Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes here?

Enter the Lord Chamberlain.

Cham. Good morrow, ladies. What wer't worth

to know

The secret of your conference?

Anne.

My good lord, Not your demand; it values not your asking: Our mistress' sorrows we were pitying.

Cham. It was a gentle business, and becoming The action of good women: there is hope, All will be well.

Anne.

Now I pray God, amen! Cham. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly blessings

Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady,
Perceive I speak sincerely, and high note's
Ta'en of your many virtues, the king's majesty
Commends his good opinion to you, and
Does purpose honour to you no less flowing
Than marchioness of Pembroke; to which title

Malone suggests that we might read 'an empalling,' i. e. being invested with the pall of royalty or robe of state. The verb is used by Chapman in his version of the eighth book of the Odyssey:

such a radiance as doth round empall Crown'd Cytherea.'

9 I cannot but be surprised that Malone should have made any difficulty about the reading of the text:

the king's majesty

Commends his good opinion to you.'

It is one of the most common forms of epistolary and colloquial compliment of our ancestors, whose letters frequently terminate with and so I commend me to you,' or begin with After my hartie commendacions to you,' &c. The instances cited by Steevens from Lear and Antony and Cleopatra are not exactly in point; for the word commend, in both those instances, signifies commit.

A thousand pound a year, annual support,
Out of his grace he adds.

I do not know,

Anne. What kind of my obedience I should tender; More than my all is nothing 10: nor my prayers Are not words duly hallow'd, nor my wishes More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers, and wishes,

Are all I can return. 'Beseech your lordship, Vouchsafe to speak my thanks, and my obedience, As from a blushing handmaid, to his highness; Whose health, and royalty, I pray for.

Cham.

Lady,
I shall not fail to approve the fair conceit11,
The king hath of you. I have perus'd her well;

Beauty and honour in her are so mingled,

[Aside.

That they have caught the king: and who knows yet, But from this lady may proceed a gem,

To lighten all this isle12?-I'll to the king,

And say, I spoke with you.

Anne.

My honour'd lord.

[Exit Lord Chamberlain.

Old L. Why, this it is; see, see!

I have been begging sixteen years in court

10 Not only my all is nothing; but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing. Thus in Macbeth:

More is thy due than more than all can pay.'

11 To approve is not, as Johnson explains it, here to strengthen by commendation, but to confirm (by the report he shall make) the good opinion the king has formed.

12 The carbuncle was supposed by our ancestors to have intrinsic light, and to shine in the dark: any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it. Thus in a Palace described in Amadis de Gaule, 1619, fol. p. 5:- In the roofe of a chamber hung two lampes of gold, at the bottomes whereof were enchafed two carbuncles, which gave so bright a splendour round about the roome, that there was no neede of any other light.'

(Am yet a courtier beggarly), nor could
Come pat betwixt too early and too late,
For any suit of pounds: and you, (O fate!)
A very fresh-fish here, (fye, fye upon

This compell'd fortune!) have your mouth fill'd up, Before you open it.

Anne.

This is strange to me.

Old L. How tastes it? is it bitter? forty pence 13, no. There was a lady once ('tis an old story), That would not be a queen, that would she not, For all the mud in Egypt1:-Have you heard it? Anne. Come, you are pleasant.

Old L.

With your theme, I could
O'ermount the lark. The marchioness of Pembroke!
A thousand pounds a year! for pure respect;
No other obligation: By my life,

That promises more thousands: Honour's train
Is longer than his foreskirt. By this time,

I know, your back will bear a duchess;-Say,
Are you not stronger than you were?

Anne.

Good lady, Make yourself mirth with your particular fancy, And leave me out on't. 'Would I had no being, If this salute my blood a jot; it faints me,

To think what follows.

The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful

13 Forty pence was in those days the proverbial expression of a small wager. Thus in The Story of King Darius, an interlude:

Nay, that I will not for forty pence.'

Again in The Longer thou Livest the more Fool Thou art, 1570: 'I dare wage with any man forty pence.'

Money was then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty pence, or three and fourpence, is half a noble, and is still an established legal fee.

14 The fertility of Egypt is derived from the mud and slime of the Nile.

In our long absence: Pray, do not deliver
What here you have heard, to her.

Old L.

What do

you think me?

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Hall in Black-Friars.

Trumpets sennet1, and cornets. Enter two Vergers, with short silver wands; next them, two Scribes, in the habits of doctors; after them, the Archbishop of Canterbury alone; after him the Bishops of Lincoln, Ely, Rochester, and Saint Asaph; next them, with some small distance, follows a Gentleman bearing the purse, with the great seal, and a cardinal's hat; then two Priests, bearing each a silver cross; then a Gentleman Usher bareheaded, accompanied with a Sergeant at Arms, bearing a silver mace; then two Gentlemen, bearing two great silver pillars2; after them, side by side, the two Cardinals, WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS; two Noblemen with the sword and mace. Then enter the King and Queen, and their Trains. The King takes place under the cloth of state; the two Cardinals sit under him as judges.

The

1 This word sennet, about which there has been so much discussion to little purpose, is nothing more than the senne of the old French, or the segno or segnata of the Italians, a signal given by sound of trumpet-' signum dare buccina.' We find it spelt signate, signet, and even synnet or cynet. It was distinct from a flourish, with which Malone and others have confounded it, as appears from Decker's Satiromastix, in which one of the stage directions is Trumpets sound a flourish, and then a sennet.' Some have derived it from the Italian sonata; and to this etymology the following passage of Berni, which I have met with, may give some colour:

'Senza indugiar si mette a bocca il corno
Per far la terza et ultima sonata.'

Orl. Inam. lib. i. c. xxiv. st. 62.

2 Ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals.

Queen takes place at some distance from the King. The Bishops place themselves on each side the court, in manner of a consistory; between them, the Scribes. The Lords sit next the Bishops. The Crier and the rest of the Attendants stand in convenient order about the stage.

Wol. Whilst our commission from Rome is read, Let silence be commanded.

K. Hen.

What's the need?

It hath already publickly been read, And on all sides the authority allow'd; then spare that time.

You may

Wol.

Be't so:-Proceed.

Scribe. Say, Henry king of England, come into

the court.

Crier. Henry king of England, &c.

K. Hen. Here.

Scribe. Say, Katharine queen of England, come into court.

Crier. Katharine queen of England, &c.

[The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court, comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks 3.]

Q. Kath. 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

3 Because she could not come directly to the king for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go about unto the king, kneeling down at his feet,' &c.-Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, vol. i. p. 149, ed. 1825.

4 This speech is taken from Holinshed (who copies from Cavendish) with the most trifling variations. Hall has given a different report of the queen's speech, which, he says, was made in French, and translated by him from notes taken by Campeggio's secretary.