My lords, I thank you both for your good wills, In fuch a point of weight, fo near mine honour, For her fake that I have been', (for I feel Alas! I am a woman, friendless, hopeless. Wel. Madam, you wrong the king's love with thefe fears; Your hopes and friends are infinite. 2. Cath. In England, But little for my profit: Can you think, lords, Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highnefs' pleasure, Cam. I would, your grace Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel, 2. Cath. How, fir? ;܃ 1 For her fake that I bave been,] For the fake of that royalty which I have heretofore poffeffed. MALONE. 2 (Though be be grown fo defperate to be boneft,)] Do you think that any Englishman dare advife me; or, if any man should venture to advife with honefty, that he could live? JOHNSON. 3-weigh out my affli&tions,] This phrafe is obfcure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this fenfe cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewife to deliberate upon, to con fider with due attention. This may, perhaps, be meant. Or the phrafe, to weigh cut, may fignify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. JOHNSON. To weigh out is the fame as to outweigb. In Macbeth, Shakspeare has overcome for come over. STEEVENS. Cam. Put your main caufe into the king's protection; He's loving, and most gracious: 'twill be much Both for your honour better, and your cause; For, if the trial of the law o'ertake you, You'll part away difgrac'd. Wol. He tells you rightly, 2. Cath. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, Is this your chriftian counfel? out upon ye! Heaven is above all yet; there fits a judge, That no king can corrupt. Cam. Your rage mistakes us. my ruin: 2.Cath.The more fhame for ye+; holy men I thought ye, Upon my foul, two reverend cardinal virtues; But cardinal fins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye: Mend them for fhame, my lords. Is this your comfort? The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady? A woman loft among ye, laugh'd at, fcorn'd? I will not wish ye half my miferies, I have more charity: But fay, I warn'd ye; Take heed, for heaven's fake, take heed, left at once Wol. Madam, this is a mere distraction; You turn the good we offer into envy. 2. Cath. Ye turn me into nothing: Woe upon ye, If you be any thing but churchmen's habits,) Cam. Your fears are worse. 2. Cath. Have I liv'd thus long-(let me speak myself, 4 The more shame for ye;] If I miftake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good. The diftrefs of Catharine might have kept her from the quibble to which the is irrefiftibly tempted by the word cardinal. JOHNSON. Since Since virtue finds no friends,)—a wife, a true one? A woman (I dare fay, without vain-glory,) Have I with all my full affections Still met the king? lov'd him next heaven? obey'd him? Wol. Madam, you wander from the good we aim at. 2. Cath. My lord, I dare not make myself fo guilty, To give up willingly that noble title Your mafter wed me to: nothing but death Wol. Pray, hear me. 2. Cath. Would I had never trod this English earth, Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it! Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts, What will become of me now, wretched lady? I am the moft unhappy woman living.— 5-fuperftitious to bim ] That is, served him with fuperftitious attention; done more than was required. JOHNSON. 6 Ye have angels' faces,-] She may perhaps allude to the old jingle of Angli and Angeli. JOHNSON. I find this jingle in the Arraygnment of Paris, 1584. The goddeffes refer the difpute about the golden apple to the decifion of Diana, who fetting afide their refpective claims, awards it to queen Elizabeth; and adds: "Her people are ycleped angeli, "Or if I mifs a letter, is the most." In this paftoral, as it is called, the queen herfelf may be almoft said to have been a performer, for at the conclufion of it, Diana gives the golden apple into her hands, and the Fates depofit their infignia at her feet. It was prefented before her majefty by the children of her chapel. It appears from the following paflage in The Spanish Masquerado, by Greene, 1585, that this quibble was originally the quibble of a faint." -England, a little ifland, where, as faint Auguflin faith, there be people with angel faces, fo the inhabitants have the courage and hearts of lyons." STEEVENS. Alas! Alas! poor wenches, where are now your fortunes? Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity, Wol. If your grace Could but be brought to know, our ends are honeft, Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this carriage. So much they love it; but, to ftubborn spirits, A foul as even as a calm; Pray, think us Those we profefs, peace-makers, friends, and fervants. Such doubts, as falfe coin, from it. The king loves you; To truft us in your bufinefs, we are ready To use our utmost studies in your service. 2. Cath. Do what ye will, my lords: And, pray, for give me, If I have us'd myself unmannerly; You know, I am a woman, lacking wit To make a feemly answer to fuch perfons. Pray, do my fervice to his majesty: He has my heart yet; and fhall have my prayers, [Exeunt. SCENE 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, The offer of this time, I cannot promife, Sur. I am joyful To meet the leaft occafion, that may give me Suf. Which of the peers Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at leaft Cham. My lords, you speak your pleasures: Nor. O, fear him not; And force them-] Force is enforce, urge. JOHNSON. -or at least Strangely neglected?] Which of the peers has not gone by bim contemned or neglected? JOHNSON. Uncontemn'd, as I have obferv'd in a note on As you like it, must be understood, as if the author had written not contemn'd. See Vol. III. p. 138, n. 2. MALONE. 9- when did be regard The ftamp of nobleness in any perfon, Out of himself? When did be, however careful to carry his own gnity to the utmost height, regard any dignity of another? JOHNSON. |