Than ever they were fair. This man, so cómplete, 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 Buckinghom. K.Hen. Speak freely. Surv. First, it was usual with him, every day Wol. Please your highness, note This dangerous conception in this point. His will is most malignant; and it stretches Q.Kath. My learn'd lord cardinal, Deliver all with charity. K.Hen. Speak on ; How grounded he his title to the crown, At any time speak aught? Surv. He was brought to this By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins. Surv. Sir, a Chartreux friar, His confessor; who fed him every minute With words of sovereignty. K.Hen. How know'st thou this? Surv. Not long before your highness sped to France, The duke being at the Rose, within the parish Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand What was the speech amongst the Londoners [9] Note this particular part of this dangerous design. JOHNS. Concerning the French journey: I replied, Said, 'Twas the fear, indeed; and that he doubted, To me, should utter, with demure confidence This pausingly ensu'd,-Neither the king, nor his heirs, Q.Kath. If I know you well, You were the duke's surveyor, and lost your office K.Hen. Let him on : Go forward. Surv. On my soul, I'll speak but truth. I told my lord the duke, by the devil's illusions for him To ruminate on this so far, until It forg'd him some design, which, being believ'd, It can do me no damage: adding further, K.Hen. Ha! what so rank? K.Hen. Proceed. Surv. Being at Greenwich, Ah, ha! Canst thou say further After your highness had reprov'd the duke About Sir William Blomer, [1] Rank weeds, are weeds grown up to great height and strength. Whet, says the king, was he advanced to this pitch? JOHNS. 3 VOL. VI. K.Hen. I remember, Of such a time :-Being my servant sworn, 2 The usurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury, Have put his knife into him. K.Hen. A giant traitor ! Wol. Now, madam, may his highness live in freedom, And this man out of prison? Q.Kath. God mend all! K.Hen. There's something more would out of thee; What say'st? Sur. After, the duke his father, with the knife,-He stretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger, Another spread on his breast, mounting his eyes, He did discharge a horrible oath; whose tenor Was,-Were he evil us'd, he would out-go His father, by as much as a performance Does an irresolute purpose. K.Hen. There's his period, To sheath his knife in us. He is attach'd ; A Room in the Palace. SCENE III. [Exeunt. Enter the Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Cham. Is it possible, the spells of France should juggle Men into such strange mysteries? 3 Sands. New customs, Though they be never so ridiculous, Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are follow'd. Cham. As far as I see, all the good our English [2] Sir William Blomer, (Holinshed calls him Bulmer,) was reprimanded by the king in the star-chamber, for that, being his sword servant, he had left the king's service for the duke of Buckingham's. Edwards' MSS. STEEV. [3] Mysteries were allegorical shows, which the mummers of those times exhibited in odd fantastick habits. Mysteries are used, by an easy figure, for those that exhibited mysteries; and the sense is only, that the travelled Englishmen were metamorphosed, by foreign fashions into such an uncouth ap pe arance that they looked like mummers in a mystery. JOHNS. Have got by the late voyage, is but merely A fit or two o' the face; but they are shrewd ones; To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep state so. Sands. They have all new legs, and lame ones; ore would take it, That never saw them pace before, the spávin, Cham. Death! my lord, Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too, That, sure, they have worn out christendom. How now? What news, sir Thomas Lovell ? Enter Sir THOMAS LOVEL. Lov. 'Faith, my lord, I hear of none, but the new proclamation Cham. What is't for? Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. Cham. I am glad, 'tis there; now I would pray our To think an English courtier may be wise, [monsieurs, And never see the Louvre. Lov. They must either (For so run the conditions,) leave these remnants Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it, The lag end of their lewdness, and be laugh'd at. Cham. What a loss our ladies Will have of these trim vanities! [4] A fit of the face seems to be what we now, term a grimace, an artificial cast of the countenance. JOHNS. [5] The stringhalt, or springhalt, (as the old copy reads,) is a disease incident to horses, which gives them a convulsive motion in their paces. STEE. There will be woe indeed, lords; the sly whoresons A French song, and a fiddle, has no fellow. Sands. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're going; (For, sure, there's no converting of them ;) now An honest country lord, as I am, beaten A long time out of play, may bring his plain-song, Cham, Well said, lord Sands; Your colt's tooth is not cast yet. Nor shall not, while I have a stump Lov. To the cardinal's; Your lordship is a guest too. Cham. O, 'tis true : This night he makes a supper, and a great one, To many lords and ladies; there will be The beauty of this kingdom, I'll assure you. Lov. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us ; His dews fall every where. Cham. No doubt, he's noble ; He had a black mouth, that said other of him. Sands. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal ; in him, Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine: Men of his way should be most liberal, They are set here for examples. Cham. True, they are so ; But few now give so great ones. My barge stays; Your lordship shall along :-Come, good Sir Thomas, We shall be late else: which I would not be, For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guildford, This night, to be comptrollers. Sands. I am your lordship's. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Presence Chamber in York-Palace. Hautboys. A small table under a state for the Cardinal, a longer table for the Guests. Enter at one door Lords, ANNE BULLEN, and divers Ladies, and Gentlewomen, as Guests; at another door, enter Sir HENRY GUILDFORD. Guil. Ladies, a general welcome from his grace |