The passages made toward it:6-on my honour,
I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,"
Andthus far clear him. Now, what mov'dmeto't,-
I will be bold with time, and your attention :--
Then mark the inducement. Thus it came ;-give
heed to't:-

8

My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness,
Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd
By the bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador;
Who had been hither sent on the debating
A marriage,' 'twixt the duke of Orleans and
Our daughter Mary: I'the progress of this business,
Ere a determinate resolution, he

(I mean, the bishop) did require a respite;
Wherein he might the king his lord advértise
Whether our daughter were legitimate,

6

The passages made toward it:] i. e. closed, or fastened. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act III. sc. i:

"Why at this time the doors are made against you.' For the present explanation and pointing, I alone am answerable. A similar phrase occurs in Macbeth:

"Stop up the access and passage to remorse."

Yet the sense in which these words have hitherto been received may be the true one. STEEVENS.

7

on my honour,

I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,] The King, having first addressed to Wolsey, breaks off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, that he speaks the Cardinal's sentiments upon the point in question; and clears him from any attempt, or wish, to stir that business. THEobald.

8

Scruple, and prick,] Prick of conscience was the term in confession. JOHNSON.

The expression is from Holinshed, where the King says: "The special cause that moved me unto this matter was a certaine scrupulositie that pricked my conscience," &c. See Holinshed, p. 907. STEEVENS.

A marriage,] Old copy-And marriage. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
The bosom of my conscience,' enter'd me,

Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
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
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
If not 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

This respite shook

The bosom of my conscience,] Though this reading be sense, yet, I verily believe, the poet wrote:

The bottom of my conscience,Shakspeare, in all his historical plays, was a most diligent observer of Holinshed's Chronicle. Now Holinshed, in the speech which he has given to King Henry upon this subject, makes him deliver himself thus: "Which words, once conceived within the secret bottom of my conscience, ingendred such a scrupulous doubt, that my conscience was incontinently accombred, vexed, and disquieted." Vid. Life of Henry VIII. p. 907. THEobald.

The phrase recommended by Mr. Theobald occurs again in King Henry VI. Part I:

66

for therein should we read

"The very bottom and soul of hope."

It is repeated also in Measure for Measure, All's well that ends well, King Henry VI. P. II. Coriolanus, &c. STEEVENS.

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,

When I first mov'd you.

LIN.

Very well, my liege.

K. HEN. I have spoke long; be pleas'd your

self to say

How far you satisfied me.

LIN.

So please your highness, 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.

K. HEN.

I then mov'd you,"

2

-hulling in

The wild sea-] That is, floating without guidance ; tossed here and there. JOHNSON.

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.

So, in The Alarum for London, 1602:

"And they lye hulling up and down the stream."

STEEVENS.

I then mov'd you,] "I moved it in confession to you, my lord of Lincoln, then my ghostly father. And forasmuch as then you yourself were in some doubt, you moved me to ask the counsel of all these my lords. Whereupon I moved you,

My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave
To make this present summons:-Unsolicited
I 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: Mean while must be an earnest motion

my lord of Canterbury, first to have your licence, in as much as you were metropolitan, to put this matter in question; and so I did of all of you, my lords." Holinshed's Life of Henry VIII, p. 908. THEOBald.

That's paragon'd o'the world.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, I think, better:

the primest creature

That's paragon o'the world. JOHNSON,

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:
"No: but she is an earthly paragon."

Again, in Cymbeline :

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an angel! or, if

"An earthly paragon."

not,

To paragon, however, is a verb used by Shakspeare, both in Antony and Cleopatra and Othello :

"If thou with Cæsar paragon again

66

My man of men.

a maid

"That paragons description and wild fame.”

STEEVENS,

Made to the queen, to call back her appeal
She intends unto his holiness.

K. HEN.

[They rise to depart." I may perceive, [Aside. These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome. My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer, Pr'ythee return! with thy approach, I know, My comfort comes along. Break up the court: I say, set on. [Exeunt, in manner as they entered.

5

They rise to depart.] Here the modern editors add: [The King speaks to Cranmer.] This marginal direction is not found in the old folio, and was wrongly introduced by some subsequent editor. Cranmer was now absent from court on an embassy, as appears from the last scene of this Act, where Cromwell informs Wolsey that he is returned and installed archbishop of Canterbury:

"My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer,

"Pr'ythee, return !———”

is no more than an apostrophe to the absent bishop of that RIDLEY.

name.