I will implore. If not, i'th' name of God,
Your pleasure be fulfill'd!
Wol. You have here, lady,
(And of your choice) these rev'rend fathers, men
Of angular integrity and learning :
Yea, the elect o'th'land, who are assembled
To plead your cause. It shall be therefore bootless,
That longer you defer the Court, as well
For your own quiet, as to rectifie
What is unfettled in the King.
Cam. His Grace
Hath spoken well and justly; therefore, madam,
It's fit this royal Session do proceed;
And that without delay their arguments
Be now produc'd, and heard.
Queen. Lord Cardinal,
To you I speak.
Wol. Your pleasure, madam ?
I am about to weep; but thinking that
We are a Queen, or long have dream'd so; certain,
The daughter of a King; my drops of tears
I'll turn to sparks of fire.
Wol. Be patient yet
Queen. I will, when you are humble; nay, before;
Or God will punish me. I do believe,
Induc'd by potent circumstances, that
You are mine enemy, and make my challenge;
You shall not be my judge. For it is you
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me;
Which God's dew quench! therefore, I say again,
I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul
Refuse you for my judge; whom yet once more
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
At all a friend to truth.
Wol. I do profess,
You speak not like your self; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display'd th' effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom
O'er-topping woman's power. Madam, you wrong me.
I have no spleen against you, nor injustice
For you, or any; how far I've proceeded,
Or how far further shall, is warranted
By a commission from the Consistory,
Yea, the whole Consist'ry of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal; I do deny it.
The King is present; if't be known to him
That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falshood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But if he know
That I am free of your report, he knows,
I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lyes to cure me, and the cure is to
Remove these thoughts from you. The which before
His Highness shall speak in, I do beseech
You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking;
And to say so no more.
Queen. My lord, my lord,
I am a simple woman, much too weak
[mouth'd;
T'oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble-
You fign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have by fortune, and his Highness' favours,
Gone flightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted,
Where pow'rs are your retainers; and your words,
Domesticks to you, serve your will, as't please
Your self pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profeffion spiritual. That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,
To bring my whole cause 'fore his Holiness;
[She curtfies to the King, and offers to depart.
Cam. The Queen is obstinate, Stubborn to juftice, apt t'accuse it, and Disdainful to be try'd by't 'tis not well. She's going away.
King. Call her again.
Usher. Madam, you are call'd back.
Cryer. Catharine, Queen of England, come into the [Court. Queen. What need you note it? pray you, keep your way.
When you are call'd, return. Now the Lord help,
They vex me past my patience! - pray you, pass on;
I will not tarry; no, nor ever more
Upon this business my appearance make
In any of their Courts.
[Exeunt Queen and her Attendants.
King. Go thy ways, Kate;
That man i'th'world who shall report he has
A better wife, let him in nought be trusted;
For speaking false in that. Thou art alone,
(If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness,
Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like government,
Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out)
The Queen of earthly Queens. She's noble born;
And, like her true nobility, she has
Carried her self tow'rds me.
In humblest manner I require your Highness,
That it shall please you to declare, in hearing
Of all these ears (for where I'm robb'd and bound,
There must I be unloos'd; although not there
At once, and fully fatisfy'd;) if I
Did broach this business to your Highness, or
Laid any fcruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the question on't; or ever
Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch
A royal lady, spake one the least word,
That might be prejudice of her present state,
Or touch of her good perfon?
King. My lord Cardinal,
I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
I free you from't: you are not to be taught,
That you have many enemies, that know not
Why they are so; but, like the village curs,
Bark when their fellows do. By some of these
The Queen is put in anger; y'are excus'd:
But will you be more justify'd? you ever
Have wish'd the sleeping of this business, never
Defir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hindred
The passages made tow'rds it :- On my honour,
I speak my good lord Cardinal to this point; (16)
And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to't,
I will be bold with time and your attention :
Then mark th' inducement. Thus it came; give heed to't.
My confcience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd
By th' bishop of Bayon, then French ambassador;
Who had been hither fent on the debating
A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I'th' progress of this business,
Ere a determinate resolution, he
(I mean the bishop) did require a refpite;
Wherein he might the King his lord advertise,
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Respecting this our marriage with the Dowager,
Sometime our brother's wife. This respite shook
The bosom of my confcience, enter'd me,. (17)
Yea, with a splitting power; and made to tremble
(16) Ispeak, my good Lord Cardinal, to this Point.]
In all the Editions, excepting Mr. Rowe's, this passage has been pointed mistakingly, as if the King were speaking to the Cardinal: but This is not the Poet's Intention. The King, having first address'd to Wolfey, breaks off: and declares upon his Honour to the whole Court, that he speaks the Cardinal's Sentiments upon the Point in Question; and clears him from any Attempt, or Wish, to stir that Business.
The Bofom of my Confcience,] Tho this Reading be Sense, and therefore I have not ventur'd to displace it; yet, I verily believe, the Poet
The Bottom of my Confcience,
My Reason is this. Shakespeare in all his Historical Plays was a most diligent Observer of Hollingshead's Chronicle; and had him always in Eye, wherever he thought fit to borrow any Matter from him. Now Hollingsbead, in the Speech which he has given to King Henry upon this Subject, makes him deliver himself thus. Which Words, once conceived with" in the secret Bottom of my Confcience, ingendred such a scrupulous " Doubt, that my Conscience was incontinently accombred, vex'd, and
disquieted." Vid. Life of Henry 8th p. 907.
The region of my breast; which forc'd such way,
That many maz'd confiderings did throng,
And prest in with this caution. First, methought,
I stood not in the smile of heav'n, which had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb
(If it conceiv'd a male-child by me) should
Do no more Offices of life to't, than
The grave does to the dead; for her male-issue
Or died where they were made, or shortly after
This world had air'd them. Hence I took a thought,
This was a judgment on me, that my kingdom
(Well worthy the best heir o'th' world) should not
Be gladded in't by me.. Then follows, that
I weigh'd the danger which my realms stood in
By this my issue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe: thus hulling in
The wild fea of my confcience, I did steer
Towards this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to say,
I meant to rectifie my confcience, (which
I then did feel full-fick, and yet not well;)
By all the rev'rend fathers of the land
And doctors learn'd. First, I began in private
With you, my lord of Lincoln; you remember,
How under my oppreffion I did reek, (18)
When I first mov'd you.
Lin. Very well, my liege.
King. I have spoke long; be pleas'd your self to say
How far you fatisfy'd me.
Lin. Please your Highness,
The question did at first so stagger me,
Bearing a state of mighty moment in't,
And consequence of dread; that I committed
The daring'st counsel, which I had, to doubt:
And did intreat your Highness to this course,
Which you are running here.
(18) my Oppression I did reel,] This Word first got place in Mr. Rowe's Edition; all the Old Copies read, as I have restor'd in the Text, reek; i. e. Sweat under the Burthen, and Agony of my Anxieties.
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