If I command him, follows my appointment;
I will have none so near else. Learn this, brother,
We live not to be grip'd by meaner persons.
K. Hen. Deliver this with modesty to the queen.

[Exit GARDINER.
The most convenient place that I can think of,
For such receipt of learning, is Black-Friars ;
There

ye shall meet about this weighty business :My Wolsey, see it furnish’d.—0, my lord, Would it not grieve an able man, to leave So sweet a bedfellow? But, conscience, consci

ence, 0, 'tis a tender place, and I must leave her.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

An Antechamber in the Queen's Apartments.

Enter ANNE BULLEN, and an old Lady. Anne. Not for that neither;—Here's the pang

that pinches : His highness having liv'd so long with her: and she So good a lady, that no tongue could ever Pronounce dishonour of her,—by my life, She never knew harm-doing ;-0 now, after So many courses of the sun enthron'd, Still growing in a majesty and pomp,—the which To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than 'Tis sweet at first to acquire,--after this process, To give her the avaunt?! it is a pity Would move a monster. Old L.

Hearts of most hard temper Melt and lament for her.

1 To send her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a sentence of ejection.

Anne.

0, God's will! much better, She ne'er had known pomp: though it be temporal, Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce? It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging As soul and body’s severing 3. Old L.

Alas, poor lady! She's a stranger now again *. Anne.

So much the more
Must pity drop upon her. Verily,
I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.
Old L.

Our content
Is our best having 5.
Anne.

By my troth, and maidenhead,
I would not be a queen.
Old L.

Beshrew me, I would, And venture maidenhead for’t; and so would you, For all this spice of your hypocrisy: You, that have so fair parts of woman on you, 2 I think with Steevens that we should read :

• Yet if that quarrel, fortune to divorce

It from the bearer,' &c. i.e. if any quarrel happen or chance to divorce it from the bearer. To fortune is a verb, used by Shakspeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

- I'll tell you as we pass along

That you will wonder what hath fortuned.' 3 Thus in Antony and Cleopatra :

* The soul and body rive not more at parting

Than greatness going off.' To

pang is used as a verb active by Skelton, in his book of Philip Sparrow, 1568, sig. Rv.:

• What heaviness did me pange.' 4 The revocation of her husband's love has reduced her to the condition of an unfriended stranger. Thus in Lear :

• Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath.' 5 Our best possession. See vol, i. p. 236, note 4. VOL, VII.

U

Have too a woman's heart; which ever yet
Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty;
Which, to say sooth, are blessings: and which gifts
(Saving your mincing) the capacity
Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive,
If you might please to stretch it.
Anne.

Nay, good troth, Old. L. Yes, troth, and troth,—You would not

be a queen? Anne. No, not for all the riches under heaven. Old L. 'Tis strange; a threepence bowed would

hire me,

Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you,
What think you of a duchess? have you

limbs
To bear that load of title?
Anne.

No, in truth.
Old L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a

little> ;
I would not be a young count in your way,
For more than blushing comes to: if your back
Cannot vouchsafe this burden, 'tis too weak
Ever to get a boy.
Anne.

How
you

do talk!
I swear again, I would not be a queen
For all the world.
Old L.

In faith, for little England
You'd venture an emballing 8 : I myself

6 Cheveril is kid leather, which, being of a soft yielding nature, is often alluded to in comparisons for any thing pliant or flexible. We have this epithet applied in the same way in Histriomastix, 1610 :

• The cheveril conscience of corrupted law.' 7 Anne Bullen declining to be either a queen or a duchess, the old lady says, ' pluck off a little:' let us descend a little lower, and so diminish the glare of preferment by bringing it nearer your own quality.

8 i. e. you would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty, used with the sceptre at coronations.—Johnson.

Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes here?

Enter the Lord Chamberlain. Chan. Good morrow, ladies. What wer't worth

to know The secret of

your

conference? Anne.

My good lord, Not your demand; it values not your asking: Our mistress' sorrows we were pitying.

Cham. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women: there is hope, All will be well. Anne.

Now I pray God, amen!
Cham. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly

blessings
Follow such creatures. That you may,
Perceive I speak sincerely, and high note's
Ta'en of your many virtues, the king's majesty
Commends his good opinion to you, and
Does purpose honour to you no less flowing
Than marchioness of Pembroke; to which title

fair lady,

Malone suggests that we might read “an empalling,' i. e. being invested with the pall of royalty or robe of state. The verb is used by Chapman in his version of the eighth book of the Odyssey :

such a radiance as doth round empall Crown'd Cytherea.' 9 I cannot but be surprised that Malone should have made any difficulty about the reading of the text:

the king's majesty Commends his good opinion to you.' It is one of the most common forms of epistolary and colloquial compliment of our ancestors, whose letters frequently terminate with ' and so I commend me to you,' or begin with. After my hartie commendacions to you,' &c. The instances cited by Steevens from Lear and Antony and Cleopatra are not exactly in point; for the word commend, in both those instances, signi fies commit.

A thousand pound a year, annual support,
Out of his grace he adds.
Anne.

I do not know,
What kind of my obedience I should tender;
More than my all is nothing 10: nor my prayers
Are not words duly hallow'd, nor my wishes
More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers, and

wishes, Are all I can return. 'Beseech your lordship, Vouchsafe to speak my thanks, and my obedience, As from a blushing handmaid, to his highness; Whose health, and royalty, I pray for. Cham.

Lady, I shall not fail to approve the fair conceit '1, The king hath of you.—I have perus’d her well;

-[Aside. Beauty and honour in her are so mingled, That they have caught the king: and who knows yet, But from this lady may proceed a gem, To lighten all this isle 12 ?—I'll to the king, And say, I spoke with you. Anne.

My honour'd lord.

[Exit Lord Chamberlain. Old L. Why, this it is; see, see! I have been begging sixteen years in court

10 Not only my all is nothing; but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. Thus in Macbeth:

• More is thy due than' more than all can pay.' 11 To approve is not, as Johnson explains it, here to strengthen hy commendation, but to confirm (by the report he shall make) the good opinion the king has formed.

12 The carbuncle was supposed by our ancestors to have intrinsic light, and to shine in the dark : any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it. Thus in a Palace described in Amadis de Gaulę, 1619, fol. p. 5:- In the roofe of a chamber hung two lampes of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchafed two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light.'