To him brought, vivâ voce, to his face: 2. GENT. That fed him with his prophecies? 1. GENT. That was he, The fame. not: And fo his peers, upon this evidence, Have found him guilty of high treafon. Much 2. GENT. After all this, how did he bear himself? His knell rung out, his judgement, he was stirr'd 2. GENT. I do not think, he fears death. Sure, he does not, He never was fo womanish; the cause 2. GENT. Certainly, The cardinal is the end of this. 2 Was either pitied in him, or forgotten.] Either produced no effect, or produced only ineffectual pity. MALONE. 3he feat extremely,] This circumftance is taken from Holinfhed. After he was found guilty, the duke was brought to the bar, fore-chafing, and fweat marvelously." STEEVENS. 1 'Tis likely, I. GENT. Earl Surrey was fent thither, and in hafte too, 2. GENT. Was a deep envious one. I. GENT. That trick of state At his return, No doubt, he will requite it. This is noted, All the commons 2. GENT. Hate him perniciously, and, o' my confcience, With him ten fathom deep: this duke as much They love and dote on; call him, bounteous Buckingham, The mirror of all courtesy; ^ 1. GENT. Stay there, fir, And fee the noble ruin'd man you speak of. Enter BUCKINGHAM from his arraignment; Tipftaves before him, the axe with the edge towards him; halberds on each fide: with him, Sir THOMAS LOVELL, Sir NICHOLAS VAUX, Sir WILLIAM SANDS, and common people. 2. GENT. Let's ftand close, and behold him. BUCK. All good people, 4 The mirror of all courtefy;] See the concluding words of n. 3, P. 41. STEEVENS. 5 Sir William Sands,] The old copy reads-Sir Walter. STEEVENS. The correction is juftified by Holinfhed's Chronicle, in which it is faid, that Sir Nicholas Vaux, and Sir William Sands, received Buckingham at the Temple, and accompanied him to the Tower. You that thus far have come to pity me, And, if I have a confcience, let it fink me, Even as the axe falls, if I be not faithful! It has done, upon the premises, but justice; tians: Be what they will, I heartily forgive them : Nor will I fue, although the king have mercies More than I dare make faults. You few that lov'd me," And dare be bold to weep for Buckingham, Sir W. Sands was at this time, (May, 1521,) only a baronet, [rather, a knight; as baronetage was unknown till 1611] not being created Lord Sands till April 27, 1527. Shakspeare probably did not know that he was the fame perfon whom he has already introduced with that title. He fell into the error by placing the king's vifit to Wolfey, (at which time Sir William was Lord Sands,) and Buckingham's condemnation in the fame year; whereas that vifit was made fome years afterwards. MALONE. 5 Nor build their evils on the graves of great men ;] Evils in this place are forica. So, in Meajure for Measure: 66 Having wafte ground enough, "Shall we defire to raze the fanctuary, "And pitch our evils there ?” See Vol. IV. p. 246, n. 6. STEEVENS. 6 You few that lov'd me, &c.] Thefe lines are remarkably tender and pathetick. JOHNSON. Go with me, like good angels, to my end; And lift my foul to heaven.8-Lead on, o'God's name. Lov. I do befeech your grace, for charity, If ever any malice in your heart Were hid against me, now to forgive me frankly. There cannot be thofe numberlefs offences 7 the long divorce-] So, in Lord Sterline's Darius, 1603: "Scarce was the lafting laft divorcement made "Betwixt the bodie and the foule &c." STEEVENS. And lift my foul to heaven.] So, Milton, Paradife Loft, Book IV: 9 "Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven." no black envy MALONE. Shall make my grave.] Shakspeare, by this expreffion, meant no more than to make the duke fay, No action expreffive of malice fhall conclude my life. Envy by our authour is ufed for malice and hatred in other places, and, perhaps, in this. Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Bevys of Hampton, bl. 1. no date: They drewe theyr fwordes haftely, "And fmot together with great envy." 33 And Barrett, in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, thus interprets it. To make a grave, however, may mean to close it. So, in The Comedy of Errors: Why at this time the doors are made against you." i. e, clofed, but. The fenfe will then be (whether quaintly, or You met him half in heaven: my vows and prayers Lov. To the water fide I must conduct your grace; Then give my charge up to fir Nicholas Vaux, Who undertakes you to your end. VAUX. Prepare there, The duke is coming: fee, the barge be ready; And fit it with fuch furniture, as fuits The greatness of his person. BUCK. poetically expreffed, let the reader determine,) no malicious action thall clofe my grave, i. e. attend the conclufion of my existence, or terminate my life; the laft action of it shall not be uncharitable. STEEVENS. Envy is frequently used in this fenfe by our author and his contemporaries. See Vol. V. p. 495, n. 3; and p. 555, l. 12. I have therefore no doubt that Mr. Steevens's expofition is right. Dr. Warburton reads-mark my grave; and in fupport of the emendation it may be obferved that the fame error has happened in King Henry V.; or at least that all the editors have fuppofed fo, having there adopted a similar correction. See Vol. IX. p. 325, n. 8. Dr. Warburton's emendation alfo derives fome fupport from the following paffage in The Comedy of Errors: 2 "A vulgar comment will be made of it; 66 Against your yet ungalled estimation, "That may with foul intrufion enter in, "And dwell upon your grave, when you are dead." MALONE. -forfake me,] The latter word was added by Mr. Rowe. 3 Nay, fir Nicholas, MALONE. Let it alone; my flate now will but mock me.] The last verse |