To nature none more bound; his training such, That he may furnish and instruct great teachers, And never feek for aid out of himself.7

Yet fee

When these so noble benefits shall prove
Not well dispos'd, the mind growing once corrupt,
They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
Than ever they were fair. This man so cómplete,
Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we,
Almost with ravifh'd lift'ning, could not find
His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
Hath into monftrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear
(This was his gentleman in truft,) of him
Things to strike honour fad.-Bid him recount
The fore-recited practices; whereof

We cannot feel too little, hear too much.

WOL. Stand forth; and with bold spirit relate

what you,

Most like a careful subject, have collected

Out of the duke of Buckingham.

of the Swanne, of whom linially is defcended my faid lord." The duke was executed on Friday the 17th of May, 1521. The book has no date. STEEVENS.

And never feek for aid out of himself.] Beyond the treafures of his own mind. JOHNSON.

Read :

And ne'er feek aid out of himself. Yet fee,-. RITSON. 8 noble benefits

Not well dispos'd,] Great gifts of nature and education,

not joined with good dispositions. JOHNSON.

9 -is become as black

As if befmear'd in hell.] So, in Othello:

"Her name, that was as fresh

"As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black

"As mine own face."

STEEVENS.

K. HEN.

Speak freely.

SURV. First, it was usual with him, every day

It would infect his speech, That if the king
Should without issue die, he'd carry it1 fo
To make the scepter his: These very words
I have heard him utter to his fon-in-law,
Lord Aberga'ny; to whom by oath he menac'd

Revenge upon the cardinal.

WOL.

Please your highness, note

This dangerous conception in this point.2

Not friended by his wish, to your high person

His will is most malignant; and it stretches

Beyond you, to your friends.

Q. KATH.

Deliver all with charity.

K. HEN.

My learn'd lord cardinal,

Speak on:

How grounded he his title to the crown,

Upon our fail? to this point haft thou heard him

At any time speak aught?

SURV.

He was brought to this

By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins.3

*-he'd carry it-] Old copy-he'l. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

* This dangerous conception in this point.] Note this particular part of this dangerous design. JOHNSON.

3 By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins.] In former editions:

By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Henton.

We heard before from Brandon, of one Nicholas Hopkins; and now his name is changed into Henton; so that Brandon and the furveyor feem to be in two stories. There is, however, but one and the same person meant, Hopkins, as I have restored it in the text, for perfpicuity's fake; yet it will not be any difficulty to account for the other name, when we come to confider that he was a monk of the convent, called Henton, near Bristol. So both Hall and Holinshed acquaint us. And he might, according

1 .

K. HEN. What was that Hopkins?
SURV.
His confeffor; who fed him every minute
With words of fovereignty.

Sir, a Chartreux friar,

K. HEN.

How know'st thou this?

SURV. Not long before your highness sped to

France,

The duke being at the Rofe, within the parish
Saint Lawrence Poultney, 4 did of me demand
What was the speech amongst the Londoners
Concerning the French journey: I replied,
Men fear'd, the French would prove perfidious,
To the king's danger. Presently the duke
Said, 'Twas the fear, indeed; and that he doubted,
'Twould prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk; that oft, fays he,
Hath fent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Court, my chaplain, a choice hour
To hear from him a matter of fome moment:
Whom after under the confefsion's feal 5

to the custom of these times, be called Nicholas of Henton, from the place; as Hopkins from his family. THEOBALD.

This mistake, as it was undoubtedly made by Shakspeare, is worth a note. It would be doing too great an honour to the players to suppose them capable of being the authors of it.

STEEVENS.

Shakspeare was perhaps led into the mistake by inadvertently referring the words, "called Henton," in the passage already quoted from Holinshed, (p. 26, n. 9,) not to the monastery, but to the monk. MALONE.

* The duke being at the Rofe, &c.] This house was purchased about the year 1561, by Richard Hill, sometime master of the Merchant Tailors company, and is now the Merchant Tailors school, in Suffolk-lane. WHALLEY.

5

-under the confeffion's seal-) All the editions, down from the beginning, have-commission's. But what commission's

He folemnly had fworn, that, what he spoke,
My chaplain to no creature living, but

To me, should utter, with demure confidence

This paufingly enfu'd, Neither the king, nor his

heirs,

(Tell you the duke) shall profper : bid him ftrive To gain the love of the commonalty; the duke Shall govern England.

Q. KATH.

If I know you well,

You were the duke's surveyor, and loft your office
On the complaint o' the tenants: Take good heed,
You charge not in your spleen a noble person,

And spoil your nobler foul! I say, take heed;
Yes, heartily beseech you.

K. HEN.

Go forward.

SURV.

Let him on :

On my foul, I'll speak but truth. I told my lord the duke, By the devil's illufions

seal? That is a question, I dare say, none of our diligent edi tors asked themselves. The text must be restored, as I have corrected it; and honeft Holinshed, [p. 863,] from whom our author took the substance of this passage, may be called in as a teftimony." The duke in talk told the monk, that he had done very well to bind his chaplain, John de la Court, under the feal. of confeffion, to keep secret such matter." THEOBALD.

• To gain the love-) The old copy reads-To the love.

STEEVENS.

For the insertion of the word gain I am anfwerable. From the corresponding passage in Holinshed, it appears evidently to have been omitted through the carelessness of the compofitor : "The faid monke told to De la Court, neither the king nor his heirs should profper, and that I should endeavour to purchase the good wills of the commonalty of England."

Since I wrote the above, I find this correction had been made by the editor of the fourth folio. MALONE.

It had been adopted by Mr. Rowe, and all subsequent editors. STEEVENS.

The monk might be deceiv'd; and that 'twas

dang'rous for him,

7

To ruminate on this so far, until

It forg'd him fome design, which, being believ'd,
It was much like to do: He answer'd, Tush!
It can do me no damage: adding further,
That, had the king in his last sickness fail'd,
The cardinal's and fir Thomas Lovell's heads

Should have gone off.

K. HEN.

Ha! what, so rank ? Ah, ha!

There's mischief in this man:- Canft thou say

further ?

Being at Greenwich,

After your highness had reprov'd the duke

About fir William Blomer,

K. HEN.

I remember, Of fuch a time:--Being my fervant sworn,9 The duke retain'd him his. But on; What

hence?

SURV. If, quoth he, I for this had been committed,

As, to the Tower, I thought, I would have play'd The part my father meant to act upon

'for him,] Old copy-for this. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

8o rank?] Rank weeds, are weeds grown up to great height and strength. What, says the King, was he advanced to this pitch? JOHNSON.

9-Being my fervant fworn, &c.] Sir William Blomer, (Holinshed calls him Bulmer,) was reprimanded by the King in the star-chamber, for that, being his sworn servant, he had left the King's service for the duke of Buckingham's.

Edwards's MSS.

STEEVENS.