To give up willingly that noble title

Your master wed me to: nothing but death
Shall e'er divorce my dignities.

Wol.

'Pray, hear me. Q. Kath. 'Would I had never trod this English

earth,

Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!

Ye have angels' faces 12, but heaven knows your hearts.

What will become of me now, wretched lady?
I am the most unhappy woman living.—
Alas! poor wenches, where are now your

fortunes? [To her Women. Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity, No friends, no hope; no kindred weep for me, Almost, no grave allow'd me:-Like the lily, That once was mistress of the field 13, and flourish'd, I'll hang my head, and perish.

Wol.
If your grace
Could but be brought to know, our ends are honest,
You'd feel more comfort: why should we, good lady,
Upon what cause, wrong you? alas! our places,
The way of our profession is against it;

We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow them.
For goodness' sake, consider what you do;
How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly

Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this carriage.
The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits,

12 This is an allusion to the old jingle of Angli and Angeli. Thus Nashe in his Anatomy of Absurdity, 1589 :-'For my part I meane to suspend my sentence, and let an author of late memorie be my speaker; who affirmeth that they carry angels in their faces, and devils in their devices.'

13 The lily, lady of the flow'ring field.'

Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. vi. st. 16.

They swell, and grow as terrible as storms 14.
I know, you have a gentle, noble temper,
A soul as even as a calm; Pray, think us

Those we profess, peace-makers, friends, and ser

vants.

Cam. Madam, you'll find it so. You wrong your virtues

With these weak women's fears. A noble spirit, As yours was put into you, ever casts

Such doubts, as false coin, from it. The king loves

you;

Beware, you lose it not: For us, if
you please
To trust us in your business, we are ready
To use our utmost studies in your service.
Q. Kath. Do what ye will, my

forgive me,

lords: And, pray,

If I have us❜d 15 myself unmannerly;

You know, I am a woman, lacking wit
To make a seemly answer to such persons.
Pray, do my service to his majesty:

He has my heart yet; and shall have my prayers,
While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,
Bestow your counsels on me: she now begs,
That little thought, when she set footing here,
She should have bought her dignities so dear.
[Exeunt.

14 It was one of the charges brought against Lord Essex, in the year before this play was written, by his ungrateful kinsman Sir Francis Bacon, when that nobleman, to the disgrace of humanity, was obliged by a junto of his enemies to kneel at the end of the council table for several hours, that in a letter written during his retirement in 1598 to the lord keeper, he had said, 'There is no tempest to the passionate indignation of a prince.'

15 Behaved.

SCENE II.

Antechamber to the King's Apartment.

Enter the DUKE of NORFOLK, the DUKE of SUFFOLK, the EARL of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Nor. If you will now unite in your complaints And force1 them with a constancy, the cardinal Cannot stand under them: If you omit

The offer of this time, I cannot promise,

But that you shall sustain more new disgraces,
With these you bear already.

Sur.
I am joyful
To meet the least occasion, that may give me
Remembrance of my father-in-law, the duke,
To be reveng'd on him.

Suf.
Which of the peers
Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at least
Strangely neglected?? when did he regard
The stamp of nobleness in any person,
Out of himself?

Cham. My lord, you speak your pleasures:
What he deserves of you and me, I know;
What we can do to him (though now the time
Gives way to us), I much fear. If you cannot
Bar his access to the king, never attempt
Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
Over the king in his tongue.

1 Force is enforce, urge. So in Measure for Measure:

Has he affections in him

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose
When he would force it.'

2 Which of the peers has not gone by him contemned or neglected?' When did he regard the stamp of nobleness in any person, though attentive to his own dignity?

VOL. VII.

Y

Nor.

O, fear him not;

His spell in that is out: the king hath found
Matter against him, that for ever mars
The honey of his language. No, he's settled,
Not to come off, in his displeasure.

Sur.

Sir,

I should be glad to hear such news as this
Once every hour.

Nor.

Believe it, this is true.

In the divorce, his contrary proceedings 3
Are all unfolded; wherein he appears,
As I could wish mine enemy.

Sur.

His practices to light?

Suf.

Sur.

How came

Most strangely.

O, how, how?

Suf. The cardinal's letter to the pope miscarried,
And came to the eye o'the king: wherein was read,
How that the cardinal did entreat his holiness
To stay the judgment o' the divorce: For if
It did take place, I do, quoth he, perceive
My king is tangled in affection to

A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen.
Sur. Has the king this?

Suf.

Sur.

Believe it.

'Will this work?

Cham. The king in this perceives him, how he

coasts,

And hedges, his own way. But in this point
All his tricks founder, and he brings his physick
After his patient's death; the king already
Hath married the fair lady.

3 i. e. his secret endeavours to counteract the divorce. 4 To coast is to hover about, to pursue a sidelong course about a thing. To hedge is to creep along by the hedge, not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions.

Sur.

'Would he had!

Suf. May you be happy in your wish, my lord! For, I profess, you have it.

Sur.

Trace the conjunction!

Suf. Nor.

Now all my joy

My amen to't!

All men's.

Suf. There's order given for her coronation:
Marry, this is yet but young, and may be left
To some ears unrecounted.-But, my lords,
She is a gallant creature, and complete
In mind and feature: I persuade me, from her
Will fall some blessing to this land, which shall
In it be memoriz'd7.

Sur.

But, will the king

Digest this letter of the cardinal's?

The Lord forbid !

Nor.

Suf.

Marry, amen!

No, no;

There be more wasps that buz about his nose,
Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius
Is stolen away to Rome; hath ta'en no leave;
Has left the cause o' the king unhandled; and
Is posted, as the agent of our cardinal,

5 To trace is to follow. Thus in Macbeth :

all unfortunate souls

That trace him in his line.'

The form of Surrey's wish had been anticipated by Richmond in King Richard III. sc. ult.:

Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction!

6 This same phrase occurs again in Romeo and Juliet, Act i. Sc. 1:

Good morrow, cousin.

Is the day so young?'

7 To memorize is to make memorable. Thus in Macbeth,

Act i. Sc. 2:

'Or memorize another Golgotha.'