No judge indifferent, nor 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? Heaven witness,
I have 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 countenance; glad, or sorry,
As I saw it inclin'd. When was the hour,

I ever contradicted

your desire,

Or made it not mine too? Or 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,
Upward of twenty years, and have been blest
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 to wedlock, or my love and duty,
Against your sacred person5, in God's name,
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up

To the 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

5 That is, 'If you can report and prove aught against mine honour, my love and duty, or aught against your sacred person,' &c.

A year before: It is not to be question'd

That they had gather'd a wise council to them
Of every realm, that did debate this business,
Who deem'd our marriage lawful: Wherefore I
humbly

Beseech you, sir, to spare me, till I may

Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whose counsel
I will implore: if not; i' the name of God,
Your pleasure be fulfill❜d!

Wol.

You have here, lady, (And of your choice), these reverend fathers; men Of singular integrity and learning,

Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled

To plead your cause: It shall be therefore bootless,
That longer you desire the court7; as well.
For your own quiet, as to rectify

What is unsettled in the king.

Cam.

His grace

Hath spoken well, and justly: Therefore, madam, It's fit this royal session do proceed;

And that, without delay, their arguments

Be now produc'd, and heard.

I am about to weep; but, thinking that
We are a queen (or long have dream'd so), certain,

6 The historical fact is, that the queen staid for no reply to this speech. Cavendish says, And with that she rose up, making a low courtesy to the king, and so departed from thence. Many supposed that she would have resorted again to her former place; but she took her way straight out of the house, leaning (as she was wont always to do) upon the arm of her general receiver Master Griffiths.'-Life of Wolsey, p. 152. 7 That you desire to protract the business of the court. pray for a longer day,' i. e. a more distant one, is yet the language of the bar in criminal trials.

To

The daughter of a king, my drops of tears
I'll turn to sparks of fire.

Wol.

Be patient yet.

Q. Kath. I will, when you are humble; nay, before,
Or God will punish me. I do believe,
Induc'd by potent circumstances, that

You are mine enemy; and make my challenge,
You shall not be my judge: for it is you
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,-
Which God's dew quench!-Therefore, I say again,
I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul,

Refuse you for my judge9; whom, yet once more,
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
At all a friend to truth.

Wol.

I do profess,

You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display'd the effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom

O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me

wrong:

I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
For you, or any: how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further shall, is warranted

By a commission from the consistory,

Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is present: if it be known to him,
That I gainsay 10 my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But if he know

8 Challenge here (says Johnson) is a law term. The criminal, when he refuses a juryman, says 'I challenge him.'

9 These are not the mere words of passion, but technical terms of the canon law: detestor and recuso. The former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more than I protest against.

10 Deny.

Blackstone.

That I am free of your report, he knows,

I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lies, to cure me; and the cure is, to

Remove these thoughts from you: The which before His highness shall speak in, I do beseech

You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking, And to say so no more.

Q. Kath.

My lord, my lord, I am a simple woman, much too weak

To oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble mouth'd;

You sign your place and calling, in full seeming 11,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours,
Gone slightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers: and your wards 12,
Domesticks to you, serve your will, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profession spiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the

pope,

you,

11 You show in appearance meekness and humility, as a token or outward sign of your place and calling; but your heart is crammed with arrogancy, &c.

12 The old copy reads:

Where powers are your retainers; and your words,
Domesticks to you,' &c.

I think with Mr. Tyrwhitt that we should read wards instead of words. The queen means to say, That the great and powerful were among his retainers, and that his wards (generally young nobility) were placed in domestic offices about his person to swell his state and retinue. This was the fact, and is made one of the principal charges against him.

'I must have notice where their wards must dwell;

I car'd not for the gentry, for I had

Young nobles of the land,' &c.

Storer's Metrical Life of Wolsey, 1599.

To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

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

Cam.

The queen is obstinate,

Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and

Disdainful to be try'd by it; 'tis not well.

She's going away.

K. Hen.

Call her again.

Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into the court.

Grif. Madam, you are call'd back.

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

When you are call'd, 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 any of their courts.

In

K. Hen.

[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and other Attendants.

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 13), The queen of earthly queens:-She is noble born; And, like her true nobility, she has

Carried herself towards me.

13 If thy several qualities had tongues capable of speaking out thy merits, i. e. of doing them extensive justice. In Cymbeline we have a similar expression:

you speak him far although not there.'