ACT III.
Scene 1. Page 74.
Suf. I think, I should have told your grace's tale.
On this expression Dr. Johnson remarks that "majesty was not the settled title till the time of King James the First." In a note to vol. i. p. 97, of the lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood, it is said that our kings had not the title of majesty in the reign of Henry the Eighth; and another note in Dr. Warburton's edition of the Dunciad, b. iv. l. 176, states that James was the first who assumed the title of sacred majesty; all which information is unsupported by authority.
On the other hand, Camden more correctly says, that "majesty came hither in the time of King Henry the Eighth, as sacred majesty lately in our memory."—Remains concerning Britain, p. 198, edit. 1674, 8vo. Selden, referring to this passage, wishes it to be understood so far as it relates to the title being "commonly in use and properly to the king applied," because he adduces an instance of the use of majesty so early as the reign of Henry the Second. In a letter from queen Elizabeth to Edward the Sixth, she signs "Your majesties humble sister," and addresses it "To the kinges most excellent majestie."—Harl. MS. No. 6986. In the same volume is a most extraordinary letter in Italian to Elizabeth, beginning, "Serenissima et sacratissima maesta," which shows that Camden, who wrote what he says above early in 1603, must rather refer to Elizabeth than James the First.
The use of majesty is ascribed by the learned authors of the Nouveau traité de diplomatique to Gondemar king of the Visigoths, and to the kings of Lorraine in the seventh century; but in France it is not traceable before the year 1360, about which time Raoul de Presle, in the dedication to his translation of Saint Augustin De civitate Dei, thus addresses Charles the Fifth: "si supplie à vostre royalle majesté." It was however but sparingly used till the reign of Louis XI. In the treaty of Créssy the emperor Charles V. is called imperial majesty, and Francis I. royal majesty. In that of Château Cambresis, Henry II. is entitled most christian majesty, and Philip II. catholic majesty. Pasquier has some very curious remarks in reprobation of the use of majesty. See Recherches de la France, liv. viii. ch. 5.
Both Camden and Selden agree that the title of Grace began about the time of Henry the Fourth, and of excellent Grace under Henry the Sixth.
Scene 1. Page 91.
York. ... I have seen him
Caper upright like a wild Mórisco,
Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells.
However just Dr. Johnson's explanation of Morisco may be in an etymological point of view, it is at least doubtful whether it mean in this place a real or even personated Moor. Nothing more may be intended than simply a performer in a morris dance. It may be likewise doubted whether in the English morris dance, a single Moorish character was ever introduced. The quotation from Junius is extremely perplexing; yet it must be remembered that he was a foreigner, and speaking perhaps conjecturally.
Scene 2. Page 96.
K. Hen. ... Come, basilisk,
And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight.
Bartholomæus, with whom it has been shown that Shakspeare was well acquainted, speaking of the basilisk or cockatrice, says, "In his sight no fowle nor birde passeth harmelesse, and though he be farre from the foule, yet it is burnt and devoured by his mouth.... Plinius also sayth there is a wilde beast called Catobletas [which is] great noyeng to mankinde: for all that see his eyen should dye anone, and the same kinde hath the cockatrice."—De propriet. rer. lib. xviii. c. 16. The same property is also mentioned by Pliny of the basilisk, but Holland's translation was not printed till after this play was written. It is true that if Shakspeare did not write the lines in question, the original author might have used a Latin Pliny.
Scene 2. Page 103.
War. Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost.
It has been very plausibly suggested that timely-parted signifies in proper time, as opposed to timeless; yet in this place it seems to mean early, recently, newly. Thus in Macbeth, Act II. Scene 3,
"He did command me to call timely on him."
Again, in The unfaithful lover's garland,
"Says he, I'll rise; says she, I scorn
To be so timely parted."
Porter, in his comedy of the Two angry women of Abingdon, 1599, 4to, seems to have had Warwick's speech in view when he wrote these lines:
"Oft have I heard a timely married girl
That newly left to call her mother mam, &c."
Scene 2. Page 105.
War. But see, his face is black and full of blood.
The accounts given by the English historians of the Duke of Gloucester's death are very discordant and unsatisfactory. They relate that he was smothered between feather-beds; that he was found dead in his bed; that a red hot spit was thrust through him; and that he died of grief. There is another account of this event, which, as it seems to have been quite unnoticed in our histories, and may deserve as much attention as either of the foregoing, shall here be given.
George Chastellain, a celebrated soldier, poet, and historian, was by birth a Flemming, and is said to have been in the service of Philip duke of Burgundy. He travelled into various countries, and wrote an account of what he had seen, under the title of The wonderful occurrences of his time. Speaking of his visit to England, he says,
"Passant par Angleterre
Ie veis en grant tourment
Les seigneurs de la terre
S'entretuer forment
Avec un tel deluge
Qui cueurs esbahissoit
Que a peine y eut refuge
Ou mort n'apparoissoit.
Ung nouveau roy creerent
Par despiteux vouloir
Le viel en debouterent
Et son legitime hoir
Qui fuytif alla prendre
Descosse le garand,
De tous siécles le mendre
Et le plus tollerant."
This alludes to the flight of Henry the Sixth into Scotland. In another place he speaks as an eye witness of the death of duke Humphrey, and relates that he was strangled in a cask of wine, adding also the reason,
"Par fortune senestre
Veiz a l'oeil vifvement
Le grant duc de Clocestre
Meurdrir piteusement
En vin plein une cuve
Failloit que estranglé fust,
Cuydant par celle estuve,
Que la mort ny parut."
What credit he may deserve may be worth the inquiry of some future historian. His work in general will strike every reader as a strange mixture of veracity and credulity.
The above singular mode of inflicting death seems to have prevailed about this time; for we find not long afterwards another instance of it in the execution of George duke of Clarence, who, as is generally agreed, was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. He appears to have chosen the manner of his death, on which Mr. Hume makes the following observation: "A whimsical choice, which implies that he had an extraordinary passion for that liquor."[16] It should rather be inferred that the punishment in question was more frequent than is commonly known, and made use of for culprits of rank and eminence when dispatched in secret. Jean Molinet, the continuator of the above work of Chastellain, has thus described this event:
"Jay veu duc de Clarence
Bouté en une tour
Qui queroit apparence
De regner a son tour;
De mort preadvisee
Le roy le feist noyer
Dedans mallevoisee
Pour le moins ennuyer."
Scene 2. Page 116.
Q. Mar. Away! though parting be a fretful corrosive.
A learned commentator has stated that this word was generally written corsive in Shakspeare's time, and he has indeed proved that it was so written sometimes. The fact is, it was written as at present in prose, and in poetry either way, as occasion required. Thus Drant in his translation of Horace's satyres, 1566, 4to:
"Wote you not why? corrosyve style
Is corsey to the eye."
In the text it should be printed cor'sive.
Scene 3. Page 116.
K. Hen. O beat away the busy meddling fiend
That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul.
It was the belief of our pious ancestors, that when a man was on his death-bed the devil or his agents attended in the hope of getting possession of the soul, if it should happen that the party died without receiving the sacrament of the eucharist, or without confessing his sins. Accordingly in the ancient representations of this subject, and more particularly in those which occur in such printed services of the church as contain the vigils or office of the dead, these busy meddling fiends appear, and with great anxiety besiege the dying man; but on the approach of the priest and his attendants, they betray symptoms of horrible despair at their impending discomfiture. In an ancient manuscript book of devotions, written in the reign of Henry the Sixth, there is a prayer addressed to Saint George, with the following very singular passage: "Judge for me whan the moste hedyous and damnable dragons of helle shall be redy to take my poore soule and engloute it in to theyr infernall belyes."
Shakspeare, who in many instances has proved himself to have been well acquainted with the forms and ceremonies of the Romish church, has, without doubt, on the present occasion availed himself of the above opinion. Whether this had happened to that pre-eminent painter, who, among the numerous monuments of his excellence that have immortalized himself and done honour to his country, has depicted the last moments of Cardinal Beaufort with all the powers of his art, cannot now be easily ascertained. He has been censured for personifying the fiend, on the supposition that the poet's language is merely figurative; with what justice this note may perhaps assist in deciding. Some might disapprove the renovation of Popish ideas; whilst others, more attentive to ancient costume, and regardless of popular or other prejudices, might be disposed to defend the painter on the ground of strict adherence to the manners of the times.
The reader may not be displeased at being introduced to a more intimate acquaintance with the ancient mode of representing a dying man as above referred to. It is copied from a print in a later edition of the Ars moriendi, one of those books on which the citizens of Haarlem found their claim to the invention of printing; whereas it is in fact no more than a collection of wooden engravings made for pious purposes, and explained by writing cut on the same blocks, and by no means a real specimen of the above art. To this is added another exhibition of the same subject, but very superior in point of art. It is copied from an engraving in wood by an unknown artist of considerable merit; and from the striking resemblance which it bears to the picture of our great painter above alluded to, much cannot be hazarded in supposing that he might have taken some hints from it, as it is well known that he collected many prints with the view of making such use of preceding excellence as the most exalted genius will ever condescend to do.
The Greeks, when persons were dying, drove away evil spirits by placing at the door branches of bramble or buckthorn. They likewise made a noise by beating brazen vessels for the same purpose.
