Nor.

Let's in;

And, with some other business, put the king

From these sad thoughts, that work too much upon

him.

My lord, you'll bear us company ?

Cham. Excuse me; The king hath sent me other-where; besides, You'll find a most unfit time to disturb him. Health to your lordships.

Nor.

Thanks, my good lord chamberlain.

[Exit Lord Chamberlain.

NORFOLK opens a folding-door.

The King is discov

ered sitting, and reading pensively.1

Suf. How sad he looks! sure, he is much afflicted. K. Hen. Who is there? ha?

Nor.

'Pray God, he be not angry.

K. Hen. Who's there, I say? How dare you thrust

yourselves

Into my private meditations?

Who am I? ha?

Nor. A gracious king, that pardons all offences Malice ne'er meant; our breach of duty, this way, Is business of estate; in which, we come

To know your royal pleasure.

K. Hen.

You are too bold.

Go to; I'll make ye know your times of business.
Is this an hour for temporal affairs? ha?-

Enter WOLSEY and CAMPeius.

Who's there? my good lord cardinal?-O, my Wolsey, The quiet of my wounded conscience,

1 The stage direction in the old copy is singular-" Exit lord chamberlain, and the king draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively."This was calculated 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.

Thou art a cure fit for a king.-You're welcome,

[To CAMPEIUS.

Most learned, reverend sir, into our kingdom;
Use us, and it. My good lord, have great care
I be not found a talker.'

Wol.

[To WOLSEY.

Sir, you cannot.

I would your grace would give us but an hour

Of private conference.

K. Hen.

We are busy; go.

[To NORFOLK and SUFFOLK. no pride in him?

I would not be so sick, place:

But this cannot continue.

Nor.

Not to speak of;

though, for his

I'll venture one have at him.3

Suf.

If it do,

I another.

Aside.

[Exeunt NORFOLK and SUFFOLK.

Wol. Your grace has given a precedent of wisdom Above all princes, in committing freely

Your scruple to the voice of Christendom.

Who can be angry now? what envy reach you?
The Spaniard, tied by blood and favor to her,
Must now confess, if they have any goodness,
The trial just and noble. All the clerks,

I mean, the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms,
Have their free voices; Rome, the nurse of judgment,
Invited by your noble self, hath sent

One general tongue unto us, this good man,
This just and learned priest, cardinal Campeius;
Whom, once more, I present unto your highness.

K. Hen. And, once more, in mine arms I bid him welcome,

And thank the holy conclave for their loves;
They have sent me such a man I would have wished for.

1 "That my professions of welcome be not found empty talk."

2 i. e. so sick as he is proud.

3 To have at any thing or person, meant to attack it, in ancient phraseology.

Cam. Your grace must needs deserve all strangers'

loves,

You are so noble. To your highness' hand

I tender my commission; by whose virtue,
(The court of Rome commanding,) you, my lord
Cardinal of York, are joined with me, their servant,
In the unpartial judging of this business.

K. Hen. Two equal men.

quainted

The queen shall be ac

Forthwith for what you come.-Where's Gardiner ? Wol. I know your majesty has always loved her So dear in heart, not to deny her that

A woman of less place might ask by law

Scholars, allowed freely to argue for her.

K. Hen. Ay, and the best she shall have; and my

favor

To him that does best; God forbid else.

Cardinal,

[Exit WOLSEY.

Pr'ythee, call Gardiner to me, my new secretary;

I find him a fit fellow.

Re-enter WOLSEY, with GARDIner.

Wol. Give me your hand; much joy and favor to

you;

You are the king's now.

Gard.

But to be commanded

Forever by your grace, whose hand has raised me.

K. Hen. Come hither, Gardiner.

[Aside.

[They converse apart. Cam. My lord of York, was not one doctor Pace

In this man's place before him?

Wol.

Yes, he was.

Yes, surely.

Cam. Was he not held a learned man?
Wol.

Cam. Believe me, there's an ill opinion spread then Even of yourself, lord cardinal.

Wol.

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 man1 still; which so grieved him, That he ran mad, and died.2

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 griped 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 furnished.-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
So good a lady, that no tongue could ever
Pronounce dishonor of her,—by my life,

She never knew harm-doing;-O, now, after
So many courses of the sun enthroned,

Still growing in a majesty and pomp,—the which

1 i. e. kept him out of the king's presence, employed in foreign embassies.

2 "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 Doctor Pace, the which being continually abrode in ambassades, 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.

To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than

"Tis sweet at first to acquire,-after this process, To give her the avaunt!1 it is a pity

Would move a monster.

Old L.

Melt and lament for her.

Anne.

Hearts of most hard temper

O, God's will! much better,

She ne'er had known pomp; though it be temporal,
Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce 2

It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging
As soul and body's severing.3

Old L. Alas, poor lady!

She's a stranger now again.

Anne.

So much the more

Must pity drop upon her. Verily,

I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.

Old L.

Is our best having.*

Anne.

Our content

By my troth and maidenhead,

I would not be a queen.

Old L.

Beshrew me, I would,

And venture maidenhead for't; and so would you,
For all this spice of your hypocrisy.

You, that have so fair parts of woman on you,

Have too a woman's heart; which ever yet

Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty;

Which, to say sooth, are blessings; and which gifts (Saving your mincing) the capacity

Of

5

your soft, cheveril conscience would receive, If you might please to stretch it.

1 To send her away contemptuously.

2 Steevens thinks that we should read:-
:-

"Yet if that quarrel, fortune to divorce

It from the bearer,” &c.; using fortune as a verb.

3 To pang is used as a verb active by Skelton, in his book of Philip

Sparrow, 1568, sig. R v.

4 Our best possession.

5 Cheveril is kid leather.