Upon this business, my appearance make
In any of their courts.

[Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and her other Attendants.

K. HEN.

Go thy ways, Kate:
That man i'the world, who fhall report he has
A better wife, let him in nought be trusted,
For fpeaking falfe in that: Thou art, alone,
If thy rare qualities, fweet gentleness,

Thy meekness 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 must I be unloos'd; although not there
At once and fully fatisfied,') whether ever I
Did broach this business to your highness; or
Laid any fcruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the queftion on't? or ever

2

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

Rather-had tongues capable of fpeaking out thy merits; i. e. of doing them extenfive juftice. In Cymbeline we have a fimilar expreffion:

"You speak him far."

3 although not there

STEEVENS.

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

Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch
A royal lady,-spake one the least word, might*
Be to the prejudice of her present state,

Or touch of her good perfon?

K. HEN.

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 wish'd the fleeping of this bufinefs; never
Defir'd it to be stirr'd; but oft have hinder'd; oft
The paffages made toward it: on my honour,
I fpeak 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:

2

-might-] Old copy, redundantly—that might.

STEEVENS.

3 Defir'd it to be firr'd;] The ufelefs words to be, might, in my opinion, be fafely omitted, as they clog the metre, without enforcement of the fenfe. STEEVENS.

4 The paffages made toward it:] i. e. clofed, or fastened. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act III. fc. i:

66

Why at this time the doors are made against you."
For the prefent explanation and pointing, I alone am anfwerable.
A fimilar phrafe occurs in Macbeth:

"Stop up the accefs and passage to remorse."

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

5 -on my honour,

I fpeak my good lord cardinal to this point,] The King, having firft addrefled to Wolfey, breaks off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, that he fpeaks the Cardinal's fentiments upon the point in queftion; and clears him from any attempt, or with, to ftir that bufinefs. THEOBALD.

Then mark the inducement. Thus it came;-give heed to't:

My conscience firft receiv'd a tenderness,

Scruple, and prick, on certain fpeeches 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
Our daughter Mary: I'the progrefs of this business,
Ere a determinate refolution, he

(I mean, the bishop) did require a respite;
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 confcience, enter'd me,

8

6 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. MALONE.

8

This refpite book

The bofom of my confcience,] Though this reading be fenfe, yet, I verily believe, the poet wrote:

The bottom of my confcience,

Shakspeare, in all his hiftorical plays, was a moft diligent obferver of Holinfhed's Chronicle. Now Holinfhed, in the fpeech which he has given to King Henry upon this fubject, makes him deliver himfelf thus: "Which words, once conceived within the fecret bottom 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.

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

66 - for therein fhould we read

"The very bottom and foul of hope."

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

Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
The region of my breaft; which forc'd fuch way,
That many maz'd confiderings did throng,

And prefs'd in with this caution. Firft, methought,
I ftood not in the fmile of heaven; who had
Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
If it conceiv'd a male child by me, fhould
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 judgement on me; that my kingdom,
Well worthy the best heir o'the world, fhould 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 of my confcience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together; that's to say,
I meant to rectify my confcience,-which
I then did feel full fick, 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 oppreffion I did reek,

When I first moy'd you.

LIN.

-hulling in

Very well, my liege.

The wild fea-] That is floating without guidance; tofs'd here and there. JOHNSON.

The phrafe belongs to navigation. A fhip is faid to bull, when fhe is difmafted, 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.

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

to fay

How far you satisfy'd me.

LIN. So please your highness, The question did at firft fo ftagger me,Bearing a state of mighty moment in't, And confequence of dread,-that I committed The daring'ft 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,* My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave To make this prefent fummons:-Unfolicited I left no reverend perfon in this court;

But by particular confent proceeded,

Under your hands and feals. Therefore, go on:
For no diflike i'the world against the perfon
Of the good queen, but the fharp thorny points
Of my alledged reafons, drive this forward:
Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life,
And kingly dignity, we are contented
To wear our mortal ftate to come, with her,
Katharine our queen, before the primeft creature
That's paragon'd o'the world.'

2 I then mov'd you,] "I moved it in confeffion to you, my lord of Lincoln, then my ghoftly father. And forafmuch as then you yourself were in fome doubt, you moved me to ask the counsel of all these my lords. Whereupon I moved you, 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." Holinfhed's Life of Henry VIII. p. 908.

THEOBALD.

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