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 lingular integrity and learning:

Yea, the elect o'th'land, who are affembled

To plead your caufe. 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 juftly; therefore, madam,
It's fit this royal Seffion 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?
Queen. Sir,

I am about to weep; but thinking that

We are a Queen, or long have dream'd fo; certain,
The daughter of a King; my drops of tears

I'll turn to fparks 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 fhall not be my judge. For it is you
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me;
Which God's dew quench! therefore, I fay again,
I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refuse you for my judge; whom yet once more
I hold my moft malicious foe, and think not
At all a friend to truth.

Wol. I do profefs,

You speak not like your felf; who ever yet

Have ftood to charity, and difplay'd th' effects

Of difpofition gentle, and of wifdom

O'er-topping woman's power. Madam, you wrong me.

I have no fpleen against you, nor injustice
For you, or any; how far I've proceeded,
Or how far further fhall, is warranted
By a commiffion from the Confiftory,

Yea, the whole Confift'ry of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal; I do deny it.
The King is prefent; if't be known to him
That I gainfay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falfhood? 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 fhall speak in, I do befeech

You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking;
And to say so no more.

Queen. My lord, my lord,

I am a fimple woman, much too weak

[mouth'd;

T'oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble-
You fign your place and calling, in full feeming,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, fpleen, and pride.
You have by fortune, and his Highness' favours,
Gone flightly o'er low fteps; and now are mounted,
Where pow'rs are your retainers; and your words,
Domesticks to you, ferve your will, as't please
Your felf pronounce their office. I muft tell you,
You tender more your perfon's honour, than
Your high profeffion fpiritual. That again
I do refufe you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,
To bring my whole caufe 'fore his Holiness;
And to be judg'd by him.

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

Cam. The Queen is obftinate,

Stubborn to juftice, apt t'accufe it, and
Difdainful to be try'd by't; 'tis not well.
She's going away.

King, Call her again.

Cryer.

Cryer. Catharine, Queen of England, come into the Uber. Madam, you are call'd back.

[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 paft my patience!

pray you, pafs on;

I will not tarry; no, nor ever more Upon this business my appearance make of their Courts.

In any

[Exeunt Queen and her Attendants. King. Go thy ways, Kate; That man i'th'world who fhall report he has A better wife, let him in nought be trusted; For fpeaking falfe in that. Thou art alone, (If thy rare qualities, fweet gentleness, Thy meeknefs faint-like, wife-like government, Obeying in commanding, and thy parts Sovereign and pious elfe, could fpeak thee out) The Queen of earthly Queens. She's noble born; And, like her true nobility, fhe has Carried her felf tow'rds me.

Wol. Moft gracious Sir,

In humbleft 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 muft I be unloos'd; although not there
At once, and fully fatisfy'd ;) if I

Did broach this bufinefs to your Highness, or
Laid any fcruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the queftion on't; or ever
Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch
A royal lady, fpake one the leaft word,
That might be prejudice of her present state,
Or touch of her good perfon?

King. My lord Cardinal,

I do excufe 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 fo; but, like the village curs,
Bark when their fellows do. By fome of thefe
The Queen is put in anger; y'are excus'd:

But

But will you be more juftify'd? you ever
Have wish'd the fleeping of this business, never
Defir'd it to be ftirr'd; but oft have hindred
The paffages made tow'rds it :- On my honour,
I fpeak 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 firft receiv'd a tenderness,

Scruple, and prick, on certain fpeeches utter'd
By th' bishop of Bayon, then French ambaffador;
Who had been hither fent on the debating
A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I'th' progrefs of this bufinefs,
Ere a' determinate refolution, he

(I mean the bifhop) 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 refpite fhook
The bofom of my confcience, enter'd me,. (17)
Yea, with a fplitting power; and made to tremble

(16)

on my Honour

Ifpeak, my good Lord Cardinal, to this Point.]

In all the Editions, excepting Mr. Rowe's, this paffage 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 addrefs'd to Wolfey, breaks off and declares upon his Honour to the whole Court, that he fpeaks the Cardinal's Sentiments upon the Point in Queftion; and clears him from any Attempt, or Wish, to stir that Business.

(17)

This Respite book

The Bofom of my Confcience,] Tho this Reading be Senfe, and therefore I have not ventur'd to difplace it; yet, I verily believe, the Poet

wrote;

The Bottom of my Confcience,

My Reason is this. Shakespeare in all his Hiftorical Plays was a moft diligent Obferver 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 himfelf thus." Which Words, once conceived with"in the fecret Bottom of my Confcience, ingendred such a scrupulous "Doubt, that my Confcience was incontinently accombred, vex'd, and difquieted." Vid. Life of Henry 8th p. 907..

66

The

The region of my breaft; which forc'd fuch way,
That many maz'd confiderings did throng,
And preft in with this caution. First, methought,
I ftood not in the fmile of heav'n, which had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb
(If it conceiv'd a male-child by me) fhould
Do no more Offices of life to't, than

The grave does to the dead; for her male-iffue
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 iffue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe: thus hulling in
The wild fea of my confcience, I did fteer
Towards this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to fay,
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 firft so stagger me,
Bearing a state of mighty moment in't,
And confequence of dread; that I committed
The daring'ft counfel, which I had, to doubt:
And did intreat your Highness to this course,
Which you are running here.

(18) my Oppreffion I did reel,] This Word first got place in Mr. Rowe's Edition; all the Old Copies read, as I have reftor'd in the Text, reek; i. e. Sweat under the Burthen, and Agony of my Anxieties.