To nature none more bound; his training fuch, That he may furnish and inftruct great teachers, And never feek for aid out of himself." Yet fee When these so noble benefits fhall prove Not well difpos'd,8 the mind growing once corrupt, We cannot feel too little, hear too much. WOL. Stand forth; and with bold fpirit relate what you, Most like a careful fubject, have collected 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. noble benefits Not well difpos'd,] Great gifts of nature and education, not joined with good difpofitions. JOHNSON. ·is become as black As if befmear'd in hell.] So, in Othello: 66 Her name, that was as freth "As Dian's vifage, is now begrim'd and black "As mine own face." STEEVENS. K. HEN. Speak freely. WOL. 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 Rowe. he'd carry it-] Old copy-he'l. Corrected by Mr. MALONE. * This dangerous conception in this point.] Note this particular part of this dangerous defign. 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; fo that Brandon and the furveyor seem to be in two stories. There is, however, but one and the fame perfon 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 Briftol. So both Hall and Holinfhed acquaint us. And he might, according K. HEN. What was that Hopkins? Sir, a Chartreux friar, How know'st thou this? SURV. With words of fovereignty. K. HEN. SURV. Not long before your highness fped to France, The duke being at the Rofe, within the parish 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 paffage already quoted from Holinfhed, (p. 26, n. 9,) not to the monaftery, but to the monk. MALONE. The duke being at the Rofe, &c.] This houfe was purchafed about the year 1561, by Richard Hill, fometime mafter of the Merchant Tailors company, and is now the Merchant Tailors fchool, in Suffolk-lane. WHALLEY. S -under the confeffion's feal-] All the editions, down from the beginning, have-commiffion's. But what commiffion's He folemnly had fworn, that, what he spoke, (Tell you the duke) fhall profper: bid him ftrive Q. KATH. If I know you well, You were the duke's furveyor, 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 fay, 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 feal? That is a question, I dare say, none of our diligent edi tors afked themselves. The text must be reftored, as I have corrected it; and honeft Holinfhed, [p. 863,] from whom our author took the fubftance of this paffage, 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 seal of confeffion, to keep fecret fuch matter." THEOBALD. • To gain the love-] The old copy reads-To the love. STEEVENS. For the infertion of the word gain I am anfwerable. From the correfponding paffage in Holinthed, it appears evidently to have been omitted through the careleffness of the compofitor: "The faid monke told to De la Court, neither the king nor his heirs fhould 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," To ruminate on this fo far, until It forg'd him fome defign, which, being believ'd, K. HEN. 8 Ha! what, fo rank? Ah, ha! There's mischief in this man:-Canft thou fay After your highness had reprov'd the duke K. HEN. I remember, Of fuch a time :-Being my fervant fworn,9 The duke retain'd him his.- -But on; What hence? SURV. If, quoth he, I for this had been com mitted, As, to the Tower, I thought, I would have play'd The part my father meant to act upon 7-for him,] Old copy-for this. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. 8 -fo rank?] Rank weeds, are weeds grown up to great height and strength. What, fays the King, was he advanced to this pitch? JOHNSON. 9 ·Being my fervant fworn, &c.] Sir William Blomer, (Holinfhed calls him Bulmer,) was reprimanded by the King in the star-chamber, for that, being his fworn fervant, he had left the King's fervice for the duke of Buckingham's. Edwards's MSS. STEEVENS. |