The daughter of a king, my drops of tears
I'll turn to sparks of fire.

Wol.

Be patient yet.

Q. Kath. 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 challenge3,
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 soul,

Refuse you for my judge9; 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 yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display'd the effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom

O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me

wrong:

I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
For you, or any: how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further shall, is warranted

By a commission from the consistory,

Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is present: if it be known to him,
That I gainsay 10 my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But if he know

8 Challenge here (says Johnson) is a law term. The criminal, when he refuses a juryman, says 'I challenge him.'

9 These are not the mere words of passion, but technical terms of the canon law: detestor and recuso. The former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more than I protest against.

10 Deny.

Blackstone.

That I am free of your report, he knows,

I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lies, 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.

Q. Kath.

My lord, my lord, I am a simple woman, much too weak

To

oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble mouth'd;

11

You sign your place and calling, in full seeming 11,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours,
Gone slightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers: and your wards 12,
Domesticks to you, serve your will, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profession spiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,

11 You show in appearance meekness and humility, as a token or outward sign of your place and calling; but your heart is crammed with arrogancy, &c.

12 The old copy reads:

'Where powers are your retainers; and your words,
Domesticks to you,' &c.

I think with Mr. Tyrwhitt that we should read wards instead of words. The queen means to say, That the great and powerful were among his retainers, and that his wards (generally young nobility) were placed in domestic offices about his person to swell his state and retinue. This was the fact, and is made one of the principal charges against him.

'I must have notice where their wards must dwell;

I car'd not for the gentry, for I had

Young nobles of the land,' &c.

Storer's Metrical Life of Wolsey, 1599.

To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

[She curtsies to the King, and offers to depart.

Cam.

The queen is obstinate,

Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and

Disdainful to be try'd by it; 'tis not well.
She's going away.

K. Hen.

Call her again.

Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into the court.

Grif. Madam, you are call'd back.

Q. Kath. 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.

K. Hen.

[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and other Attendants.

Go thy ways, Kate: That man i' the 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 13), The queen of earthly queens:-She is noble born; And, like her true nobility, she has

Carried herself towards me.

13 If thy several qualities had tongues capable of speaking out thy merits, i. e. of doing them extensive justice. In Cymbeline we have a similar expression:

you speak him far although not there.'

Wol.

Most gracious sir,

In humblest manner I require your highness,
That it shall please you to declare, in hearing
Of all these ears (for where I am robb'd and bound,
There must I be unloos'd; although not there
At once and fully satisfied 14), whether ever I
Did broach this business to your highness; or
Laid any scruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the question on't? or ever
Have to you, but with thanks to God for such
A royal lady, spake one the least word, might
Be to the prejudice of her present state,

Or touch of her good person?

K. Hen. 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 to village curs, Bark when their fellows do: by some of these The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd: But will you be more justified? you ever Have wish'd the sleeping of this business; never Desir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hinder'd; oft The passages made toward it:-on my honour, I speak my good lord cardinal to this point 15, And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to't,I will be bold with time, and your attention:Then mark the inducement. Thus it came;-give heed to't:

14 The sense, which is encumbered with words, is no more than this:-I must be loosed, though when so loosed I shall not be satisfied fully and at once; that is, I shall not be immediately satisfied.

15 The king, having first addressed Wolsey, 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.

VOL. VII.

X

My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick 16, on certain speeches utter'd
By the bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador;
Who had been hither sent on the debating

A marriage, 'twixt the duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I'the progress of this business,
Ere a determinate resolution, he

(I mean, the bishop) did require a respite;
Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
The bosom of my conscience17, enter'd me,
Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
The region of my breast; which forc'd such way,
That many maz'd considerings did throng,
And press'd in with this caution. First, methought,
I stood not in the smile of heaven; who 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,

16 The words of Cavendish are- The special cause that moved me hereunto was a scrupulosity that pricked my conscience.'-See also Holinshed, p. 907.

17 Theobald thought we should read The bottom of his conscience.' Thus Holinshed, whom the poet follows pretty accurately: Which words, once conceived within the secret bottom of my conscience, ingendred such a scrupulous doubt, that my conscience was incontinently accombred and vexed, and disquieted.'-Henry VIII. p. 907.

Shakspeare uses the phrase in King Henry VI. Part I. :The very bottom and the soul of hope.'

It is repeated in King Henry VI. Part II.; in Measure for Measure; All's Well that Ends Well; Coriolanus, &c.