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Sir, I desire you do me right and justice;
And to bestow your pity on me; for

I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indiff'rent, and no more assurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas! sir,
In what have I offended you? what cause
Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure,
That thus you should proceed to put me off,
And take your good grace from me? Heav'n wit-

ness,

I've been to you a true and humble wife,

At all times to your will conformable :

Ever in fear to kindle your dislike:

Yea, subject to your count'nance; glad or sorry, As I saw it inclin'd. When was the hour

I ever contradicted your desire,

Or made it not mine too? Which of

your

friends

Have I not strove to love, although I knew
He were mine enemy? What friend of mine
That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I
Continue in my liking? nay, gave notice
He was from thence discharg'd? Sir, call to mind,
That I have been your wife, in this obedience,
Upwards of twenty years; and have been bless'd
With many children by you. If in the course
And process of this time you can report,
And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
My bond of wedlock, or my love and duty,

Against your sacred person; in God's name,
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To th' sharpest kind of justice. Please you, sir,
The king, your father, was reputed for
A prince most prudent, of an excellent
And unmatch'd wit and judgment. Ferdinand,
My father, King of Spain, was reckon❜d one
The wisest prince that there had reign'd, by many
A year before. It is not to be question'd

That they had gathered a wise council to them
Of ev'ry realm, that did debate this business,
Who deem'd our marriage lawful.

humbly,

Sir, I beseech you spare me, till I may

Wherefore,

Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whose counsel
I will implore. If not, i' th' name of God,
Your pleasure be fulfill'd!"

For this appropriate and touching appeal, there is the contemporary authority of Cavendish ;* notwithstanding that Hall† tells us, that the queen did not speak a word in this open court; and that Polydore Vergil‡ does not ascribe to her any discourse, except a vehement inculpation of Wolsey.§ But some of the pro

* P. 424; Stow, 542. + P.756.

P. 688.

§ Burnet says (Hist. Ref., iii. 80) that the king and queen never appeared in the court; but see Lingard, 151.

ceedings judiciously introduced by the dramatist into this scene, occurred at Bridewell (then a palace), some time before, when the king addressed "the nobility, judges, and counsellors, with divers other persons,' ,"* in a speech from which Shakspeare took

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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 excused;
But will you be more justified? You ever
Have wished the sleeping of this business;
Never desired it to be stirred."†

And then follows a history of the rise and progress of the royal scruples.

It was also at Bridewell that the two cardinals came to the Queen (the ground of a subsequent scene in the play), when she addressed them, according to Hall,§ in a speech which he took from the notes of Cardinal Campeggio's secretary.

Catherine's speech, in Hall, ascribes Wolsey's

* Cav. 426.
Act iii. Sc. 1.

+ Act ii. Sc. 4.

§ P.755,

hostility to the emperor's denial of support in his ambitious designs upon the popedom; I know not why this topic is omitted.

The Chronicles are followed in the character which Henry gives to his wife ;

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That man i' th' 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 nobly born,
And like her true nobility she has

Carried herself towards me."

There is the same authority for Wolsey's appeal to the king against the queen's imputation of the projected divorce to his contrivances; and in Catherine's rejection of Wolsey's attempt to address her in Latin; and she did appeal, as in the play, to the pope himself.

At the end of the second act, we have the first symptoms of Henry's discontent with Wolsey it appears from a letter lately published,†

* Hol., 738; Cav., 426; Stow, 542.
† July 1, 1527. St. Pap., i. 194.

that Henry's doubts of Wolsey's zeal for the divorce were entertained at an early period. It is doubtful whether Wolsey at any time entertained the project with the view in which his master, either in the beginning or at an early period, chiefly regarded it. Wolsey might have a scheme for allying Henry, matrimonially as well as politically, with France; but he had no object in getting rid of Catherine for the purpose of substituting Anne. Whatever might be the cause, the two cardinals did assuredly offend Henry by their procrastination.

At the end of this act, the name of a new and important person is introduced; and the first notice given of the king's opposition to the papal authority.

"I may perceive

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 approval, I know,
My comfort comes along!"

It is probable that Shakspeare took this reference to Cranmer from tradition, but he has ante-dated it.

Cranmer was not at this time known to the king, nor was he now out of England. Soon after this time, he met with Fox and Gardiner

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