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 fay again,
I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

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

Wol. I do profefs,

You speak not like yourfelf; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and difplay'd the effects
Of difpofition gentle, and of wisdom

O'er-topping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong;
I have no fpleen againft you; nor injustice
For you, or any; how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further fhall, is warranted

By a commiffion from the confiftory,

Yea, the whole confiftory of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it :
The king is prefent: If it be known to him,
That I gainfay 3 my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falfhood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. If he know
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 highnefs fhall speak in, I do befeech

You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking,
And to fay fo no more.

1-and make my challenge,

You shall not be my judge:] Challenge is here a verbum juris, a law The criminal, when he refufes a juryman, fays, I challenge bim. JOHNSON.

term.

2 I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refufe you for my judge;] Thefe are not mere words of paffion,

but technical terms in the canon law.

Deteftor and Recufo. The former in the language of canonifts, fignifies no more, than I protest against. BLACKSTONE.

The words are Holinfhed's :" and therefore openly protested that the did utterly abbor, refufe, and forfake fuch a judge." MALONE. 3-gainfay] i. e. deny. So, in lord Surrey's tranflation of the fourth book of the Eneid:

"I hold thee not, nor yet gainfay thy words." STEEVENS.

2. Cath.

2. Cath. My lord, my lord,

I am a fimple woman, much too weak

To oppofe your cunning. You are meek, and humblemouth'd;

You fign your place and calling 4, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility: but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, fpleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours,
Gone flightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted,
Where powers are your retainers: and your words,
Domesticks to you, ferve your will 5, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your perfon's honour, than
Your high profeffion fpiritual: That again
I do refufe you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,
To bring my whole caufe 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

[She curt'fies to the King, and offers to depart.

4 You fign your place and calling, &c.] I think, to fign, must here be to show, to denote. By your outward meeknefs and humility, you bow that you are of an holy order, but, &c. JOHNSON.

5 Where powers are your retainers; and your words,

Domefticks to you, ferve your will,-] You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue: and words therefore are degraded to the fervile ftate of performing any office which you shall give them. In humbler and more common terms; Having now got power, you do not regard your word. JOHNSON.

The word power, when used in the plural and applied to one perfon only, will not bear the meaning that Dr. Johnfon wishes to give it. By powers are meant the emperor and the king of France, in the pay of one or the other of whom Wolfey was conftantly retained. MASON. Whoever were pointed at by the word powers, Shakipeare, furely, does not mean to fay that Wolfey was retained by them, but that they were retainers, or fubfervient, to Wolfey. MALONI.

I believe we should read:

"Where powers are your retainers, and your wards,
"Domesticks to you, &c."

The Queen rifes naturally in her defcription. She paints the powers of government depending upon Wolfey under three images; as his retainers, his wards, his domeftick Jervants. TYR WHITT.

So, in Storer's Life and Death of Tho. Wolfey, Cardinal, a poem, 1599* "I must have notice where their wards must dwell;

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

"Yong nobles of the land, &c." STEEVENS.

Cam.

Cam. The queen is obftinate,

Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and
Difdainful to be try'd by it; 'tis not well.

She's going away.

King. Call her again.

Crier. Catharine, queen of England, come into the

court.

Grif. Madam, you are call'd back.

2. Cath. What need you note it? pray you, keep your

way:

When you are call'd, return.-Now the Lord help,
They vex me paft my patience!-pray you, pafs on:
I will not tarry; no, nor ever more,

Upon this bufinefs, my appearance make

In any of their courts.

[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and her other Attendants. King. Go thy ways, Kate:

That man i'the world, who fhall report he has
A better wife, let him in nought be trufted,
For fpeaking falfe in that: Thou art, alone,
(If thy rare qualities, fweet gentleness,
Thy meeknefs faint-like, wife-like government,
Obeying in commanding,-and thy parts
Sovereign and pious elfe, could fpeak thee out ",)
The queen of earthly queens:-She is noble born;
And, like her true nobility, fhe has

Carried herself towards me.

Wol. Moft gracious fir,

In humbleft manner I require your highness,
That it fhall please you to declare, in hearing

Of all these ears, (for where I am robb'd and bound,
There muft I be unloos'd; although not there

At once and fully fatisfy'd',) whether ever I

6- could speak thee out)] If thy feveral qualities had tongues to speak thy praife. JOHNSON.

7 - although not there

At once, and fully fatisfied,)] The fenfe, which is encumbered with words, is no more than this. I must be loofed, though when fo losfed, I fhall not be fatisfied fully and at once; that is, I shall not be immediately fatisfied. JOHNSON.

Did broach this bufinefs to your highness; or
Lay'd any fcruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the queftion on't? or ever
Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch
A royal lady,fpake one the leaft word, that might
Be to the prejudice of her prefent ftate,
Or touch of her good perfon?

King. My lord cardinal,

I do excufe you; yea, upon mine honour,
I free you from't. You are not to be taught
That you have many enemies, that know not
Why they are fo, but, like to village curs,
Bark when their fellows do: by fome of these
The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd:
But will you be more juftify'd? you ever
Have with'd the fleeping of this bufinefs; never
Defir'd it to be firr'd; but oft have hinder'd, oft,
The paffages made toward it:-on my honour,
I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,
And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to't,
I will be bold with time, and your attention :—
Then mark the inducement. Thus it came ;-give heed
to't:-

My confcience firft receiv'd a tenderness,

Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd

By the bishop of Bayonne, then French ambaffador;
Who had been hither fent on the debating

A marriage', twixt the duke of Orleans and

8 -on my bonour,

Ifpeak my good lord cardinal to this point,] The king, having firft addreffed to Wolfey, breaks off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, that he fpeaks the cardinal's fentiments upon the point in question; and clears him from any attempt, or wish, to stir that bufi.

nefs. THEOBALD.

9 Scruple and prick,- Prick of confcience was the term in confeffion. JOHNSON

The expreffion is from Holinfhed, where the king fays: "The fpecial caufe that moved me unto this matter was a certaine fcrupulofitie that pricked my confcience," &c. See Holinfhed, p. 907. STEEVENS. 1 A marriage,] Old Copy-And marriage. Corrected by Mr. Pope.

VOL. VII,

MALONE.
Our

Our daughter Mary: I'the progrefs of this bufinefs,
Ere a determinate refolution, he

(I mean, the bishop) did require a refpite;
Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Refpecting this our marriage with the dowager,
Sometimes our brother's wife. This refpite fhook
The bofom of my conscience, enter'd me,
Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
The region of my breast; which forc'd fuch way,
That many maz'd confiderings did throng,
And prefs'd in with this caution. First, methought,
I ftood not in the smile of heaven; who had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
If it conceiv'd a male child by me, should
Do no more offices of life to't, than

The grave does to the dead: for her male iffue
Or died where they were made, or shortly after
This world had air'd them: Hence I took a thought,
This was a judgment on me; that my kingdom,
Well worthy the best heir o'the world, should not
Be gladded in't by me: Then follows, that
I weigh'd the danger which my realms ftood in
By this my iffue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
The wild fea 3 of my confcience, I did fteer

2

This refpite shook

Toward

The bofom of my confcience,-] Though this reading be sense, yet, I verily believe, the poet wrote, The bottom of my conscience,-.

Shakspeare, in all his hiftorical plays, was a moft diligent obferver of Holiathed's Chronicle. Now Holinfhed, in the fpeech which he has given to king Henry upon this fubject, makes him deliver himself thus: "Which words, once conceived within the fecret bortom of my confcience, ingendred fuch a fcrupulous doubt, that my confcience was incontinently accombred, vexed, and difquieted." Vid. Life of Henry VIII. p. 907. THEOBALD.

3 -hulling in

The wild fea—] That is, floating without guidance; toss'd here and there. JOHNSON.

The phrafe belongs to navigation. A ship is faid to bull, when the

is