Pernicious protector, dangerous peer,

That smooth'st it so with king and commonweal! 'GLO. What, cardinal, is your priesthood grown peremptory?

*Tantæne animis cælestibus iræ ?

'Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such ma

lice;

'With such holiness can you do it??

I SUF. No malice, sir; no more than well be

comes

So good a quarrel, and so bad a peer.

GLO. As who, my lord?

But the very same phrase occurs in Lyly's Maid's Metamorphosis, 1600:

"With him whose restless thoughts do beat on thee." Again, in Doctor Dodypoll, 1600:

"Since my mind beats on it mightily."

Again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622:
"I feel within my cogitations beating."
Later editors concur in reading,

the old copy. STEEVENS.

So, in The Tempest:

"Bent on a crown." I follow

"Do not infest your mind with beating on
"The strangeness of this business."

Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634:

"This her mind beats on."

I have given these instances of this phrase, because Dr. Johnson's interpretation of it is certainly incorrect. MALONE.

7 With such holiness can you do it?] Do what? The verse wants a foot; we should read:

"With such holiness can you not do it?" Spoken ironically. By holiness he means hypocrisy and says, 'have you not hypocrisy enough to hide your malice!'

WARBURTON.

The verse is lame enough after the emendation, nor does the negative particle improve the sense. When words are omitted it is not often easy to say what they were if there is a perfect sense without them. I read, but somewhat at random :

"A churchman, with such holiness can you do it?" The transcriber saw churchman just above, and therefore omitted it in the second line. JOHNSON.

"- can you do it?" The old play, quarto 1600, reads more intelligibly," Good uncle, can you dote?" MALONE.

SUF.

;

Why, as you, my lord

An't like your lordly lord-protectorship.
GLO. Why, Suffolk, England knows thine inso-

lence.

Q. MAR. And thy ambition, Gloster.

K. HEN. I pr'ythee, peace, Good queen; and whet not on these furious peers, For blessed are the peacemakers on earth".

CAR. Let me be blessed for the peace I make, Against this proud protector, with my sword! GLO. 'Faith, holy uncle, 'would 'twere come to that! [Aside to the Cardinal. 'CAR. Marry, when thou dar'st.

[Aside. 'GLO. Make up no factious numbers for the

matter,

'In thine own person answer thy abuse. [Aside. 'CAR. Ay, where thou dar'st not peep: an if thou

dar'st,

"This evening on the east side of the grove. [Aside. 'K. HEN. How now, my lords?

'CAR.

Believe me, cousin Gloster, 'Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly,

'We had had more sport.-Come with thy two

7

hand sword.

GLO. True, uncle.

[Aside to GLO.

CAR. Are you advis'd ?-the east side of the

grove ?

GLO. Cardinal, I am with you.

[Aside.

blessed are the peacemakers on earth.] See St. Matthew, v. 9. REED.

8 Come with thy two-hand sword,

Glo. True, uncle, are ye advis'd?—the east side of the grove? Cardinal, I am with you.] Thus is the whole speech placed to Gloster, in all the editions: but, surely, with great inadvertence. It is the Cardinal who first appoints the east side of the grove for the place of duel: and how finely does it express his rancour and impetuosity, for fear Gloster should mistake, to repeat the appointment, and ask his antagonist if he takes him right! THEOBALD.

6

K. HEN.

Why, how now, uncle Gloster.

'GLO. Talking of hawking; nothing else, my

lord.

Now, by God's mother, priest, I'll shave your crown

for this,

* Or all my fence shall fail 9.

*CAR. Medice teipsum;

[Aside.

Protector, see tot well, protect yourself.} [Aside.

K. HEN. The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords'.

*How irksome is this musick to my heart! * When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? * I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife.

Enter an Inhabitant of Saint Albans, crying, A Miracle2/

GLO. What means this noise ?

The two-hand sword' is mentioned by Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 833: "And he that touched the tawnie shield, should cast a spear on foot with a target on his arme, and after to fight with a two-hand sword." STEEVENS.

In the original play the Cardinal desires Gloster to bring his sword and buckler." The two hand-sword' was sometimes called the long sword, and in commou use before the introduction of the rapier. Justice Shallow, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, boasts of the exploits he had performed in his youth with this instrument. See vol. viii. p. 70, n. 3. MALONE.

9-my FENCE shall fail.] Fence is the art of defence. So, in Much Ado About Nothing:

"Despight his nice fence, and his active practice."

STEEVENS.

The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords.] This line Shakspeare hath injudiciously adopted from the old play, changing only the word color [choler] to stomachs. In the old play the altercation appears not to be concealed from Henry. Here Shakspeare certainly intended that it should pass between the Cardinal and Gloster aside; and yet he has inadvertently adopted a line, and added others, that imply that Henry has heard the appointment they have made. MALONE.

2-crying, A MIRACLE!] This scene is founded on a story which Sir Thomas More has related, and which he says was communicated to him by his father. The impostor's name is not men

Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim?
INHAB. A miracle! a miracle!

SUF. Come to the king, and tell him what miracle.

INHAB. Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's

shrine,

Within this half hour, hath receiv'd his sight;
A man, that ne'er saw in his life before.

'K. HEN. Now, God be prais'd! that to believing souls

'Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!

Enter the Mayor of Saint Albans, and his Brethren; and SIMPCOX, borne between two persons in a Chair; his Wife and a great Multitude following.

* CAR. Here come the townsmen on procession, * To present your highness with the man.

*K. HEN. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale,

* Although by his sight his sin be multiplied. *GLO. Stand by, my masters, bring him near the king,

*His highness' pleasure is to talk with him.

*K. HEN. Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance,

* That we for thee may glorify the Lord.

What, hast thou been long blind, and now restor❜d? SIMP. Born blind, an't please your grace.

WIFE. Ay, indeed, was he.

SUF. What woman is this?

WIFE. His wife, an't like your worship.

GLO. Had'st thou been his mother, thou could'st have better told.

tioned, but he was detected by Humphrey Duke of Gloster, and in the manner here represented. See his Works, p. 134, edit. 1557. MALONE.

K. HEN. Where wert thou born?

SIMP. At Berwick in the north, an't like your

grace.

'K. HEN. Poor soul! God's goodness hath been great to thee:

'Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
'But still remember what the Lord hath done.

* Q. MAR. Tell me, good fellow, cam'st thou here by chance,

* Or of devotion, to this holy shrine?

'SIMP. God knows, of pure devotion; being call'd 'A hundred times, and oft'ner, in my sleep

By good Saint Alban; who said,-Simpcox3, come; Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee. *WIFE. Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft

* Myself have heard a voice to call him so.

CAR. What, art thou lame?
SIMP.

Ay, God Almighty help me!

SUF. How cam'st thou so?
SIMP.

WIFE. A plum-tree, master.
GLO.

A fall off of a tree

How long hast thou been blind?

SIMP. O, born so, master.
GLO.
What, and would'st climb a tree?
SIMP. But that in all my life, when I was a youth.
* WIFE. Too true; and bought his climbing very

dear.

* GLO. 'Mass, thou lov'dst plums well, that would'st venture so.

3 who said-Simpcox, &c.] The former copies :

66

66

who said, Simon, come;

Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee." Why Simon? The chronicles, that take notice of Gloster's detecting this pretended miracle, tell us, that the impostor, who asserted himself to be cured of blindness, was called Saunder Simpcox-Simon was therefore a corruption. THEOBALD.

It would seem better to read Simpcox; for which Sim. has in all probability been put by contraction in the player's MS.

RITSON