CROM. The next is, that sir Thomas More is chosen Lord chancellor in your place. WOL. That's somewhat sudden : But he's a learned man. May he continue Long in his highness' favour, and do justice For truth's sake, and his conscience; that his bones, When he has run his course, and sleeps in blessings, May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!3 What more? 2 I am able now, methinks, (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel,) To endure more miseries, and greater far, Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer.] So, in King Henry VI. Part II: "More can I bear, than you dare execute." Again, in Othello: 3 "Thou hast not half the power to do me harm, "As I have to be hurt." MALONE. a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!] The chancellor is the general guardian of orphans. A tomb of tears is very harsh. JOHNSON. This idea will appear not altogether indefensible to those who recollect the following epigram of Martial: "Flentibus Heliadum ramis dum vipera serpit, "Fluxit in obstantem succina gemma feram : "Vipera si tumulo nobiliore jacet." The Heliades certainly wept a tomb of tears over the viper. The same conceit, however, is found in Drummond of Hawthornden's Teares for the Death of Moeliades: CROM. That Cranmer is return'd with welcome, Install❜d lord archbishop of Canterbury. WOL. That's news indeed. Last, that the lady Anne, Whom the king hath in secrecy long married, WOL. There was the weight that pull'd me down. O Cromwell, The king has gone beyond me, all my glories "The Muses, Phoebus, Love, have raised of their teares "A crystal tomb to him, through which his worth apSTEeevens. peares." A similar conceit occurs in King Richard II. Act III. SC. iii. HENLEY. The old copy has-on him. The error, which probably arose from similitude of sounds, was corrected by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. — in open,] A Latinism, [in aperto] perhaps introduced by Ben Jonson, who is supposed to have tampered with this play. Et castris in aperto positis: Liv. I. 33. i. e. in a place exposed on all sides to view. STEEVENS. 5 Or gild again the noble troops that waited Upon my smiles.] The number of persons who composed Cardinal Wolsey's household, according to the printed account, was eight hundred. "When (says Cavendish, in his Life of Wolsey,) shall we see any more such subjects, that shall keepe such a noble house?-Here is an end of his houshold. The number of persons in the cheyne-roll [check-roll] were eight hundred persons." But Cavendish's work, though written in the time of Queen Mary, was not published till 1641; and it was then printed most unfaithfully, some passages being interpolated, near half of I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master: Seek the king; (I know his noble nature,) not to let 6 Thy hopeful service perish too: Good Cromwell, Neglect him not; make use now, and provide For thine own future safety. CROM. O my lord, Must I then leave you? must I needs forego So good, so noble, and so true a master? Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.The king shall have my service; but my prayers For ever, and for ever, shall be yours. WOL. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear the MS. being omitted, and the phraseology being modernised throughout, to make it more readable at that time; the covert object of the publication probably having been, to render Laud odious, by shewing how far church-power had been extended by Wolsey, and how dangerous that prelate was, who, in the opinion of many, followed his example. The persons who procured this publication, seem to have been little solicitous about the means they employed, if they could but obtain their end; and therefore, among other unwarrantable sophistications, they took care that the number" of troops who waited on Wolsey's smiles," should be sufficiently magnified; and, instead of one hundred and eighty, which was the real number of his household, they printed eight hundred. This appears from two MSS. of this work in the Museum; MSS. Harl. No. 428, and MSS. Birch, 4233. In another manuscript copy of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in the Publick Library at Cambridge, the number of the Cardinal's household, by the addition of a cypher, is made 1800. MALONE. 6 make use- ] i. e. make interest. about Nothing: "—I gave him use for it." So, in Much Ado In all my miseries; but thou hast forc'd me And,-when I am forgotten, as I shall be; And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me more must be heard of,-say, I taught thee, Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, 7 thee;9 8 -fling away ambition;] Wolsey does not mean to condemn every kind of ambition; for in a preceding line he says he will instruct Cromwell how to rise, and in the subsequent lines he evidently considers him as a man in office: "—then if thou fall'st," &c. Ambition here means a criminal and inordinate ambition, that endavours to obtain honours by dishonest means. MALONE. 8 By that sin fell the angels,] See p. 138, n. 1. STEevens. 9 cherish those hearts that hate thee;] Though this be good divinity, and an admirable precept for our conduct in private life, it was never calculated or designed for the magistrate or publick minister. Nor could this be the direction of a man experienced in affairs to his pupil. It would make a good christian, but a very ill and very unjust statesman. And we have nothing so infamous in tradition, as the supposed advice given to one ofour kings, to cherish his enemies, and be in no pain for his friends. I am of opinion the poet wrote: - cherish those hearts that wait thee; i. e. thy dependants. For the contrary practice had contributed to Wolsey's ruin. He was not careful enough in making de Corruption wins not more than honesty. To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not: Serve the king; Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. my robe, I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell, Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal 2 pendants by his bounty, while intent in amassing wealth to himself. The following line seems to confirm this correction: Corruption wins not more than honesty. i. e. You will never find men won over to your temporary occasions by bribery, so useful to you as friends made by a just and generous munificence. WARBurton. I am unwilling wantonly to contradict so ingenious a remark, but that the reader may not be misled, and believe the emendation proposed to be necessary, he should remember that this is not a time for Wolsey to speak only as a statesman, but as a christian. Shakspeare would have debased the character, just when he was employing his strongest efforts to raise it, had he drawn it otherwise. Nothing makes the hour of disgrace more irksome, than the reflection, that we have been deaf to offers of reconciliation, and perpetuated that enmity which we might have converted into friendship. STEEVENS. 1 Pr❜ythee, lead me in : There take an inventory of all I have,] This inventory Wolsey actually caused to be taken upon his disgrace, and the particulars may be seen at large in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 546, edit. 1631. Among the Harl. MSS. there is one intitled, " An Inventorie of Cardinal Wolsey's rich Housholde Stuffe. Temp. Hen. VIII. The original book, as it seems, kept by his own officers." See Harl. Catal. No. 599. DOUCE. 2 Had I but serv'd my God &c.] This sentence was really uttered by Wolsey. JOHNSON. |