And did entreat your highness to this course,
Which you are running here.

K. Hen.
I then moved 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 paragoned' 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 learned and well-beloved servant, Cranmer,
Pr'ythee return! With thy approach, I know,
My comfort comes along. Break up the court.
I say, set on.

[Exeunt, in manner as they entered.

1 Shakspeare uses the verb to paragon both in Antony and Cleopatra and Othello.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Palace at Bridewell.

A Room in the Queen's Apartment. The Queen, and some of her Women, at work.

Q. Kath. Take thy lute, wench; my soul grows sad with troubles.

Sing, and disperse them, if thou canst; leave working.

SONG.

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?

Gent. An't please your grace, the two great cardinals

Wait in the presence.

Q. Kath. Would they speak with me?

Gent. They willed me say so, madam.
Q. Kath.

Pray their graces

To come near. [Exit Gent.] What can be their

business

1 Presence chamber.

With me, a poor weak woman, fallen from favor?
I do not like their coming, now I think on't.

They should be good men; their affairs' as righteous:
But all hoods make not monks.

Wol.

Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEius.

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

wife;

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 withdraw
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

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,2

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 lived in ;

A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, sus

picious.

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

1 "Being churchmen, they should be virtuous, and every business they undertake as righteous as their sacred office; but all hoods make not monks." 2 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."

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

Wol.

Noble lady,
I am sorry, my integrity should breed,
(And service to his majesty and you,)1
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant.
We come not by the way of accusation,
To taint that honor 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 honored 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
Both of his truth and him, (which was too far,)-
'Offers, as I do, in a sign of
His service and his counsel.

Q. Kath.

peace,

To betray me.

[Aside. My lords, I thank you both for your good wills. Ye speak like honest men, (pray God, ye prove so!) But how to make you suddenly an answer, In such a point of weight, so near mine honor, (More near my life I fear,) with my weak wit, And to such men of gravity and learning, In truth, I know not. I was set at work Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking Either for such men, or such business. For her sake that I have been, (for I feel The last fit of my greatness,) good your graces, Let me have time, and counsel, for my cause. Alas! I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.

1 This line stands so awkwardly, and out of its place, that Mr. Edwards proposes to transpose it thus:—

"I am sorry my integrity should breed

VOL. V.

So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant,

And service to his majesty and you."

24

Wol. Madam, you wrong the king's love with these

fears;

Your hopes and friends are infinite.

Q. Kath. In England, But little for my profit. Can you think, lords, That any Englishman dare give me counsel ? Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highness' pleasure, (Though he be grown so desperate to be honest,) And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends, They that must weigh out my afflictions, They that my trust must grow to, live not here; They are, as all my other comforts, far hence, In mine own country, lords.

Cam.

I would your grace Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.

Q. Kath.

How, sir? Cam. Put your main cause into the king's protection; He's loving, and most gracious; 'twill be much

Both for your honor better, and your cause;

For if the trial of the law o'ertake you,

You'll part away disgraced.

Wol.

He tells you rightly.

Q. Kath. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, my ruin. Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon ye! Heaven is above all yet; there sits a Judge, That no king can corrupt.

Cam.

Your rage mistakes us.

Q. Kath. The more shame for ye; holy men I

thought ye,

Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues;
But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye.
Mend them for shame, my lords. Is this your
The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady?
A woman lost among ye, laughed at, scorned?
I will not wish ye half my miseries;

comfort?

I have more charity. But
But say, I warned ye;
Take heed, for Heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once
The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

1 Massinger uses the phrase weigh up, for raise; and Mason proposes to substitute it for weigh out here. Perhaps it is equivalent to outweigh.