Yet I do find it so: for, to be plain, They, knowing dame Eleanor's aspiring humour, • Have hired me to undermine the duchess, And buz these conjurations in her brain. *. They say, A crafty knave does need no broker 5; *Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal's broker. * Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near * To call them both-a pair of crafty knaves. * Well, so it stands: And thus, I fear, at last, * Hume's knavery will be the duchess' wreck; * And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall: *Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all. [Exit. SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter PETER, and Others, with Petitions. • 1 Pet. My masters, let's stand close; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill1. 5 This expression was proverbial. It occurs in the old play, A Knacke to know a Knave, 1594: some will say A crafty knave needs no broker, But here is a craftie knave and a broker too.' It is to be found in Ray's Collection of Proverbs. 6 Let the issue be what it will. See note on Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 3. 1 There have been some strange conjectures in explanation of this phrase, in the quill. Steevens says that it may mean no more than written or penned supplications. Mr. Tollet thinks it means with great exactness and observance of form, in allusion to the quilled or plaited ruffs. Hawkins suggests that it may be the same with the French en quille, said of a man when he stands upright upon his feet, without moving from the place, in allusion to quille, a ninepin. It appears to me to be nothing more than an intention to mark the vulgar pronunciation of in the coil,' i. e. in the bustle. This word is spelt in the old dictionaries quoil, and was no doubt often pronounced by ignorant persons quile or quill. VOL. VI. 2 Pet. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jesu bless him! Enter SUFFOLK, and QUEEN MARGARET. * 71 Pet. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the queen with him: I'll be the first, sure. 2 Pet. Come back, fool; this is the duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector. Suf. How now, fellow? would'st any thing with me? 1 Pet. I pray, my lord, pardon me! I took ye ⚫ for my lord protector. 'Q. Mar. [Reading the superscription.] To my lord protector! are your supplications to his lordship? Let me see them: What is thine? ' 1 Pet. Mine is, an't please your grace, against John Goodman, my lord cardinal's man, for keeping my house, and lands, and wife and all, from 6 me. Suf. Thy wife too? that is some wrong indeed 2. -What's yours?-What's here? [Reads.] Against the duke of Suffolk, for enclosing the commons of Melford.-How now, sir knave? 2 Pet. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township. Peter. [Presenting his petition.] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying, That the duke of York was rightful heir to the crown. 'Q. Mar. What say'st thou? Did the Duke of "York say, he was rightful heir to the crown? 'Peter. That my master was? No, forsooth: my 2 This wrong seems to have been sometimes practised in Shakspeare's time. Among the Lansdowne MSS. we meet with the following singular petition:- Julius Bogarucius to the Lord Treasurer, in Latin, complaining that the Master of the Rolls keeps his wife from him in his own house, and wishes he may not teach her to be a papist.' ⚫ master said, That he was; and that the king was an usurper 3. 6 Suf. Who is there? [Enter Servants.]-Take this fellow in, and send for his master with a pursuivant presently:-we'll hear more of your matter before the king. [Exeunt Servants, with Peter. Q. Mar. And as for you, that love to be pro 6 tected • Under the wings of our protector's grace, Begin your suits anew, and sue to him. [Tears the Petition. Away, base cullions!-Suffolk, let them go. * All. Come, let's be gone. [Exeunt Petitioners. * Q. Mar. My lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, * Is this the fashion in the court of England? * Is this the government of Britain's isle, *And this the royalty of Albion's king? * What, shall King Henry be a pupil still, * Under the surly Gloster's governance? * Am I a queen in title and in style, * And must be made a subject to a duke? 'I tell thee, Poole, when in the city Tours Thou rann'st a tilt in honour of my love, ' And stol'st away the ladies' hearts of France; • But all his mind is bent to holiness, 3 The quarto reads ‘an usurer.' Queen. An usurper thou would'st say, 4 i. e. scoundrels; from coglioni, Ital. * I would, the college of cardinals * Would choose him pope, and carry him to Rome, * And set the triple crown upon his head; *That were a state fit for his holiness. Suf. Madam, be patient; as I was cause "Your highness came to England, so will I * In England work your grace's full content. *The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckingham, * And grumbling York: and not the least of these, * But can do more in England than the king. * Suf. And he of these, that can do most of all, * Cannot do more in England than the Nevils: Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers. 6 Q. Mar. Not all these lords do vex me half so much, As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, • More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife; Strangers in court do take her for the queen: * She bears a duke's revenues on her back, * And in her heart she scorns her poverty: * Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her? * Contemptuous base-born callat as she is, * Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms 5 for his daughter. Suf. Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her "; 5 The duchies of Anjou and Maine, which Henry surrendered to Reignier on his marriage with Margaret. See Sc. i. p. 109. 6 In the original play : 'I have set limetwigs that will entangle them.' * And plac'd a quire of such enticing birds, * Yet must we join with him, and with the lords, * So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last, Enter KING HENRY, YORK, and SOMERSET, conversing with him; DUKE and DUCHESS of GLOSTER, CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, SALISBURY, and WARWICK. K.Hen. For my part, noble lords, I care not which; Or Somerset, or York, all's one to me. York. If York have ill demean'd himself in France, Then let him be denay'd the regentship. Som. If Somerset be unworthy of the place, Let York be regent, I will yield to him. War. Whether your grace be worthy, yea, or no, Dispute not that: York is the worthier. Car. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak. War. The cardinal's not my better in the field. Buck. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick. War. Warwick may live to be the best of all. 7 i. e. the complaint of Peter the armourer's man against his master, for saying that York was the rightful king. 8 Denay is frequently used instead of deny among the old writers. So in Twelfth Night: My love can give no place, bide no denay,' |