We come not by the way of accufation,
To taint that honour every good tongue bleffes;
Nor to betray you any way to forrow;

You have too much, good lady: but to know
How you ftand minded in the weighty difference
Between the king and you ; and to deliver
Like free and honeft men, our just opinions
And comforts to your caufe.

Cam. Moft 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 cenfure
Both of his truth and him, which was too far,→
Offers, as I do, in a fign of peace,

His fervice, and his counsel.

Queen. To betray me.

[Afide.

My lords, I thank you both for your good wills;
Ye fpeak like honeft men ; (pray God, ye prove fo!)
But how to make ye fuddenly an answer,

In fuch a point of weight, fo near mine honour
(More near my life, I fear) with my weak wit,
And to fuch 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 fuch men, or such bufinefs.

For her fake that I have been (for I feel

The last fit of my greatness), good your graces,

Let me have time, and counfel, for my cause ;

Alas! I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.

Wol. Madam, you wrong the king's love with those fears; Your hopes and friends are infinite.

Queen. In England,

But little for my profit: Can you think, lords,
That any Englishman dare give me counsel ?
Or be a known friend 'gainft his highness pleasure,
(Though he be grown so desperate to be honeft)(4)
And live a fubject? Nay, forfooth, my friends,
They that muft weigh out my afflictions,(5)

(4) Do you think that any Englishman dare advise me; or, if any man fhould venture to advife with honefty, that he could live? JOHNS.

(5) 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 confider with due attention. This may, perhaps, be meant. Or the phrafe, to weigh out,' may fignify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. ib.

They that my trust must grow to, live not here;
They are, as all my other comforts, far hence,
In my own country, lords.

Cam. I would, your grace

Would leave your griefs, and take my counfel.
Queen. How, fir?

Cam. Put your main cause into the king's protection; He's loving, and moft gracious: 'twill be much

Both for your honour better, and your caufe;

For, if the trial of the law o'ertake you,

You'll part away difgrac'd.

Wol. He tells you rightly.

Queen. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, my ruin

Is this your chriftian counfel? out upon you!
Heaven is above all yet; there fits a Judge,

That no king can corrupt.

Cam. Your rage mistakes us.

Queen. The more fhame for you ;(6) holy men I thought you,

Upon my foul, two reverend cardinal virtues ;
But cardinal fins, and hollow hearts, I fear you.
Mend 'em for fhame, my lords. Is this your comfort?
The cordial that you bring a wretched lady?

A woman loft among you, laugh'd at, fcorn'd?

I will not wish you half my miseries;

I have more charity: But fay, I warn'd ye;

Take heed, for heaven's fake, take heed, left at once
The burden of my forrows fall upon you.

Wol. Madam, this is a mere distraction;
You turn the good we offer into envy.

Queen. Ye turn me into nothing: Woe upon you,
And all fuch false profeffors! Would ye have me
(If you have any juftice, any pity;

If you be any thing but churchmen's habits)
Put my fick caufe 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

To me, above this wretchednefs? all your studies
Make me a curfe like this!

(6) If I miftake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good. The diftrefs of Catherine might have kept her from the quibblé to which she is irrefistibly tempted by the word cardinal. JOHNS.

Cam. Your fears are worse.

Queen. Have I liv'd thus long-let me speak myself, Since virtue finds no friends-a wife, a true one? A woman (I dare fay, without vain-glory)

Never yet branded with fufpicion ?

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 ?(7)
Almoft forgot my prayers to content him?
And am I thus rewarded? 'Tis not well, lords.
Bring me a conftant woman to her husband,
One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure ;
And to that woman, when the has done most,
Yet will I add an honour, a great patience.

Wol. Madam, you wander from the good we aim at. Queen. My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty, To give up willingly that noble title

Your mafter wed me to: nothing but death
Shall e'er divorce my dignities.

Wol. Pray, hear me.

Queen. '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 fhall become of me now, wretched lady ?
I am the moft 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,
Almoft no grave allow'd me :-Like the lily,
That once was miftrefs 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 fhould we, good lady,
Upon what caufe, wrong you? alas! our place,
The way of our profeffion is against it;

We are to cure fuch forrows, not to fow 'em.
For goodness' fake, confider what you do;
How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly

Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this carriage.
The hearts of princes kifs obedience,

(7) That is, ferved him with fuperftitious attention; done more than was required. JOHNS.

So much they love it; but, to stubborn spirits,
They fwell, and grow as terrible as ftorms.
I know, you have a gentle, noble temper,
A foul as even as a calm; Pray, think us
Those we profefs, peace-makers, friends, and fervants.
Cam. Madam, you'll find it fo. You wrong your vir-

tues

With thefe weak women's fears. A noble spirit,

As your's was put into you, ever cafts

Such doubts, as falfe coin, from it. The king loves you;
Beware, you lofe it not: For us, if you please
To truft us in your bufinefs, we are ready

To use our utmost studies in your service.

Queen. Do what you will, my lords: And, pray, forgive me,

If I have us'd myself unmannerly;

You know, I am a woman, lacking wit

To make a feemly anfwer to fuch perfons.
Pray, do my service to his majesty :

He has my heart yet; and fhall have my prayers,
While I fhall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,
Beftow your counfels on me : fhe now begs,
That little thought, when he fet footing here,
She fhould have bought her dignities fo dear.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Anti-Chamber to the King's Apartments. Enter Duke of NORFOLK, Duke of SUFFOLK, the Earl of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Nor. If you will now unite in your complaints, And force them with a conftancy,(9) the cardinal Cannot ftand under them: If you omit

The offer of this time, I cannot promife

But that you fhall fuftain more new difgraces,
With these you bear already.

Sur. I am joyful

To meet the leaft occafion that may give me
Remembrance of my father-in-law, the duke,
To be reveng'd on him.

Suf. Which of the peers

Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at leaft

(9) Force-is enforce, urge. JOHNS.

Strangely neglected (1) when did he regard
The ftamp of noblenefs in any perfon,
Out of himself ?(2)

Cham. My lords, you fpeak your pleasures:
What he deferves of you and me, I know;
What we can do to him (though now the time
Give way to us), I much fear. If you cannot
Bar his access to the king, never attempt
Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
Over the king in his tongue.

Nor. O, fear him not;

His fpell in that is out: the king hath found
Matter against him, that for ever mars

The honey of his language. No, he's fettled,
Not to come off, in his difpleasure.

Sur. Sir,

I should be glad to hear fuch news as this
Once every hour.

Nor. Believe it, this is true.

In the divorce, his contrary proceedings(3)
Are all unfolded; wherein he appears,
As I would wish mine enemy.

Sur. How came

His practices to light?

Suf. Moft ftrangely.

Sur. O, how, how?

Suf. The cardinal's letters to the pope miscarried,
And came to the eye o'the king: wherein was read,
How that the cardinal did intreat his holiness
To stay the judgment o'the divorce; For if
It did take place, I do, quoth he, perceive,
My king is tangled in affection to

A creature of the queen's, lady Anne Bullen.
Sur. Has the king this?

Suf. Believe it.

Sur. Will this work?

Cham. The king in this perceives him, how he coasts, And hedges, his own way.(4) But in this point

(1) In our author's licentious English, the paffage, as it ftands, means the fame as, which of the peers has not gone by him contemned or neg

lected?'

JOHNS.

(2) When did he, however careful to carry his own dignity to the utmoft height, regard any dignity of another? ib. ib.

(3) Private practices oppofite to his public procedure.

(4) To hedge-is to creep along by the hedge: not to take the direct and open path, but to fteal covertly through circumvolutions. ib,