Excuse me;

My lord, you'll bear us company?

Снам.

The king hath sent me other-where: besides,
You'll find a most unfit time to disturb him :
Health to your lordships.

NOR.

Thanks, my good lord Chamberlain. [Exit Lord Chamberlain.

NORFOLK opens a folding-door. The King is discovered sitting, and reading pensively.

SUF. How sad he looks! sure, he is much

afflicted.

K. HEN. Who is there? ha ?

NOR.

'Pray God, he be not angry. K. HEN. Who's there, I say? How dare you thrust yourselves

Into my private meditations?

Who am I? ha?

NOR. A gracious king, that pardons all offences Malice ne'er meant: our breach of duty, this way,

8 The stage direction, in the old copy, is a singular one. "Exit Lord Chamberlain, and the King draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively." STEEVENS.

This stage direction was calculated for, and ascertains precisely the state of, the theatre in Shakspeare's time. When a person was to be discovered in a different apartment from that in which the original speakers in the scene are exhibited, the artless mode of our author's time was, to place such person in the back part of the stage, behind the curtains, which were occasionally suspended across it. These the person who was to be discovered, (as Henry, in the present case,) drew back just at the proper time. Mr. Rowe, who seems to have looked no further than the modern stage, changed the direction thus: "The scene opens, and discovers the King," &c. but, besides the impropriety of introducing scenes when there were none, such an exhibition would not be proper here, for Norfolk has just said-" Let's in,"-and therefore should himself do some act, in order to visit the King. This, indeed, in the simple state of the old stage, was not attended to; the King very civilly discovering himself. See An Account of our old Theatres, vol. iii. MALONE.

Is business of estate; in which, we come
To know your royal pleasure.

K. HEN.

You are too bold; Go to; I'll make ye know your times of business: Is this an hour for temporal affairs? ha ?

Enter WOLSEY and CAMPeius.

Who's there? my good lord cardinal ?-O my

Wolsey,

The quiet of my wounded conscience;

Thou art a cure fit for a king.-You're welcome,
[TO CAMPEIUS.
Most learned reverend sir, into our kingdom;
Use us, and it :-My good lord, have great care
I be not found a talker 9.

WOL.

[TO WOLSEY.

Sir, you cannot.
I would, your grace would give us but an hour

Of private conference.

have great care

If it do,

I another.

Aside.

[Exeunt NORFOLK and Suffolk.

·

I be not found a talker.] I take the meaning to be, Let care be taken that my promise be performed, that my professions of welcome be not found empty talk.' JOHNSON.

So, in King Richard III.:

I

we will not stand to prate,

"Talkers are no good doers." STEEVENS.

SO SICK though,] That is, so sick as he is proud.

JOHNSON.

2 I'll venture one HAVE at him.] So afterwards, Surrey says:

WOL. Your grace has given a precedent of wisdom Above all princes, in committing freely Your scruple to the voice of Christendom: Who can be angry now? what envy reach you? The Spaniard, tied by blood and favour to her, Must now confess, if they have any goodness, The trial just and noble. All the clerks,

I mean, the learned ones, in christian kingdoms, Have their free voices; Rome, the nurse of judg ment,

Invited by your noble self, hath sent

One general tongue unto us, this good man,
This just and learned priest, Cardinal Campeius;
Whom, once more, I present unto your highness.
K. HEN. And, once more, in mine arms I bid
him welcome,

And thank the holy conclave for their loves;
They have sent me such a man I would have wish'd
for.

CAM. Your grace must needs deserve all strangers'

loves,

You are so noble: To your highness' hand

I tender my commission; by whose virtue,
(The court of Rome commanding,)-you, my lord
Cardinal of York, are join'd with me their servant,
In the unpartial judging of this business.

K. HEN. Two equal men. The queen shall be
acquainted

have at you,

"First that without the King," &c. MALONE.

one heave at him." So, in King Henry VI. Part II. :
"To heave the traitor Somerset from hence."

The first folio gives the passage thus:

"Ile venture one; haue at him."

The reading in the text [Mr. Steevens's] is that of the second folio. STEEVENS.

3 Have their free voices ;] The construction is, have sent their free voices;' the word sent, which occurs in the next line, being understood here. MALone.

Forthwith, for what you come:-Where's Gardiner.
WOL. I know, your majesty has always lov'd her
So dear in heart, not to deny her that

A woman of less place might ask by law,
Scholars, allow'd freely to argue for her.

K. HEN. Ay, and the best, she shall have; and my favour

To him that does best; God forbid else. Cardinal,
Pr'ythee, call Gardiner to me, my new secretary;
I find him a fit fellow.
[Exit WOLSEY.

Re-enter WOLSEY, with GARDiner.

WOL. Give me your hand: much joy and favour to you;

You are the king's now.

GARD.

But to be commanded

For ever by your grace, whose hand has rais'd me.

K. HEN. Come hither, Gardiner.

[Aside.

[They converse apart. CAM. My lord of York, was not one doctor Pace

In this man's place before him?

WOL.

CAM. Was he not held a learned man?

WOL.

Yes, he was.

Yes, surely.

CAM. Believe me, there's an ill opinion spread

then

Even of yourself, lord Cardinal.

WOL.

How! of me?

CAM. They will not stick to say, you envied him ; And, fearing he would rise, he was so virtuous, Kept him a foreign man still*; which so griev'd him, That he ran mad, and died 3.

4 Kept him a foreign man still :] Kept him out of the king's presence, employed in foreign embassies. JOHNSON.

which so griev'd him,

That he ran mad and died.]

This is from Holinshed.

WOL. Heaven's peace be with him! That's christian care enough: for living murmurers, There's places of rebuke. He was a fool:

For he would needs be virtuous: That good fellow, If I command him, follows my appointment;

I will have none so near else. Learn this, brother, We lived not to be grip'd by meaner persons.

K. HEN. Deliver this with modesty to the queen. [Exit GARDINER.

The most convenient place that I can think of,
For such receipt of learning, is Black-Friars;
There ye shall meet about this weighty business :—
My Wolsey, see it furnish'd.-O my lord,
Would it not grieve an able man, to leave
Sosweet a bedfellow? But, conscience, conscience,-
O, 'tis a tender place, and I must leave her.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

An Ante-chamber in the Queen's Apartments.

Enter ANNE BULLEN, and an old Lady.

ANNE. Not for that neither;-Here's the pang that pinches :

His highness having liv'd so long with her: and she
So good a lady, that no tongue could ever
Pronounce dishonour of her,—by my life,
She never knew harm-doing ;-O now, after
So many courses of the sun enthron'd,

Still growing in a majesty and pomp,-the which

"Aboute this time the king received into favor doctor Stephen Gardiner, whose service he used in matters of great secrecie and weighte, admitting him in the room of Doctor Pace, the which being continually abrode in ambassades, and the same oftentymes not much necessarie, by the Cardinalles appointment, at length he toke such greefe therwith, that he fell out of his right wittes."

DOUCE.