To give up willingly that noble title Your master wed me to: nothing but death 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? 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. We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow them. Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this carriage. 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. 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 forgive me, lords: And, pray, If I have us❜d 15 myself unmannerly; You know, I am a woman, lacking wit He has my heart yet; and shall have my prayers, 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, Sur. Suf. Cham. My lord, you speak your pleasures: 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 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 Sur. Sir, I should be glad to hear such news as this Nor. Believe it, this is true. In the divorce, his contrary proceedings 3 Sur. His practices to light? Suf. Sur. How came Most strangely. O, how, how? Suf. The cardinal's letter to the pope miscarried, A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen. 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 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: 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, 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.' |