Hume, if you take not heed, you fhall go near *To call them both-a pair of crafty knaves. * Well, fo it flands: And thus, I fear, at last, *Hume's knavery will be the duchefs' wreck; And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall: *Sort how it will, 2 I fhall have gold for all. [ Exit. SCENE III. The fame. A Room in the Palace. Enter PETER, and Others, with Petitions. 1. PET. My mafters, let's fland clofe; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our fupplications in the quill.3 Sort how it will ] Let the iffue be what it will. JOHNSON. See Vol. IX p 334, n. 6. This whole fpeech is very different in the original play. Inflead of the laft couplet we find thefe lines: "But whift, Sir John; no more of that I trow, MALONE. 3 in the quill. In quill is Sir Thomas Hanmer's reading; the reft have-in the quill. JOHNSON. Perhaps our fupplications in the quill, or in quill, means no more than our written or penn'd fupplications. We fill fay, a drawing in chalk, for a drawing executed by the ufe of chaik. STEEVENS. In the quill may mean, with great exacthefs and obfervance of form, or with the utmoft punctilio of ceremony. The phrase feems to be taken from part of the drefs of our ancestors, whose ruffs were quilled. While thefe were won, it might be the vogue to fay, fuch a thing is in the quill, i. e. in the reigning mode of tafte. TOLLET. To this obfervation I may add, that after printing began, the fimilar phrafe of a thing being in print was used to exprefs the same circumftance of exactness. All this," (declares one of the quibbling fervants in The Two Gentlemen of Verona) " I say in print, for in print I found it." STEEVENS. 6 2. PET. Marry, the lord protect him, for he's a good man! Jefu blefs him! Enter SUFFOLK, and Queen MARGARET. 1. PET. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the queen with him: I'll be the firft, fure. 2. PET. Come back, fool; this is the duke of Suffolk, and not my lord protector. SUF. How now, fellow? would't any thing with me? * 1. PET. Ipray, my lord, pardon me! I took ye for my lord protector. Q. MAR. [reading the fuperfcription. ] To my lord protector! are your fupplications to his lordfhip? Let me fee 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 ' me. SUF. Thy wife too? that is fome wrong, indeed.What's your's? What's here! [reads.] Against the duke of Suffolk, for enclofing the commons of Melford. How now, fir knave? f 2. PET. Alas, fir, I am but a poor petitioner of our whole township. In quill may be fuppofed to have been a phrafe formerly in use, and the fame with the French en quille, which is faid of a man, when he ands upright upon his feet without ftirring from the place. The proper sense of quille in French is a nine-pin, and, in fome parts of England, nine-pins are fill called cay's, which word is ufed in the ftatute 33 Henry VIII. c. g. Quelle in the old British language alfo fignifies any piece of wood fet upright. VOL. XIV. HAWKINS. PETER. [prefenting his petition. ] Against my master, Thomas Horner, for saying, That the duke of York was rightful heir to the crown. Q. MAR. What fay'ft thou? Did the duke of York fay, he was rightful heir to the crown? · PETER. That my mafter was !5 No, forfooth: my mafter faid, That he was; and that the king was, an ufurper. SUF. Who is there? [ Enter Servants, ]-Take this fellow in, and fent for his master with a purfuivant prefently:-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 tected Under the wings of our protector's grace, [Tears the petitions. Away, bafe cullions!-Suffolk, let them go. * ALL. Come, let's be gone. [Exeunt Petitioners. Q. MAR. My lord of Suffolk, fay, is this the guife, *Is this the fathion in the court of England? Is this the government of Britain's ifle, 5 That my mafter was?] The old copy that my miflrefs was? The prefent emendation was fupplied by Mr. Tyrwhitt, and has the concurrence of Mr. M. Mafon. STEEVENS. The folio reads-That my miftrefs was; which has been followed in all fubfequent editions. But the context fhows clearly that it was a misprint for master. Peter fuppofes that the queen had asked, whether the duke of York had faid that his mafler (for fo he underftands the pronoun he in her speech) was rightful heir to the crown. "That my master was heir to the crown! (he replies.) No, the reverfe is the cafe. My after faid, that the duke of York was heir to the crown." In The Taming of the Shrew, mistress and mafter are frequently confounded. The mistake arofe from these words being formerly abbreviated in Mfs; and an M. ftood for either one or the other. See Vol. IX. p. 245, n. g. MALONE. * And this the royalty of Albion's king? 1 And must be made a fubject to a duke? • I tell thee, Poole, when in the city Tours Thou ran'ft a tilt in honour of my love, And ftol'ft away the ladies' hearts of France; I thought, king Henry had resembled thee, In courage, courtship, and proportion : • But all his mind is bent to holiness, *To number Ave-Maries on his beads: *His champions are-the prophets, and apoftles: His weapons, holy faws of facred writ; *His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves * Are brazen images of canoniz'd faints. *I would, the college of the cardinals. Would chofe him pope, and carry him to Rome, And fet the triple crown upon his head; *That were a ftate fit for his holiness. 'SUF. Madam, be patient: as I was cause 'Your highness came to England, fo will I In England work your grace's full content. Q. MAR. Befide the haught protector, have we Beaufort, * * The imperious churchman; Somerfet, Backing ham, * 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 moft ofall, * Cannot do more in England than the Nevils : * Salisbury, and Warwick, are no fimple peers. Q. MAR. Not all these lords do vex me half fo much, As that proud dame, the lord protector's wife. She fweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, • More like an emprefs, than duke Humphrey's wife; Strangers in court do take her for the queen: She bears a duke's revenues on her back,4 * And in her heart fhe fcorns our poverty: * Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her? ** Contemptuous bafe-born callat as fhe is, She vaunted 'mongft her minions t'other day, The very train of her worst wearing-gown Was better worth than all my father's lands, * Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter. SUF. Madam, myfelf have lim'd a bush for her; * And plac'd a quire of fuch enticing birds, *That fhe will light to liften to the lays, * And never mount to trouble you again. * So, let her reft: And, madam, lift to me; * For I am bold to counsel you in this. * Although we fancy not the cardinal, * Yet must we join with him, and with the lords, * Till we have brought duke Humphrey in disgrace. *As for the duke of York,--this late complaint' * Will make but little for his benefit: ↳ She bears a duke's revenues &c.] See King Henry VIII. A& I. fc. i. Vol. XVI. MALONE. 5 iwo dukedoms ] The duchies of Anjou and Maine, which Henry furrendered to Regnier, on his marriage with Margaret. See fc. i. MALONE. 6 lim'd a bufh for her ;] So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: "Lime your twigs to catch this weary bird." Again, in The Tragedy of Mariam, 1612: "A crimson lush that ever limes the foul." STEEVENS. In the original play in quarto: "I have fet lime-twigs that will 7 this late complaint · ] That is, the armourer's man againtt his mafter, the rightful king. JOHNSON. entangle them." MALONE. The complaint of Peter for faying that York was |