BUCK. This butcher's cur" is venom-mouth'd,

and I

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore, best Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book Out-worths a noble's blood.

NOR.

8

What, are you chaf'd? Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only, Which your disease requires.

BUCK.

I read in his looks

revil'd

Matter against me; and his eye
Me, as his abject object: at this instant
He bores me with some trick:

king;

I'll follow, and out-stare him.

NOR.

He's gone to the

Stay, my lord,

7

butcher's cur-] Wolsey is said to have been the son of a butcher.

JOHNSON.

Dr. Grey observes, that when the death of the Duke of Buckingham was reported to the Emperor Charles V. he said, "The first buck of England was worried to death by a butcher's dog.' Skelton, whose satire is of the grossest kind, in Why come you not to Court, has the same reflection on the meanness of Cardinal Wolsey's birth:

8

"For drede of the boucher's dog,

"Wold wirry them like an hog." STEEVENS.

A beggar's book

Out-worths a noble's blood.] That is, the literary qualifications of a bookish beggar are more prized than the high descent of hereditary greatness. This is a contemptuous exclamation very naturally put into the mouth of one of the ancient, unlettered, martial nobility. JOHNSON.

It ought to be remembered that the speaker is afterward pro- . nounced by the King himself a learned gentleman. RITSON.

9 He bores me with some trick:] He stabs or wounds me by some artifice or fiction. JOHNson.

So, in The Life and Death of Lord Cromwell, 1602:

"One that hath gull'd you, that hath bor'd you, sir."

STEEVENS.

And let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: To climb steep hills,
Requires slow pace at first: Anger is like
A full-hot horse; who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself

1

As you would to your friend.

I'll to the king;

BUCK.
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim,
There's difference in no persons.

3

NOR.
Be advis'd;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: We may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er,
In seeming to augment it, wastes it? Be advis'd:
I say again, there is no English soul

More stronger to direct you than yourself;
If with the sap of reason you would quench,

1

Anger is like

A full-hot horse ;] So, Massinger, in The Unnatural Combat:

2

"Let passion work, and, like a hot-rein'd horse,
""Twill quickly tire itself." STEevens.

Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece :

“Till, like a jade, self-will himself doth tire."

MALONE.

-from a mouth of honour-] I will crush this baseborn fellow, by the due influence of my rank, or say that all distinction of persons is at an end. JOHNSON.

3 Heat not a furnace &c.] Might not Shakspeare allude to Dan. iii. 22.? "Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego."

STEEVENS.

Sir,

Or but allay, the fire of passion.*

BUCK.

I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

By your prescription :-but this top-proud fellow,
Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From sincere motions,5) by intelligence,

And proofs as clear as founts in Júly, when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.

NOR.

Say not, treasonous. BUCK. To the king I'll say't; and make my vouch as strong

6

As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both, (for he is equal ravenous,
As he is subtle; and as prone to mischief,
As able to perform it: his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally,)
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the king our master

4

If with the sap of reason you would quench,

Or but allay, the fire of passion.] So, in Hamlet:
"Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
"Sprinkle cool patience." STEEvens.

sincere motions,)] Honest indignation, warmth of

integrity. Perhaps name not, should be blame not.

Whom from the flow of gall I blame not. JOHNSON.

for he is equal ravenous,] Equal for equally. Shakspeare frequently uses adjectives adverbially. See King John, Vol. X. p. 523, n. 4. MALONE.

7

his mind and place

Infecting one another,] This is very satirical. His mind he represents as highly corrupt; and yet he supposes the contagion of the place of first minister as adding an infection to it.

8

WARBURTON.

suggests the king our master-] Suggests, for excites. WARBURTON

So, in King Richard II:

"Suggest his soon-believing adversaries." STEEVENS.

To this last costly treaty, the interview,

That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass Did break i' the rinsing.

NOR.

'Faith, and so it did.

BUCK. Pray, give me favour, sir.. This cunning cardinal

The articles o'the combination drew,

As himself pleas'd; and they were ratified,
As he cried, Thus let be: to as much end,

As give a crutch to the dead: But our count-cardinal9

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy

To the old dam, treason,)-Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,
(For 'twas, indeed, his colour; but he came
To whisper Wolsey,) here makes visitation:
His fears were, that the interview, betwixt
England and France, might, through their amity,
Breed him some prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menac'd him: He privily'
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well; for, I am sure, the emperor
Paid ere he promis'd; whereby his suit was granted,
Ere it was ask'd ;-but when the way was made,
And pav'd with gold, the emperor thus desir'd ;—
That he would please to alter the king's course,
And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know,
(As soon he shall by me,) that thus the cardinal

9

our count-cardinal-] Wolsey is afterwards called. king cardinal. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read— court-cardinal. MALONE.

1

He privily-] He, which is not in the original copy, was added by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases,2
And for his own advantage.

NOR.

I am sorry

To hear this of him; and could wish, he were
Something mistaken in't.3

BUCK.

No, not a syllable;

I do pronounce him in that very shape,
He shall appear in proof.

Enter BRANDON ; a Sergeant at Arms before him, and two or three of the Guard.

BRAN. Your office, sergeant; execute it.

SERG.
My lord the duke of Buckingham, and earl
Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I
Arrest thee of high treason, in the name
Of our most sovereign king.

Sir,

BUCK. Lo you, my lord, The net has fall'n upon me; I shall perish Under device and practice.*

Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases,] This was a proverbial expression. See King Richard III. Act V. sc. iii. MALONE.

The same phrase occurs also in King Henry VI, Part I: from bought and sold lord Talbot," Again, in The Comedy of Errors: "It would make a man as mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold." STEEVENS.

Something mistaken in't.] That is, that he were something different from what he is taken or supposed by you to be.

Act V:

MALONE.

practice.] i. e. unfair stratagem. So, in Othello,

"Fallen in the practice of a cursed slave."

And in this play, Surrey, speaking of Wolsey, says: "How came his practices to light?" REED,