You do no Chorus nor a comment lack,
20Which may expound and construe ev'ry Act:
That it be short and slight; for if 't be good
Tis long, and neither lik'd nor understood.
Know 'tis Court fashion still to discommend
All that which they want brain to comprehend.
To his Friends of Christ Church.] The occasion of this piece was one of those 'sorrowful chances' which befall those who endeavour to please kings, whatever their name. 'The play' was Barton Holyday's Technogamia, and the 'misliking' (James actually 'offered' to go away twice, though, being a good-natured person, he was persuaded to sit it out) is chronicled by Antony Wood under the author's name. It had been acted with great applause in the House itself, and two of King's younger brothers were among the performers. Also the 'frost' was made more unkind by the success at Cambridge of Ruggles's Ignoramus. So King's spleen, if unwise, was not quite unmotived. The date was August, 1621.
14 There is no probable reference to Malvolio, despite the association of 'cross-garter'd' and 'Puritan'; but the tone of the passage enables one to some extent to understand why the Puritan party conceived themselves to be deserted by King.