With all their honourable points of ignorance, Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean vertue, not in bravery; they rode not with fannes to ward their faces from the wind," &c. Again, in Lingua, &c. 1607, Phantaftes, who is a male character, is equipped with a fan. STEEVENS. The text may receive illustration from a paffage in Nashe's Life of Iacke Wilton, 1594: "At that time [viz. in the court of King Henry VIII.] I was no common fquire, no undertroden torch-bearer, I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop, my French doublet gelte in the belly, as though (lyke a pig readie to be spitted) all my guts had been pluckt out, a paire of fide paned hose that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheeses, my long flock that fate close to my dock,-my rapier pendant like a round fticke, &c. my blacke cloake of black cloth, ouerspreading my backe lyke a thornbacke or an elephantes eare;-and in confummation of my curiofitie, my handes without gloves, all a more French," &c. RITSON. In Rowley's Match at Midnight, A&t I. fc. i. Sim fays: "Yes, yes, the that dwells in Blackfryers, next to the fign of The Fool laughing at a Feather." But Sir Thomas Lovell's is rather an allufion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps. See a print on this fubject from a painting of Jordaens, engraved by Voert; and again, in the ballad of News and no News: 2 "And feathers wagging in a fool's cap." DoUCE. -fireworks ;] We learn from a French writer quoted in Montfaucon's Monuments de la Monarchie Françoife, Vol. IV. that fome very extraordinary fireworks were played off on the evening of the last day of the royal interview between Guynes and Ardres. Hence, our "travelled gallants," who were present at this exhibition, might have imbibed their fondness for the pyrotechnic art. STEEVENS. 2 blifter'd breeches,] Thus the old copy; i. e. breeches puff'd, fwell'd out like blifters. The modern editors read— bolfter'd breeches, which has the fame meaning. STEEVENS. Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it, They may, cum privilegio, wear away 4 The lag end of their lewdnefs, and be laugh'd at. SANDS. 'Tis time to give them phyfick, their difeafes Are grown fo catching. CHAM. Will have of these trim vanities! What a lofs our ladies Ay, marry, Lov. There will be woe indeed, lords; the fly whorefons Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies; A French fong, and a fiddle, has no fellow. SANDS. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're going (For, fure, there's no converting of them ;) now An honeft country lord, as I am, beaten A long time out of play, may bring his plain-fong, And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r-lady, Held current mufick too. CHAM. Well faid, lord Sands; Your colt's tooth is not caft yet. SANDS. Nor fhall not, while I have a ftump. CHAM. Whither were you a going? Lov. Your lordship is a guest too, CHAM. No, my lord; Sir Thomas, To the cardinal's; O, 'tis true: This night he makes a fupper, and a great one, The beauty of this kingdom, I'll affure you. 4 wear away-] Old copy-wee away. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE. Lor. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; His dews fall every where. CHAM. No doubt, he's noble; He had a black mouth, that faid other of him. SANDS. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal; in him, Sparing would fhow a worse fin than ill doctrine: Men of his way should be most liberal, They are set here for examples. Снам. True, they are so; But few now give fo great ones. My barge ftays; $ Your lordship fhall along:-Come, good fir Thomas, We fhall be late elfe: which I would not be, For I was spoke to, with fir Henry Guildford, This night to be comptrollers. SANDS. I am your lordship's. [Exeunt. 5 -My barge stays;] The fpeaker is now in the King's palace at Bridewell, from which he is proceeding by water to York-place, (Cardinal Wolfey's houfe,) now Whitehall. MALONE. SCENE IV. The Prefence-Chamber in York-Place. Hautboys. A fmall Table under a State for the Cardinal, a longer Table for the Guests. Enter at one Door ANNE BULLEN, and divers Lords, Ladies, and Gentlewomen, as Guefts; at another Door, enter Sir HENRY GUILDFORD. GUILD. Ladies, a general welcome from his grace Salutes ye all: This night he dedicates To fair content, and you: none here, he hopes, In all this noble bevy," has brought with her One care abroad; he would have all as merry As first-good company, good wine, good welcome Can make good people.7 -O, my lord, you are tardy; 6 noble bevy,] Milton has copied this word: "A bevy of fair dames." JOHNSON. Spenser had, before Shakspeare, employed this word in the fame manner : "And whither runs this bevy of ladies bright ??? Again, in his Fairy Queen: Shepheard's Calender. April. "And in the midft thereof, upon the flowre, "A lovely bevy of faire ladies fate." The word bevy was originally applied to larks. See the Gloffary to the Shepheard's Calender. MALONE. 7 As firft-good company, &c.] As this paffage has been all along pointed, [As firft, good company,] Sir Harry Guildford is made to include all these under the first article; and then gives us the drop as to what fhould follow. The poet, I am perfuaded, wrote: As firft-good company, good wine, good welcome, &c. i.e. he would have you as merry as these three things can make Enter Lord Chamberlain, Lord SANDS, and Sir THOMAS LOVELL. The very thought of this fair company CHAM. You are young, fir Harry Guildford. 8 SANDS. Sir Thomas Lovell, had the cardinal you, the best company in the land, of the best rank, good wine, &c. THEOBALD. Sir T. Hanmer has mended it more elegantly, but with greater violence : 8 As firft, good company, then good wine, &c. JOHNSON. a running banquet-] A running banquet, literally fpeaking, is a hafty refreshment, as fet in oppofition to a regular and protracted meal. The former is the object of this rakifh peer; the latter, perhaps, he would have relinquished to those of more permanent defires. STEEVENS. A running banquet feems to have meant a hafty banquet. "Queen Margaret and Prince Edward, (fays Habingdon, in his Hiftory of King Edward IV.) though by the Earle recalled, found their fate and the winds fo adverfe, that they could not land in England, to tafte this running banquet to which fortune had invited them." The hafty banquet, that was in Lord Sands's thoughts, is too obvious to require explanation. It fhould feem from the following lines in the prologue to a comedy called The Walks of Iflington, 1657, that fome double meaning was couched under the phrafe, a running banquet : "The gate unto his walks, through which you may "A play of walks, or you may please to rank it MALONE. |