TRIAL OF QUEEN CATHERION F
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is present: if it be known to him,
That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But 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 highness shall speak in, I do beseech
You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking,
And to say so no more.
My lord, my lord, I am a simple woman, much too weak To oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble mouth'd;
You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours,
Gone slightly o'er low steps; and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers: and your
wards,3
Domestics to you, serve your will, as't please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profession spiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the
pope,
To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.
[She curtsies to the King, and offers to depart.
Cam.
The queen is obstinate,
Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and
Disdainful to be try'd by it; 'tis not well.
She's going away.
I do excuse 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 so, but, like to village curs,
Bark when their fellows do: by some of these
The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd:
But will you be more justified? you ever
Have wish'd the sleeping of this business; never
Desir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hinder'd, oft,
The passages 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 conscience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd
By the bishop of Bayonne, then French ambas-
sador;
Who had been hither sent on the debating
A marriage, 'twixt the duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I' the progress of this bu-
Ere a determinate resolution, he
(I mean, the bishop) did require a respite;
Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
Whether our daughter were legitimate,
Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
The bosom of my conscience," enter'd me,
Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
Grif. Madam, you are call'd back.
Q. Kath. What need you note it? pray you, keep your way:
When you are call'd, return.-Now the Lord help,
They vex me past my patience!-pray you, pass on:
I will not tarry: no, nor ever more,
Upon this business, my appearance make
In any of their courts.
[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and other
Attendants.
K. Hen. Go thy ways, Kate: That man i' the world, who shall report he has A better wife, let him in nought be trusted, For speaking false in that: Thou art, alone, (If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness, Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like government,— Obeying in commanding,-and thy parts Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out,)4 The queen of earthly queens:-She is noble born; And, like her true nobility, she has Carried herself towards me.
Most gracious sir, In humblest manner I require your highness, That it shall please you to declare, in hearing Of all these ears (for where I am robb'd and bound, There must I be unloos'd; although not there At once and fully satisfied,') whether ever I Did broach this business to your highness; or Laid any scruple in your way, which might
2 You show in appearance meekness and humility, as a token or outward sign of your place and calling; but your heart is crammed with arrogancy, &c. 3 The old copy reads :
"Where powers are your retainers; and your words, Domestics to you,' &c.
4 If thy several qualities had tongues capable of speaking out thy merits, 1. e. of doing them extensive justice.
5 The sense, which is encumbered with words, is no more than this:-I must be loosed, though when so loosed I shall not be satisfied fully and at once; that is, I shall not be immediately satisfied.
The region of my breast; which forc'd such way,
That many maz'd considerings did throng,
And press'd in with this caution. First methought,
I stood not in the smile of heaven; who had
Commander 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 issue
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 stood in
By this my issue's fail; and that gave to me
Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to say
I meant to rectify my conscience,-which
I then did feel full sick, and yet not well,-
By all the reverend fathers of the land,
And doctors learn'd.-First, I began in private
With
you, my lord of Lincoln; you remember
How under my oppression I did reek, 10
When I first mov'd you.
Very well, my liege. K. Hen. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself
off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, 6 The king, having first addressed Wolsey, breaks that he speaks the cardinal's sentiments upon the point in question; and clears him from any attempt or wish to stir that business.
7 The words of Cavendish are- The special cause that moved me hereunto was a scrupulosity that pricked my conscience.-See also Holinshed, p. 907.
8 Theobald thought we should read The bottom of his conscience.'
9 The phrase belongs to navigation. A ship is said to hull when she is dismasted, and only her hull or hulk is left at the direction and mercy of the waves 10 Waste, or wear away
The question did at first so stagger me,-
Bearing a state of mighty moment in't,
And consequence of dread,-that I committed
The daring'st counsel which I had, to doubt;
And did entreat your highness to this course,
Which you are running here.
I then mov'd you,
My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave
To make this present summons:-Unsolicited
left no reverend person in this court;
But by particular consent proceeded,
Under your hands and seals. Therefore, go on:
For no dislike i' the world against the person
Of the good queen, but the sharp thorny points
Of my alleged reasons, drive this forward:
Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life,
And kingly dignity, we are contented
To wear our mortal state to come, with her,
Katharine our queen, before the primest creature
That's paragon'd' o' the world.
Cam.
So please your highness,
The queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness
That we adjourn this court till further day:
Meanwhile must be an earnest motion
Made to the queen, to call back her appeal
She intends unto his holiness. [They rise to depart.
K. Hen.
I may perceive, [Aside.
These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor
This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome.
My learn'd and well-beloved seryant, Cranmer,
Pr'ythee return! with thy approach, I know,
My comfort comes along. Break up the court:
say, set on. [Exeunt, in manner as they entered.
Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops, that freeze,
Bow themselves, when he did sing
To his music, plants, and flowers,
Ever sprung; as sun, and showers,
There had been a lasting spring.
Every thing that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads, and then lay by.
In sweet music is such art;
Killing care, and grief of heart,
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.
Enter a Gentleman.
But all hoods make not monks.
Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS
Wol.
Peace to your highness!
Q. Kath. Your graces find me here part of
housewife;
I would be all, against the worst may happen.
What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords?
Wol. May it please you, noble madam, to with-
draw
Into your private chamber, we shall give you
The full cause of our coming.
Q. Kath.
Speak it here,
There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience,
Deserves a corner: 'Would, all other women
Could speak this with as free a soul as I do!
My lords, I care not, (so much I am happy
Above a number,) if my actions
Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw them,
Envy and base opinion set against them,
I know my life so even: If your business
Seek me out, and that way I am wife in,"
Out with it boldly; Truth loves open dealing.
Wol. Tanta est ergù te mentis integritas, regina
serenissima,-
Q. Kath. O, good my lord, no Latin;8
I am not such a truant since my coming,
As not to know the language I have liv'd in:
A strange tongue makes my cause more strange,
suspicious;
Pray, speak in English: here are some will thank you,
Believe me, she has had much wrong: Lord car-
If you speak truth, for their poor mistress' sake;
The willing'st sin I ever yet committed,
May be absolv'd in English.
I am sorry, my integrity should breed
(And service to his majesty and you,)
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant.
We come not by the way of accusation,
To taint that honour every good tongue blesses;
Nor to betray you any way to sorrow;
You have too much, good lady: but to know
How you stand minded in the weighty difference
Between the king and you; and to deliver,
Like free and honest men, our just opinions,
And comforts to your cause.
Cam.
Most honour'd madam,
My lord of York,-out of his noble nature,
Zeal and obedience he still bore your grace;
Forgetting, like a good man, your late censure
Gent. An't please your grace, the two great car- Both of his truth and him (which was too far,)—
That paragons description, and wild fame?
2 This is only an apostrophe to the absent bishop of that name.
sion to the Latin proverb-Cucullus non facit mona-
chum, to which Chaucer also alludes:-
'Habite ne maketh monke ne frere;
But a clene life and devotion,
Maketh gode men of religion.'
6 I would be glad that my conduct were in some public trial confronted with mine enemies, that malice and corrupt judgment might try their utmost power against
7 This is obscurely expressed, but seems to mean, 'If your business is with me, and relates to the question of my marriage, out with it boldly,'
3 Cavendish, who appears to have been present at this Interview of the cardinals with the queen, says She 8Then began my lord to speak to her in Latin.came out of her privy chamber with a skein of white" Nay, good my lord (quoth she,) speak to me in Enthread about her neck into the chamber of presence.'glish, I beseech you, though I understand Latin.”— A subsequent speech of the queen's is nearly conform- Cavendish. able to what is related in Cavendish, and copied by Holinshed.
9 This line stands so awkwardly, and out of its place, that Mr. Edwards's proposition to transpose it, should be adopted, thus:--
I am sorry my integrity should breed
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant,
And service to his majesty and you.'
Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace,
His service and his counsel.
Q. Kath.
To betray me. [Aside.
My lords, I thank you both for your good wills,
Ye speak like honest men, (pray God, ye prove so!)
But how to make you suddenly an answer,
In such a point of weight, so near mine honour,
(More near my life, I fear,) with my weak wit,
And to such men of gravity and learning,
In truth, I know not. I was set at work
Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking
Either for such men, or such business.
For her sake that I have been' (for I feel
The last fit of my greatness,) good your graces,
Let me have time, and counsel, for my cause;
Alas! I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.
Wol. Madam, you wrong the king's love with
these fears;
Your hopes and friends are infinite.
In England,
But little for my profit: Can you think, lords,
That any Englishman dare give me counsel ?
Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highness' pleasure
(Though he be grown so desperate to be honest,)
And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends,
They that must weigh out my afflictions,
They that my trust must grow to, live not here;
They are, as all my other comforts, far hence,
In mine own country, lords.
Cam.
I would, your grace
Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.
Q. Kath.
How, sir?
Cam. Put your main cause into the king's pro-
tection;
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 disgrac'd.
He tells you rightly. Q. Kath. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, my
Is this your Christian counsel? out upon ye!
Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge,
That no king can corrupt.
Cam.
Your rage mistakes us. Q. Kath. The more shame for ye; holy men I thought ye,
Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues :
But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye:
Mend them for shame, my lords. Is this your com-
fort?
The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady?
A woman lost among ye, laugh'd at, scorn'd?
I will not wish ye half my miseries,
I have more charity: But say, I warn'd ye;
Take heed, for heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once
The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.
Wol. Madam, this is a mere distraction;
You turn the good we offer into envy.
Cam. Your fears are worse.
Q. Kath. Have I lived thus long--(let me speak
Since virtue finds no friends,)—a wife, a true one?
A woman (I dare say, without vain-glory,)
Never yet branded with suspicion?
Have I with all my full affections
Still met the king? lov'd him next heaven? obey'd
him?
Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him?4
Almost forgot my prayers to content him?
And am I thus rewarded? 'tis not well, lords.
Bring me a constant woman to her husband,
One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure;
And to that woman, when she has done most,
Yet will I add an honour,-a great patience.
Wol. Madam, you wander from the good we
Q. Kath. My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty,
To give up willingly that noble title
Your master wed me to: nothing but death
Shall e'er divorce my dignities.
'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, 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, 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,
They swell, and grow as terrible as storms."
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-
Q. Kath. Ye turn me into nothing: Woe upon ye, Beware, you lose it not: For us, if
And all such false professors! Would ye have me
(If you have any justice, any pity,
If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits,)
Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?
Alas! he has banish'd me his bed already;
His love too long ago: I am old, my lords,
And all the fellowship I hold now with him,
Is only my obedience. What can happen
me,
То above this wretchedness? all your studies
Make me a curse like this.
1 For the sake of that royalty which I have heretofore possessed.
2 Weigh out for out-weigh. In Macbeth we have overcome for come over.
3 If I mistake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good.
4 Served him with superstitious attention.
5 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.'
you please To trust us in your business, we are ready To use our utmost studies in service. Q. Kath. Do what ye will, my lords: And, prav. forgive me,
If I have us'd myself unmannerly;
You know, I am a woman, lacking wit
To make a seemly answe 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,
6 Spenser, F Q. b. ii. c. vi. st. 16, 7 It was one of the charges brt ught against Lord Es. sex, in the year before this play was written, by his ungrateful kinsman Sir Francis Baron, when that noble. man, 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 re tirement in 1598 to the lord keeper, he had said, 'There is no tempest to the passionate indignation of a prince' S Behaved.
The lily, lady of the flow'ring field.'
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