Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way, which Both. You may command us, sir. [Exeunt. SCENE II.* Kimbolton. Enter KATHARINE, Dowager, sick; led between GRIFFITH and PATIENCE. Grif. How does your grace? Kath. My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth, Willing to leave their burden: Reach a chair ;So, now, methinks, I feel a little ease. O, Griffith, sick to death: Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me, That the great child of honour, cardinal Wolsey, Was dead? Grif. Yes, madam; but, I think, your grace, Out of the pain you suffer'd, gave no ear to't. Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he died: If well, he stepp'd before me, happily," For my example. *This scene is above any other part of Shakspeare's tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other poet, tender and pathetick, without gods, or furies, or poisons, or precipices, without the help of romantick circumstances, without improbable sallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of tumultuous misery.JOHNSON. 6 Haply. Grif. Well, the voice goes, madam: For after the stout earl Northumberland Arrested him at York, and brought him forward (As a man sorely tainted,) to his answer, He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill, He could not sit his mule. Kath. Alas! poor man ! Grif. At last, with easy roads," he came to Leices Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot, So went to bed: where eagerly his sickness Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him! Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him, And yet with charity,-He was a man 8 Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking 7 By short stages. VOL. VII. Pride. • Of the king. Both in his words and meaning: He was never, His promises were, as he then was, mighty; The clergy ill example. Grif Noble madam, Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water. May it please your highness To hear me speak his good now? Kath. I were malicious else. Grif. Yes, good Griffith; This cardinal, Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly From his cradle, He was a scholar, and a ripe, and good one; ■ Formed for. And, to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he died, fearing God. Sad and solemn musick. : Grif. She is asleep: Good wench, let's sit down quiet, For fear we wake her ;-Softly, gentle Patience. The Vision. Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six Personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces; branches of bays, or palm, in their hands. They first congee unto her, then dance; and, at certain changes, the first two hold a spare garland over her head; at which, the other four make reverend court'sies; then the two that held the garland, deliver the same to the other next two, who observe the same order in their changes, and holding the garland over her head: which done, they deliver the same garland to the last two, who likewise observe the same order: at which, (as it were by inspiration, she makes in her sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her hands to heaven: and so in their dancing they vanish, carrying the gar land with them. The musick continues. Kath. Spirits of peace, where are ye? Are ye all gone? And leave me here in wretchedness behind ye? Grif. Madam, we are here, Kath. Saw ye Grif. It is not you I call for : None, madam, none enter, since I slept? Kath. No? Saw you not, even now, a blessed troop Invite me to a banquet; whose bright faces They promis'd me eternal happiness; And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel Assuredly. Grif. I am most joyful, madam, such good dreams Possess your fancy. Kath. Bid the musick leave, They are harsh and heavy to me. Pat. [Musick ceases. Do you note, How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden? Grif. She is going, wench; pray, pray. Pat. Heaven comfort her! |