2 Gent. Alas, good lady!—

[Trumpets.

The trumpets sound; stand close, the queen is coming.

THE ORDER OF THE PROCESSION.

A lively flourish of trumpets; then enter

1. Two judges.

2. Lord chancellor, with the purse and mace before him. 3. Choristers singing.

[Music. 4. Mayor of London, bearing the mace. Then Garter, in his coat-of-arms, and on his head a gilt

copper crown.

5. Marquis Dorset, bearing a sceptre of gold, on his head a demi-coronal of gold. With him the earl of Surrey, bearing the rod of silver with the dove, crowned with an earl's coronet. Collars of SS.

6. Duke of Suffolk, in his robe of estate, his coronet on his head, bearing a long white wand, as high steward. With him, the duke of Norfolk, with the rod of marshalship, a coronet on his head. Collars of SS.

7. A canopy borne by four of the cinque-ports; under it, the queen in her robe; her hair richly adorned with pearl, crowned. On each side of her, the bishops of London and Win

chester.

8. The old duchess of Norfolk, in a coronal of gold, wrought with flowers, bearing the queen's

train.

9. Certain ladies or countesses, with plain circlets of gold, without flowers.

2 Gent. A royal train, believe me.-These I know ;Who's that, that bears the sceptre ?

1 Gent.

Marquis Dorset ; And that the earl of Surrey with the rod.

2 Gent. A bold, brave gentleman; and that should be

The duke of Suffolk.

1 Gent.

'Tis the same; high steward.

2 Gent. And that my lord of Norfolk?

1 Gent.

2 Gent.

Yes.

Heaven bless thee! [Looking on the Queen.

Thou hast the sweetest face I ever looked on.—

Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel;

Our king has all the Indies in his arms,

And more and richer, when he strains that lady;
I cannot blame his conscience.

1 Gent.

They, that bear

The cloth of honor over her, are four barons

Of the cinque-ports.

2 Gent. Those men are happy; and so are all are near her.

I take it, she that carries up the train,

Is that old noble lady, duchess of Norfolk.

1 Gent. It is; and all the rest are countesses. 2 Gent. Their coronets say so.

indeed;

And, sometimes, falling ones.

1 Gent.

These are stars,

No more of that.

[Exit Procession, with a great flourish of trumpets.

Enter a third Gentleman.

God save you, sir! Where have you been broiling? 2 Gent. Among the crowd i'the abbey; where a

finger

Could not be wedged in more; I am stifled

With the mere rankness of their joy.

3 Gent. As well as I am able. The rich stream

Of lords and ladies, having brought the queen

To a prepared place in the choir, fell off

Good sir, speak it to us.

A distance from her; while her grace sat down
To rest awhile, some half an hour, or so,
In a rich chair of state, opposing freely
The beauty of her person to the people.
Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman
That ever lay by man; which when the people
Had the full view of, such a noise arose

As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest,
As loud, and to as many tunes. Hats, cloaks,
(Doublets, I think,) flew up; and had their faces
Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy
I never saw before. Great-bellied women,
That had not half a week to go, like rams
In the old time of war, would shake the press,
And make them reel before them. No man living
Could say, This is my wife, there; all were woven
So strangely in one piece.

2 Gent.

1

But what followed?

3 Gent. At length her grace rose, and with modest

paces

Came to the altar; where she kneeled, and, saint-like,
Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and prayed devoutly.
Then rose again, and bowed her to the people;
When by the archbishop of Canterbury
She had all the royal makings of a queen;
As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown,

The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems,
Laid nobly on her; which performed, the choir,
With all the choicest music of the kingdom,
Together sung Te Deum. So she parted,
And with the same full state paced back again
To York-place, where the feast is held.

1 Gent.

Sir, you

Must no more call it York-place; that is past;
For, since the cardinal fell, that title's lost;
'Tis now the king's, and called-Whitehall.
3 Gent.

But 'tis so lately altered, that the old name
Is fresh about me.

1 i. e. battering rams.

I know it;

2 Gent.

What two reverend bishops

Were those that went on each side of the queen?

3 Gent. Stokesly and Gardiner; the one, of Winchester,

(Newly preferred from the king's secretary,)

The other, London.

2 Gent.

He of Winchester

Is held no great good lover of the archbishop's,
The virtuous Cranmer.

3 Gent.

All the land knows that.

However, yet there's no great breach; when it comes, Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him. 2 Gent. Who may that be, I pray you?

3 Gent.

Thomas Cromwell; A man in much esteem with the king, and truly A worthy friend.-The king

Has made him master o' the jewel-house,

And one, already, of the privy council.

2 Gent. He will deserve more. 3 Gent. Yes, without all doubt. Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way, which

Is to the court, and there ye shall be my guests:
Something I can command. As I walk thither,
I'll tell ye more.

Both. You may command us, sir.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. Kimbolton.

Enter KATHARINE, dowager, sick; led between GRIFFITH and PATIENCE.

Grif. How does your grace?

Kath. O Griffith, sick to death. My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth, Willing to leave their burden. Reach a chair;So, now, methinks, I feel a little ease.

Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me,
That the great child of honor, cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?

Grif. Yes, madam; but I think your grace, Out of the pain you suffered, gave no ear to't.

Kath. Pr'ythee, good Griffith, tell me how he died. If well, he stepped before me, happily,'

For my example.

Grif.

Well, the voice goes, madam;

For after the stout earl Northumberland

Arrested him at York, and brought him forward (As a man sorely tainted) to his answer,

He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill,

He could not sit his mule.

Kath.

Alas! poor man!

Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester,
Lodged in the abbey; where the reverend abbot,
With all his convent, honorably received him;
To whom he gave these words,-O father abbot,
An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!

So went to bed; where eagerly his sickness
Pursued him still; and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, (which he himself
Foretold should be his last,) full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,
He gave his honors to the world again,
His blessed part to Heaven, and slept in peace.

Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!
Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him,
And yet with charity;-He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach,2 ever ranking
Himself with princes; one that by suggestion 3
Ty'd all the kingdom; Simony was fair play;
His own opinion was his law; i' the presence
He would say untruths; and be ever double,

1 Happily, here, probably means opportunely.

2 i. e. of unbounded pride.

3 Suggestion here means wicked prompting. It is used in this sense in The Tempest. We should probably read tythed instead of tyed, as Dr. Farmer proposed, and as the passage quoted from Holinshed warrants. The word tythes was not exclusively used to signify the emoluments of the clergy.