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ACT III. SCENE I.

Palace at Bridewell.

A Room in the Queen's Apartment.

The Queen, and some of her Women, at work.

Q. KATH. Take thy lute, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles;

Sing, and disperse them, if thou canst: leave working.

SONG.

Orpheus with his lute made trees,
And the mountain-tops, that freeze,

Bow themselves, when he did sing:
To his musick, 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 musick is such art;

Killing care, and grief of heart,

Fall asleep, or, hearing, die.

at work.] Her majesty (says Cavendish,) on being informed that the cardinals were coming to visit her, rose up, having a skein of red silke about her neck, being at work with her maidens." Cavendish attended Wolsey in this visit; and the Queen's answer, in p. 108, is exactly conformable to that which he has recorded, and which he appears to have heard her pronounce. MALONE.

Enter a Gentleman.

Q. KATH. How now?

GENT. An't please your grace, the two great

cardinals

Wait in the presence. 5

Q. KATH.

Would they speak with me?

GENT. They will'd me say so, madam.

Q. KATH.

Pray their graces

To come near. [Exit Gent.] What can be their

business

With me, a poor weak woman, fallen from favour? I do not like their coming, now I think on't. They should be good men; their affairs as righteous: But all hoods make not monks.7

Wait in the presence.] i. e. in the presence-chamber. So, in Peacham's Compleat Gentleman: "The lady Anne of Bretaigne, passing thorow the presence in the court of France," &c. STEEVENS.

6

They should be good men ; their affairs as righteous:] Affairs for professions; and then the sense is clear and pertinent. The proposition is they are priests. The illation, they are good men; for being understood: but if affairs be interpreted in its common signification, the sentence is absurd. WARBURTON.

The sentence has no great difficulty: Affairs means not their present errand, but the business of their calling. JOHNSON.

Being churchmen they should be virtuous, and every business they undertake as righteous as their sacred office: but all hoods, &c. The ignorant editor of the second folio, not understanding the line, substituted are for as; and this capricious alteration (with many others introduced by the same hand,) has been adopted by all the modern editors. MALONE.

7

chum.

all hoods make not monks.] Cucullus non facit monaSTEevens.

To this proverbial expression Chaucer alludes in his Romaunt of the Rose, 6190:

WOL.

Enter WOLSEY and CAMPeius.

Peace to your highness! Q. KATH. Your graces find me here part of a 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 withdraw

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,'

"This argument is all roignous,
"It is not worth a crooked brere;
"Habite ne makith Monke ne Frere;
"But a clene life and devotion,

"Makith gode men of religion." GREY.

Envy and base opinion set against them,] I would be glad that my conduct were in some publick trial confronted with mine enemies, that envy and corrupt judgment might try their utmost power against me. JOHNSON.

Envy, in Shakspeare's age, often signified malice. So, afterwards:

"Ye turn the good we offer into envy." MALONE.

Seek me out, &c.] I believe that a word has dropt out here, and that we should read:

Out with it boldly; Truth loves open dealing.

WOL. Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina serenissima,

Q. KATH. O, good my lord, no Latin;2 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

[blocks in formation]

Seek me, speak out, and that way

I am wise in;

i. e. in the way that I can understand it. TYRWHITT.

The metre shows here is a syllable dropt. I would read:
I know my life so even. If 'tis your business

To seek me out, &c. BLACKStone.

The alteration proposed by Sir W. Blackstone injures one line as much as it improves the other. We might read:

Doth seek me out,

RITSON.

and that way I am wife in,] That is, if you come to examine the title by which I am the King's wife; or, if you come to know how I have behaved as a wife. The meaning, whatever it may be, is so coarsely and unskilfully expressed, that the latter editors have liked nonsense better, and contrarily to the ancient and only copy, have published:

And that way I am wise in. JOHNSON.

This passage is unskilfully expressed indeed; so much so, that I don't see how it can import either of the meanings that Johnson contends for, or indeed any other. I therefore think that the modern editors have acted rightly in reading wise instead of wife, for which that word might easily have been mistaken; nor can I think the passage, so amended, nonsense, the meaning of it being this: "If your business relates to me, or to any thing of which I have any knowledge." M. MASON.

9

O, good my lord, no Latin;] So, Holinshed, p. 908: "Then began the cardinall to speake to her in Latine. Naie good my lord (quoth she) speake to me in English."

STEEVENS.

Believe me, she has had much wrong: Lord car

dinal,

The willing'st sin I ever yet committed,
May be absolv'd in English.

WOL.

Noble lady,

I am sorry, my integrity should breed,
(And service to his majesty and you,)3
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
Both of his truth and him, (which was too far,)—
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,

3

(And service to his majesty and you,)] This line stands so very aukwardly, that I am inclined to think it out of its place. The author perhaps wrote, as Mr. Edwards has suggested: "I am sorry my integrity should breed

"So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant,
"And service to his majesty and you." MALONE.

to your cause.] Old copy-our cause. Corrected by

the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

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