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.

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 chai-
lenge him.'

s These are not the mere words of passion, but tech 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 ruse up, making a low courtesy to the king, and so de- than I protest against.-Blackstone.

That I have blown this coal: I do deny it :
The king is present: if it be known to him,
That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood? 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 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 hum-
ble mouth'd;

2

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 slightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers: and your
wards,'

Domestics 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,
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.

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,
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:

My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick," on certain speeches utter'd
By the bishop of Bayonne, then French ambas-
sador;

Who had been hither sent on the debating
A marriage, 'twixt the duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I' the progress of this bu-
siness,

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 conscience, enter'd me,

Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble

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."

[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and other

Attendants.

K. Hen.
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,)4
The queen of earthly queens:-She is noble born;
And, like her true nobility, she has
Carried herself towards me.

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,") whether ever I
Did broach this business to your highness; or
Laid any scruple in your way, which might

The region of my breast; which fore'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,
Well worthy the best heir o' the 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 issue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to say
I meant to rectify my conscience,-which
I then did feel full sick, and yet not well,-
By all the reverend fathers of the land,
And doctors learn'd.-First, I began in private
With you, my lord of Lincoln; you remember
How under my oppression I did reek,
When I first mov'd you.

Lin.

10

Very well, my liege.
K. Hen. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself

to say

How far you satisfied me.
Lin.

So please your highness,

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.

6 The king, having first addressed Wolsey, breaks

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

8 Theobald thought we should read The bottom of his conscience.'

9 The phrase belongs to navigation. A ship is said to hull when she is dismasted, and only her hull or hulk is left at the direction and mercy of the waves

10 Waste, or wear away.

The question did at first so stagger me,-
Bearing a state of mighty moment in't,
And consequence of dread,-that I committed
The daring'st counsel which I had, to doubt;
And did entreat your highness to this course,
Which you are running here.

K. Hen.
I then mov'd you,
My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave
To make this present summons:-Unsolicited
I left no reverend person in this court;
But by particular consent proceeded,
Under your hands and seals. Therefore, go on:
For no dislike i' the world against the person
Of the good queen, but the sharp thorny points
Of my alleged reasons, drive this forward:
Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life,
And kingly dignity, we are contented

To wear our mortal state to come, with her,
Katharine our queen, before the primest creature
That's paragon'd' o' the world.

Cam.
So please your highness,
The queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness
That we adjourn this court till further day:
Meanwhile must be an earnest motion
Made to the queen, to call back her appeal
She intends unto his holiness. [They rise to depart.
K. Hen.
I may perceive, [Aside.
These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor
This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome.
My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer,
Pr'ythee return!2 with thy approach, I know,
My comfort comes along. Break up the court:
I say, set on. [Exeunt, in manner as they entered.

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops, that freeze,

Bow themselves, when he did sing
To his music, plants, and flowers,
Ever sprung; as sun, and showers,
There had been a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,

Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art;
Killing care, and grief of heart,
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.

Enter a Gentleman.

Q. Kath. How now ?

But all hoods make not monks.

Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS.

Wol.
Peace to your highness!
Q. Kath. Your graces find me here part of a
housewife;

I would be all, against the worst may happen.
What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords?
Wol. May it please you, noble madam, to with-
draw

Into your private chamber, we shall give you
The full cause of our coming.

Q. Kath.
Speak it here;
There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience,
Deserves a corner: 'Would, all other women
Could speak this with as free a soul as I do!
My lords, I care not, (so much I am happy
Above a number,) if my actions

G

Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw them,
Envy and base opinion set against them,
I know my life so even: If your business
Seek me out, and that way I am wife in,"
Out with it boldly; Truth loves open dealing.
Wol. Tanta est ergà te mentis integritas, regina
serenissima,-

Q. Kath. O, good my lord, no Latin;

I am not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have liv'd in:
A strange tongue makes my cause more strange,
suspicious;

Pray, speak in English: here are some will thank you,
Believe me, she has had much wrong: Lord car-
If you speak truth, for their poor mistress' sake;

dinal,

The willing'st sin I ever yet committed,
May be absolv'd in English.

Wol.

Noble lady,

I am sorry, my integrity should breed
(And service to his majesty and you,)9
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant.
We come not by the way of accusation,

To taint that honour every good tongue blesses;
Nor to betray you any way to sorrow;
You have too much, good lady: but to know
How you stand minded in the weighty difference
Between the king and you; and to deliver,
Like free and honest men, our just opinions,
And comforts to your cause.

Cam.
Most honour'd madam,
My lord of York,-out of his noble nature,
Zeal and obedience he still bore your grace;
Forgetting, like a good man, your late censure

Gent. An't please your grace, the two great car- Both of his truth and him (which was too far,)—

dinals

That paragons description and wild fame.'

2 This is only an apostrophe to the absent bishop of that name.

sion to the Latin proverb-Cucullus non facit mona-
chum, to which Chaucer also alludes:-

'Habite ne maketh monke ne frere ;
But a clene life and devotion,
Maketh gode men of religion.'

6 I would be glad that my conduct were in some publie trial confronted with mine enemies, that malice and corrupt judgment might try their utmost power against

me.

7 This is obscurely expressed, but seems to mean, If your business is with me, and relates to the question of my marriage, out with it boldly.'

3 Cavendish, who appears to have been present at this interview of the cardinals with the queen, says She 8 Then began my lord to speak to her in Latin.— came out of her privy chamber with a skein of white" Nay, good my lord (quoth she,) speak to me in Enthread about her neck into the chamber of presence.'glish, I beseech you, though I understand Latin."— A subsequent speech of the queen's is nearly conform- Cavendish. able to what is related in Cavendish, and copied by Holinshed.

4 Presence chamber.

5 Being churchmen they should be virtuous, and every business they undertake as righteous as their sacred office: but all hoods make not monks' In allu-!

9 This line stands so awkwardly, and out of its place, that Mr. Edwards's proposition to transpose it, should be adopted, thus:

'I am sorry my integrity should breed
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant,
And service to his majesty and you.'