Domefticks to you, ferve your will, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your perfon's honour, than
Your high profeffion fpiritual: That again.
I do refufe you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,
To bring my whole caufe 'fore his Holiness;
And to be judg'd by him.

[She curtfies to the King, and offers to depart.

Cam. The Queen is obftinate,

Stubborn to juftice, apt t' accufe it, and
Difdainful to be try'd by't; 'tis not well.

She's going away.

King. Call her again.

Cryer. Catharine, Queen of England, come into the Court.

Uber. Madam, you are call'd back.

Queen. What need you note it? pray you, keep your

way.

When you are call'd, return. Now the Lord help, They vex me paft my patience!-pray you, país on; I will not tarry; no, nor ever more

Upon this buliness my appearance make

In any of their Courts.

[Exeunt Queen and her attendants. King. Go thy ways, Kate;

That man i' th' world who shall report he has
A better wife, let him in nought be trufted;
For speaking false in that. Thou art alone,
(If thy rare qualities, fweet gentleness,

Thy meeknels faint-like, wife-like government,
Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
Sovereign and pious elfe, could speak thee out)
The Queen of earthly Queens. She's noble born;
And, like her true nobility, the has

Carried herself tow'rds me.

Wol. Moft gracious Sir,

In humbleft manner I require your Highness,
That it fhall please you to declare, in bearing.

Of all thefe ears (for where I'm robb'd and bound,
There muft I be unloos'd; although not there
At once, and fully fatisfy'd ;) if I

Did broach this bufinefs to your Highness, or
Laid any fcruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the question on't: or ever
Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch
A royal lady, fpake one the leaft word,
That might be prejudice of her present ftate,
Or touch of her good perfon?
King. My lord Cardinal,

I do excufe 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 fo; but, like the village curs,
Bark when their fellows do. By fome of these
The Queen is put in anger; y'are excus'd :
But will you be more juftify'd? you ever
Have wish'd the fleeping of this business, never
Defir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hindred
The paffages made tow'rds it :-On my honour,
I fpeak my good lord Cardinal to this point; (11)
And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to't,
I will be bold with time and your attention :

Then mark th' inducement. Thus it came; give heed to't.

My confcience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick, on certain fpeeches utter'd
By th' bishop of Bayon, then French ambaflador;
Who had been hither fent on the debating

(11)

On my. Honour

I speak, my good Lord Cardinal, to this Point.] In all the Editions, excepting Mr. Rowe's, this paffage has been pointed mistakingly, as if the King were speaking to the Cardinal: but This is not the Poet's Intention. The King, having first address'd to Wolfey, breaks 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 ftir that Bufinefs,

A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I'th' progrefs of this business,
Ere a determinate refolution, he

(I mean the bishop) did require a refpite;
Wherein he might the King his lord advertise,
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Refpecting this our marriage with the Dowager,
Sometime our brother's wife. This refpite thook
The bottom of my conscience, enter'd me, (12)
Yea, with a fplitting power; and made to tremble
The region of my breaft; which forc'd fuch way,
That many maz'd confiderings did throng,
And preft in with this caution. First, methought,
I ftood not in the smile of heav'n, which had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb
(If it conceiv'd a male-child by me) fhould
Do no more Offices of life tot, than

The grave does to the dead; for her male iffue
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'th' 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 iffue's fail; and that gave to me.
Many a groaning throe. thus hulling in

(12),

-This Respite book

The Bofom of my Confcience,] Tho' this Reading be Senfe,. yet, I.verily believe, the Poet. wrote.;:

The Bottom of my Confcience,

My Reason is this. Shakespeare in all his Hiftorical Plays was a moft diligent Obferver of Holing head's Chronicle; and had him always in Eye, wherever he thought fit to borrow any Matter from him. Now Holingfhead, in the Speech which he has given to King Henry upon this Subject, makes him deliver himself thus. "Which Words, once conceived within the fecret "Bottom of my Confcience, ingendred fuch a fcrupulous Doubt, that my, Confcience was incontinently accombred, vex'd, and difquieted." Vid. Life of Henry 8th p. 907..

The

The wild fea of my conscience, I did steer
Towards this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to fay,
I mean to rectifie my confcience, (which
I then did feel full-fick, and yet not well;)
By all the rev'rend fathers of the land

And doctors leam'd. First, I began in private
With you, my lord of Lincoln; you remember,
How under my oppreffion I did reek,

When I first mov'd you.

Lin. Very well, my liege.

King. I have fpoke long; be pleas'd your felf to fay How far you fatisfy'd me.

Lin. Please your Highness,

The question did at first fo ftagger me,
Bearing a flate of mighty moment in't,
And confequence of dread; that I committed:
The daring it counfel, which I had, to doubt:
And did intreat your Highness to this course,
Which you are running here.

King. I then mov'd you, (13)

My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave
To make this prefent fummons: Unfollicited

My Lord of Canterbury, and got your Leave

To make these present Summons unfollicited.] Thus all the Impreffions. But thefe Sagacious Editors have palm'd a strange Piece of Nonfenfe upon us, from a falfe Pointing. What did the King move the Bishop, nay, and fo move him as to get bis Leave, and yet could the Summons be faid to be unfollicited?, I have refcued the Text from fuch an abfurd Contradiction: and, again, done it upon the Authority of honeft Holing fhead."I moved it in Confeffion to You, my Lord of Lincoln, then "ghoftly Father. And forafmuch as then you yourself were in "fome Doubt, you mov'd me to ask the Counfel of all thefe Bl my Lords. Whereupon I moved you, my Lord of Canterbury, firft to have your Licence, in as much as you were Metropo❝litan, to put this Matter in Question; and so I did of All you, 66 my Lords." Holing head, ibid. p. 908.

I left no rev'rend perfon in this Court,
But by particular confent proceeded

Under your hands and feals. Therefore go on;
For no diflike i'th' world against the perfon
Of our good Queen, but the fharp thorny points.
Of my alledged reafons 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,
(Catharine our Queen) before the primest creature
That's paragon'd i'th' world.

Cam. So please your Highness,

The Queen being abfent, 'tis a needful fitness
That we adjourn this Court to further day;
Mean while must be an earnest motion
Made to the Queen, to call back her appeal
She intends to his Holiness.

King. I may perceive,

Thefe Cardinals trifle with me: I abhor
This dilatory floth, and tricks of Rome.

My learn'd and well-beloved servant Cranmer,
Pr'ythee, return! with thy approach, I know,
My comfort comes along. Break up the Court:
I fay, fet on..

[Exeunt, in manner as they enter’di

ACT