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Crier. Katharine Queen of England, come into

the Court.

Griffith. Madam, you are called back.

Q. Kath. What need you note it? pray you, keep your way:

When you are called, 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's 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 robbed and
bound,

There must I be unloosed, 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 excused :
But will you be more justified? you ever

Have wished the sleeping of this business; never Desired it to be stirred; but oft have hindered,

oft,

The passages made toward it.—On my honour,
I speak, my good Lord Cardinal, to this point

And thus far clear him. Now, what moved 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 received a tenderness,

Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches uttered
By the Bishop of Bayonne, then French am-
bassador,

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, entered me,

Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble The region of my breast; which forced such way, That many mazed considerings did throng,

And pressed in with this caution.

thought,

First, me

I stood not in the smile of Heaven, who had

Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
If it conceived 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 aired 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 weighed 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 learned. First, I began in private
With you, my Lord of Lincoln; you remember
How under my oppression I did reek,

When I first moved you.

Lin.

Very well, my liege.

K. Hen. I have spoke long; be pleased yourself

to say

How far

you

satisfied me.

Lin.

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 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 allegéd 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, 't is a needful fitness That we adjourn this Court till further day: Meanwhile must be an earnest motion

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