whores indulgences to sin:] The public stews were formerly under the district of the bishop of Winchester." POPE. There is now extant an old manuscript (formerly the officebook of the court-leet held under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Winchester in Southwark,) in which are mentioned the several fees arising from the brothel-houses allowed to be kept in the bishop's manor, with the customs and regulations of them. One of the articles is : "De his, qui custodiunt mulieres habentes nefandam infirmi tatem.' I'll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,"7 WIN. Nay, stand thou back, I will not budge a foot; This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain, 8 "Item. That no stewholder keep any woman within his house, that hath any sickness of brenning, but that she be put out upon pain of making a fyne unto the lord of C shillings." UPTON. 7 I'll canvas thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,] This means, I believe,-I'll tumble thee into thy great hat, and shake thee, as bran and meal are shaken in a sieve. So, Sir W. D'Avenant, in The Cruel Brother, 1630: "I'll sift and winnow him in an old hat." To canvas was anciently used for to sift. So, in Hans Beerpot's invisible Comedy, 1618: We'll canvas him. 66 I am too big Again, in the Epistle Dedicatory to Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: “—canvaze him and his angell brother Gabriell, in ten sheets of paper," &c. STEEVENS. Again, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. Doll Tearsheet says to Falstaff" If thou dost, I'll canvas thee between a pair of sheets." M. MASON. Probably from the materials of which the bottom of a sieve is made. Perhaps, however, in the passage before us Gloster means, that he will toss the cardinal in a sheet, even while he was invested with the peculiar badge of his ecclesiastical dignity.Coarse sheets were formerly termed canvass sheets. See K. Henry IV. P. II. Act II. sc. iv. MALONE. • This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,] About four miles from Damascus is a high hill, reported to be the same on which Cain slew his brother Abel. Maundrel's Travels, P. 131. POPE. Sir John Maundeville says: "And in that place where Damascus was founded, Kaym sloughe Abel his brother." Maundeville's Travels, edit. 1725, p. 148. REED. "Damascus is as moche to saye as shedynge of blood. For there Chaym slowe Abell, and hydde him in the sonde." Polychronicon, fo. xii. RITSON. GLO. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back: Thy scarlet robes, as a child's bearing-cloth WIN. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy face. GLO. What? am I dar'd, and bearded to my face? Draw, men, for all this privileged place; Blue-coats to tawny-coats. Priest, beware your beard; [GLOSTER and his Men attack the Bishop. I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly: Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat; In spite of pope or dignities of church, Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down. WIN. Gloster, thou'lt answer this before the pope. GLO. Winchester goose,' I cry-arope! arope!Now beat them hence, Why do you let them stay?Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array. Out, tawny coats!-out, scarlet hypocrite!' 9 Winchester goose,] A strumpet, or the consequences of her love, was a Winchester goose. JOHNSON. 1 a rope! a rope!] See The Comedy of Errors, Act IV. sc. iv. MALONE. 2 out, scarlet hypocrite!] Thus, in King Henry VIII. the Earl of Surrey, with a similar allusion to Cardinal Wolsey's habit, calls him" scarlet sin." STEEVENS. Here a great Tumult. In the midst of it, Enter the Mayor of London, and Officers. 3 MAY. Fye, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates, Thus contumeliously should break the peace! GLO. Peace, mayor; thou know'st little of my wrongs: Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king, Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use. WIN. Here's Gloster too, a foe to citizens ;* One that still motions war, and never peace, O'ercharging your free purses with large fines; That seeks to overthrow religion, Because he is protector of the realm; And would have armour here out of the Tower, To crown himself king, and suppress the prince. GLO. I will not answer thee with words, but blows. [Here they skirmish again. MAY. Nought rests for me, in this tumultuous strife, But to make open proclamation Come, officer; as loud as e'er thou can'st. 3 -the Mayor of London,] I learn from Mr. Pennant's LONDON, that this Mayor was John Coventry, an opulent mercer, from whom is descended the present Earl of Coventry. STEEVENS. Here's Gloster too, &c.] Thus the second folio. The first folio, with less spirit of reciprocation, and feebler metre,-Here is Gloster &c. STEEVENS. |