This royal infant, (heaven ftill move about her) Shall ftill be doubled on her. Truth fhall nurse her: Holy and heav'nly thoughts ftill counsel her: She fhall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own fhall bless her; And hang their heads with forrow. Good grows with her. As great in admiration as herfelf; So fhall fhe leave her bleffedness to one, (When heav'n fhall call her from this cloud of darkness) Who from the facred ashes of her honour Shall ftar-like rife, as great in fame as fhe was, Where-ever the bright fun of heav'n shall shine, Shall be, and make new nations. He shall flourish, King. Thou fpeakest wonders. Cran. Cran. She shall be, to the happiness of England, (31) And yet no day without a deed to crown it. To th' ground, and all the world shall mourn her. Thou't made me now a man; never, before (31) She fhall be, to the happiness of England, If An aged Princefs;] The tranfition here from the complimentary addrefs And claim by thofe their greatness, not by blood. All that the Bishop fays after this, was an occafional homage paid to her fucceffor; and evidently inferted after her demife. How naturally, without this infertion, does the King's joy, and fatisfactory reflection upon the Bishop's prophecy come in! King. Thou speakeft wonders. O Lord Archlishop, Thou'ft made me now a man. Never, before This happy child, did I get any thing, &c. Whether the King would fo properly have made this inference, upon hearing that a child of fo great hopes fhould die without iffue, is fubmitted to judgment. (32) Would I had known no more: but she must die, She muft, the faints must have her; yet a virgin, A moft unspotted lilly, &c.] Thus the editors hitherto, in their fagacity, have pointed this paffage, and destroy'd the true sense of it. The first part of this fentence is a wifh: The other should be a forrowful continuation of the Bishop's prophecy. But, fure, Cranmer was too wife and pious a man, too well acquainted with the state of mortality, to make it a part of his lamentation that this good Princess must one time or other go to heaven. As I point it, the poet makes a fine compliment to his royal mistress's memory, to lament that she must die without leaving an heir of her body behind her. Palamon and Arcite, in the Two Noble Kinfmen of Beaumont and Fletcher, being made prifoners to Thefeus, and fearing they fhall die in that captivity, lament their fate, I remember, in much the fame manner. Here the graces of our youths must wither Like a too timely fpring; here age must find us, t This oracle of comfort has fo pleas'd me, This little one fhall make it holy-day. [Exeunt. (33) And you good brethren,] But, the Aldermen never were call'd brethren to the King. The top of the nobility are but cousins and counsellors. Dr. Thirlby, therefore, rightly advised; And your good brethren- i.e. the Lord Mayor's brethren; which is properly their style. Sq in the chorus before the 5th Act of Henry V. The Mayor, and all his brethren in beft fort, With the Plebeians fwarming at their heels, E P I IS ten to one, this play can never please All that are here: fome come to take their ease, And fleep an act or two; but those, we fear, We've frighted with our trumpets: fo, 'tis clear, They'll fay, 'its naught. Others, to hear the city Abus'd extremely, and to cry, that's witty! Which we have not done neither; that, I fear, All the expected good w' are like to hear For this play at this time, is only in The merciful conftruction of gcod wom'n; (For fuch a one we fhew'd 'em) If they fmile, And fay, 'twill do; I'know, within awhile All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap, If they hold, when their Ladies bid 'em clap. The End of the FIFTH Volume. |