2 Gent. This secret is so weighty, 'twill require | And with what zeal! For, now he has crack'd the A strong faith' to conceal 1 Gent. I do not talk much. 2 Gent. Let me have it; I am confident: You shall, sir: Did you not of late days hear 1 Gent. Yes, but it held2 not: 1 Gent. The cardinal 'Tis woful. league Between us and the emperor, the queen's great nephew, He dives into the king's soul; and there scatters most true, These news are every where; every tongue speaks And every true heart weeps for't: All, that dare The king's eyes, that so long have slept upon Suf. And free us from his slavery. Nor. We had need pray, And heartily, for our deliverance; That she should feel the smart of this? Will have his will, and she must fall. 1 Gent. We are too open here to argue this; Let's think in private more. Suf. For me, my lords, I love him not, nor fear him; there's my creed; SCENE II. An Antechamber in the Palace. En-As I am made without him, so I'll stand, ter the Lord Chamberlain, reading a Letter. Cham. My lord,-The horses your lordship sent for, with all the care I had, I saw well chosen, ridden, and furnished. They were young, and handsome; and of the best breed in the north. When they were ready to set out for London, a man of my lord cardinal's, by commission, and main power, took 'em from me; with this reason,-His master would be served before u subject, if not before the king: which stopped our mouths, sir. Has crept too near another lady. No, his conscience "Tis so; This is the cardinal's doing, the king-cardinal: That blind priest, like the eldest son of fortune, Turns what he list. The king will know him one day. Suf. Pray God, he do! he'll never know himself else. Nor. How holily he works in all his business! 1 Great fidelity. 2 Steevens erroneously explains this passage, saying zo hold is to believe: it held not here rather means it did not sustain itself, the rumour did not prove true. So in King Richard III. Act ii. Sc. 2- Doth the news hold of good King Edward's death? 3 See The Winter's Tale, Act i. Sc. 2. note 8. It was the main end or object of Wolsey to bring about a marriage between Henry and the French king's Bister, the duchess of Alençon. Cham. Thanks, my good lord chamberlain. [Exit Lord Chamberlain. NORFOLK opens a folding-door. The King is discovered sitting, and reading pensively. Suf. How sad he looks! sure, he is much afficted. K. Hen. Who is there? ha? Nor. Into my private meditations? Nor. A gracious king, that pardons all offences for the state of the theatre in Shakspeare's time. When a person was to be discovered in a different apartment from that in which the original speakers in the scene are exhibited, the artless mode of that time was, to place such person in the back part of the stage, behind the curtains which were occasionally suspended across it. These the person who was to be discovered (as Henry in the present case,) drew back just at the proper time. Norfolk has just said 'Let's in; and therefore should himself do some act in order to visit the king. This, indeed, in the simple state of the old stage, was 6 The stage direction in the old copy is singular-not attended to; the king very civilly discovering himExit Lord Chamberlain, and the king draws the cur- self. See Malone's account of the Old Theatres, in Mr. in, and sits reading pensively.'-This was calculated Boswell's edition, vol. ii. 5 The meaning is, that the cardinal can, as he pleases, make high or low. I'll venture one have at him.3 Suf. Aside. I another. [Exeunt NORFOLK and SUFFOLK. Wol. Your grace has given a precedent of wis`dom Above all princes, in committing freely I mean, the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms, ment, Invited by your noble self, hath sent One general tongue unto us, this good man, And thank the holy conclave for their loves; Cam. Your grace must needs deserve all strangers' loves, You are so noble: To your highness' hand K. Hen. Two equal men. The queen shall be acquainted Forthwith, for what you come :-Where's Gar diner? So dear in heart, not to deny her that K. Hen. Ay, and the best, she shall have; and my favour To him that does best; God forbid else. Cardinal, Pr'ythee, call Gardiner to me, my new secretary; I find him a fit fellow. [Exit WOLSEY. 1 The meaning appears to be, Let care be taken that my promise be performed, that my professions of welcome be not found empty talk.' 2 i. e. so sick as he is proud. 3 Steevens reads 'one heave at him;' but surely without necessity. To have at any thing or person meant to attack it, in ancient phraseology. Surrey afterwards says :- have at you, First that without the king,' &c. The phrase is derived (like many other old popular phrases) from gaming: to have at all,' was to throw for all that was staked on the board, adventuring on the cast an equal stake. 4 i. e. kept him out of the king's presence, employed in foreign embassies. 5 'Aboute this time the king received into favour Doctor Stephen Gardiner, whose service he used in matters of great secrecie and weight, admitting him in the room of Dr Pace, the which being continually abroad in am How! of me? Cam. They will not stick to say, you envied him; And, fearing he would rise, he was so virtuous, Kept him a foreign man still; which so griev'd him, That he ran mad, and died." Wol. Heaven's peace be with him! That's Christian care enough: for living murmurers, There's places of rebuke. He was a fool; For he would needs be virtuous: That good fellow, 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.-O, my lord, Would it not grieve an able man, to leave So sweet a bedfellow? But, conscience, conscience, O, '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 lived so long with her: and she Old L. Hearts of most hard temper Melt and lament for her. Anne. O, God's will! much better She ne'er had known pomp: though it be temporas, Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce" It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging As soul and body's severing. bassades, and the same oftentymes not much necessarie by the Cardinalles appointment, at length he toke such greefe therwith, that he fell out of his right wittes.”— Holinshed.' 6 To send her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a sentence of ejection. 7 I think with Steevens that we should read:- 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 : Pll tell you as we pass along The soul and body rive not more at parting To pang is used as a verb active by Skelton, in "What heaviness did me pange. Beshrew me, I would, You, that have so fair parts of woman on you, Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive, 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. hire me, Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you, Anne. No, in truth. Anne. Are all I can return. 'Beseech your lordship, Cham. 8 Lady, Beauty and honour in her are so mingled, My honour'd lord. Old L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a This compell'd fortune!) have your mouth fill'd up, little; I would not be a young count in your way, For more than blushing comes to: if your back Anne. How you do talk! I swear again, I would not be a queen There was a lady once ('tis an old story,) That would not be a queen, that would she not, Old L That promises more thousands: Honour's train Cham. Good morrow, ladies. What wer't worth Are you not stronger than you were? to know The secret of your conference? Anne. Cham. It was a gentle business, and becoming Anne. Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady, 1 The revocation of her husband's love has reduced 3 Cheveril is kid leather, which, being of a soft yield. Ing nature, is often alluded to in comparisons for any thing pliant or flexible. 4 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. SCENE IV. A Hall in Black-Friars. Trumpets sennet,12 and cornets. Enter two Vergers, with and Antony and Cleopatra are not exactly in point; for the word commend, in both those instances, signifies commit. 7 Not only my all is nothing: but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. s To approve is not, as Johnson explains it, here, to strengthen by commendation, but to confirm (by the report he shall make) the good opinion the king has formed. 9 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. 10 Forty pence was in those days the proverbial ex 5 i e. you would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty, used with the sceptre at co-pression of a small wager. Money was then reckoned ronations.-Johnson. 6 I cannot but be surprised that Malone should have made any difficuky about the reading of the text :the king's majesty Commends his good opinion to you.' by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty pence, or three and fourpence, is half a noble, and is still an established legal fee. 11 The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and slime of the Nile. It is one of the most common forms of epistolary and 12 This word sennet, about which there has been so colloquial compliment of our ancestors, whose letters much discussion to little purpose, is nothing more than frequently terminate with and so I commend me to the senne of the old French, or the segno or segnata of you,' or begin with After my hartie commendacions to the Italians, a signal given by sound of trumpet-' sig. you.' &c. The instances cited by Steevens from Learnum dare buccina.' 4 short silver wands; next them, two Scribes, in the With many children by you: If, in the course And prove it too, against mine honour aught, Wol. Whilst our commission from Rome is read, (And of your choice,) these reverend fathers; men Let silence be commanded. It hath already publicly been read, Be't so:-Proceed. Crier. Henry king of England, &c. K. Hen. Here. Of singular integrity and learning, Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled His grace Hath spoken well, and justly: Therefore, madam, Scribe. Say, Katharine queen of England, come Be now produc'd, and heard. into court. Crier. Katharine queen of England, &c. [The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court, comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks.2] Q. Kath. Sir, I desire you, do me right and jus- And to bestow your pity on me: for ness, I have been to you a true and humble wife, Q. Kath. Q. Kath. Lord cardinal, I am about to weep; but, thinking that Wol. Be patient yet. Q. Kath. I will, when you are humble; nay, before, Or God will punish me. I do believe, Yea, subject to your countenance; glad, or sorry, Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends He was from thence discharg'd? Sir, call to mind 1 Ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Refuse you for my judge; whom, yet once more, Wol. wrong: I have no spleen against you; nor injustice Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge 2 Because she could not come directly to the king parted from thence. Many supposed that she would for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go have resorted again to her former place; but she took. about unto the king, kneeling down at his feet,' &c.-her way straight out of the house, leaning (as she was Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, vol. i. p. 149, ed. 1825. 3 This speech is taken from Holinshed (who copies from Cavendish) with the most trifling variations. Hall has given a different report of the queen's speech, which, he says, was made in French, and translated by him from notes taken by Campeggio's secretary. 4 That is, 'If you can report and prove aught against mine honour, my love and duty, or aught against your sacred person,' &c. wont always to do) upon the arm of her general receiver Master Griffiths.-Life of Wolsey, p. 152. 6 That you desire to protract the business of the court. To pray for a longer day,' i. e. a more distant one, is yet the language of the bar in criminal trials. 7 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 tech 5 The historical fact is, that the queen staid for no re-nical terms of the canon law: detestor and recuso. Th: ply to this speech. Cavendish says, 'And with that she former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more rose up, making a low courtesy to the king, and so de- than I protest against.-Blackstone. |