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Wol. You have here, lady,

(And of your choice) these reverend fathers; men

Of fingular integrity and learning,

Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled

To plead your caufe: It shall be therefore bootless,

That longer you defer the court; as well

For your own quiet, as to rectify

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 fpeak.

Wol. Your pleasure, madam?

Queen. Sir,

I am about to weep4; 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; 5 and make my challenge,

You

* I am about to weep; &c.] Shakspeare has given almost a fimilar sentiment to Hermions in the Winter's Tale, on an almost fimilar occasion:

" I am not prone to weeping, as our fex

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Commonly are, &c. but I have

"That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns

"Worse than tears drown; &c."

STEEVEN'S,

You shall not be judge:]

and make my challenge,

Challenge is here a verbum juris, a law term. The criminal, when he refuses a juryman, says, I challenge him, I think there is a flight errour which destroys the connection, and would read:

R4

Induc'd

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,

6

• I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refufe 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 yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and difplay'd the effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom!

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

wrong:

1

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 commiffion from the consistory,

Yea, the whole confiftory 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 gainfay 7 my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falshood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. If he know
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

Induç'd by potent circumstances, that
You are mine enemy, I make my challenge.
-You shall not be my judge. JOHNSON.

6 I utterly abhor, yea from my soul

Refuse you as my judge) These are not mere words of passion, but technical terms in the canon law-Detestor and Recuso. The former in the language of the canonifts, fignifies no more, than I protest against. BLACKSTONE.

1-gainsay] i. e. deny. So, in lord Surrey's translation of the fourth book of the Eneid :

" I hold thee not, nor yet gainsay thy words."

STEEVENS.

His highness shall 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

To oppose your cunning. You are meek, and hum

ble-mouth'd;

* You sign 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 powers are your retainers: and your words,
Domesticks to you, serve your will, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your perfon's honour, than
Your high profession spiritual: That again

* You fign your place and calling,-) Sign, for answer.

WARBURTON.

I think, to fign, must here be to show, to denote. By your outward meekness and humility, you show that you are of an holy order, but, &c. JOHNSON,

؟now are mounted,

Where powers are your retainers; and your words,
Domesticks to you, serve your will,

You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue: and words therefore are degraded to the servile state of performing any office which you shall give them. In humbler and more common terms; Having now now got power, you do not regard your word. JOHNSON.

I believe we should read:

" Where powers are your retainers, and your awards, "Domesticks to you, &c."

The Queen rises naturally in her description. She paints the powers of government depending upon Wolfey under three images; as his retainers, his wards, his domestick fervants.

TYRWHITT.

So, in Storer's Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal, a poem, 1599:

"I must have notice where their wards must dwell;
" I car'd not for the gentry, for I had
"Yong nobles of the land, &c." STEEVENS.

1

I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,
To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

[She curt'fies 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.

King. Call her again.

Crier. Katharine, queen of England, come into

the court.

Usher. Madam, you are call'd back.

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.

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[Exeunt Queen, and her Attendants.

King. 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 faint-like, wife-like government,-
Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out)
The queen of earthly queens :- She is noble born;
And, like her true nobility, the has
Carried herself towards me.

Wol. Moft gracious fir,

In humblest manner I require your highness,
That it shall please you to declare, in hearing

could speak thee out)] If thy several qualities had tongues

to speak thy praise. JOHNSON.

Of

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 fatisfy'd) whether ever I
Did broach this business to your highness; or
Lay'd 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 to the prejudice of her present state,

Or touch of her good person ?

)

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 to village curs,
Bark when their fellows do; by fome of these
The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd:
But will you be more justify'd? you ever
Have with'd the fleeping of this business; never
Defir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hindred, oft,
The passages made toward it :- on my honour,

although not there

At once, and fully satisfied)

]

What he aims at is this; where I am robbed and bound, there must I be unloofed, though the injurers be not there to make me fatisfaction; as much as to say, I owe so much to my own innocence, as to clear up my character, though I do not expect my wrongers will do me justice. It seems then that Shakspeare

wrote:

Aton'd, and fully satisfied. WARBURTON.

I do not fee what is gained by this alteration. The sense, which is encumbered with words in either reading, 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. JOHNSON.

3

-on my honour,

I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,]

The king, having first addressed 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 ftir that business. THEOBALD.

1

I speak

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