(And of your choice,) these reverend fathers; men Of singular integrity and learning,

Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled

To plead your cause: It shall be therefore bootless,
That longer you desire the court; as well

For your own quiet, as to rectify

What is unsettled in the king.

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.

I am about to weep; 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.

Q. Kath. 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; and make my challenge
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,

I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul

a

Refuse you for my judge: whom, yet once more,
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not

You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display'd the effects

a Sir W. Blackstone, who contributed a few notes to Shakspere, says that abhor and refuse are, in such a case, technical terms of the canon-law-Detestor and Recuso. The very words occur in Holinshed. Challenge has been previously used by the queen technically.

Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom

O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong:

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 commission from the consistory,

Yea, the whole consistory 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 gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood! 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
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 mcek, and humble

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 slightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers: and your words,"
Domestics to you, serve your will, as 't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell
You tender more your person's honour than
Your high profession spiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,

a

66

you,

Tyrwhitt would read, as we think most unpoetically, your wards,"-persons subject to him as to the care of their fortunes, and treated as "servants." This is to convert high poetry into matter of fact. What an image is presented of an unscrupulous but most able man, to say that his powers are used as the mere agents of his pleasure, and his words, without regard to the general obligation of truth, are "domestics" who serve but his will!

Before you all, appeal unto the pope,

To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

Cam.

[She curtsies to the KING, and offers to depart. The queen is obstinate,

Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and

Disdainful to be tried by it; 't is not well.

She's going away.

K. Hen. Call her again.

Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into 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 her 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,)
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
Induce you to the question on 't? or ever

Have to you,

but with thanks to God for such

A royal lady, spake one the least word that might
Be to the prejudice of her present state,
Or touch of her good person?

K. Hen.

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:—
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 ambassador;
Who had been hither sent on the debating

A marriage, 'twixt the duke of Orleans and

Our daughter Mary: I' the progress of this business,
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,

Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
The region of my breast; which forc'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.

Very well, my liege.

K. Hen. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself to say

How far satisfied me.

Lin.

you

So please your highness,
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: