The King takes his State. The Lords of the Council take their feveral Places. The Cardinal places himfelf under the King's Feet, on his right Side.

A Noife within, crying, Room for the Queen. Enter the Queen, ushered by the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK: She kneels. The King rifeth from his State, takes her up, kisses, and placeth her by him.

Q. KATH. Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a fuitor.

K. HEN. Arife, and take place by us:-Half your fuit

Never name to us; you have half our power:
The other moiety, ere you afk, is given;

Repeat your will, and take it.

Q. KATH.

Thank your majefty.

That you would love yourself; and, in that love,
Not unconfider'd leave your honour, nor

The dignity of your office, is the point

Of my petition.

K. HEN.

Lady mine, proceed.

Q. KATH. I am solicited, not by a few,
And thofe of true condition, that your fubjects
Are in great grievance: there have been commiffions
Sent down among them, which hath flaw'd the heart
Of all their loyalties:wherein, although,
My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches
Moft bitterly on you, as putter-on

Of these exactions, yet the king our master,

as putter-on

Of thefe exactions,] The inftigator of these exactions; the

(Whose honour heaven fhield from foil!) even he escapes not

Language unmannerly, yea, fuch which breaks
The fides of loyalty, and almost appears

In loud rebellion.

Nor.

Not almoft appears,

It doth appear: for, upon these taxations,
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them 'longing," have put off
The spinfters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
And Danger ferves among them.8

perfon who fuggefted to the King the taxes complained of, and incited him to exact them from his fubjects. So, in Macbeth: -The powers above

"Put on their inftruments."

Again, in Hamlet:

"Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd caufe."

>

See Vol. X p. 252, n. 4. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

7 The many to them 'longing,] The many is the meiny, the train, the people. Dryden is, perhaps, the laft that used this word:

"The kings before their many rode." JOHNSON.

I believe the many is only the multitude, the oi woλ20). Thus, Coriolanus, fpeaking of the rabble, calls them-

the mutable rank-scented many." STEEVENS. 8 And Danger ferves among them.] Could one easily believe that a writer, who had, but immediately before, funk fo low in his expreffion, fhould here rife again to a height fo truly sublime? where, by the nobleft stretch of fancy, Danger is perfonalized as ferving in the rebel army, and shaking the established government. WARBURTON.

Chaucer, Gower, Skelton, and Spenfer, have personified Danger. The first, in his Romaunt of the Rofe; the second, in his fifth Book, De Confeffione Amantis; the third, in his Bouge of Court

: K. HEN.

Taxation!

Wherein and what taxation?-My lord cardinal,
You that are blam'd for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

WOL.

Please you, fir,

I know but of a fingle part, in aught

Pertains to the state; and front but in that file
Where others tell fteps with me.

Q. KATH.
No, my lord,
You know no more than others: but you frame
Things, that are known alike;1 which are not
wholesome

To those which would not know them, and yet must
Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions,
Whereof my fovereign would have note, they are
Most peftilent to the hearing; and, to bear them,
The back is facrifice to the load. They fay,
They are devis'd by you; or else
Too hard an exclamation.

K. HEN.

you fuffer

Still exaction!

The nature of it? In what kind, let's know,
Is this exaction?

"With that, anone out ftart dangere;"

and the fourth, in the 10th Canto of the 4th Book of his Fairy Queen, and again in the fifth Book and the ninth Canto.

9

STEEVENS.

-front but in that file-] I am but primus inter pares. I am but firft in the row of counfellors. JOHNSON.

This was the very idea that Wolfey wished to disclaim. It was not his intention to acknowledge that he was the first in the row of counsellors, but that he was merely on a level with the reft, and stept in the fame line with them. M. MASON.

1 You know no more than others: &c.] That is, you know no more than other counsellors, but you are the person who frame those things which are afterwards propofed, and known equally by all. M. MASON.

Q. KATH.

I am much too venturous

In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd Under your promis'd pardon. The fubject's grief Comes through commiffions, which compel from each The fixth part of his substance, to be levied Without delay; and the pretence for this

Is nam'd, your wars in France: This makes bold

mouths:

Tongues fpit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze Allegiance in them; their curfes now,

Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass,
That tractable obedience is a flave

To each incenfed will. I would, your highness
Would give it quick confideration, for
There is no primer business.3

2

tractable obedience &c.] i. e. those who are tractable and obedient, muft give way to others who are angry.

MUSGRAVE.

The meaning of this is, that the people were fo much irritated by oppreffion, that their refentment got the better of their obedience. M. MASON.

The meaning, I think, is-Things are now in fuch a fituation, that refentment and indignation predominate in every man's breaft over duty and allegiance. MALONE.

3 There is no primer bufinefs.] In the old edition

There is no primer baseness.

The queen is here complaining of the fuffering of the commons, which, the fufpects, arose from the abuse of power in fome great men. But she is very reserved in speaking her thoughts concerning the quality of it. We may be affured then, that she did not, in conclufion, call it the higheft bafeness; but rather made use of a word that could not offend the Cardinal, and yet would incline the King to give it a speedy hearing. I read therefore :

There is no primer business.

i.e. no matter of ftate that more earneftly preffes a despatch. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton (for reasons which he has given in his note) would read:

no primer business:

K. HEN.

This is against our pleasure.

WOL.

By my life,

And for me,

I have no further gone in this, than by
A fingle voice; and that not pafs'd me, but
By learned approbation of the judges.

If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know
My faculties, nor perfon,+ yet will be

The chronicles of my doing,-let me fay,
'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue muft go through. We must not stint 5
Our neceffary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious cenfurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a veffel follow

That is new trimm'd; but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do beft,
By fick interpreters, once weak ones," is

but I think the meaning of the original word is fufficiently clear. No primer bafenefs is no mifchief more ripe or ready for redrefs. So, in Othello:

"Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkies—." STEEVENS.

4 If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know,

My faculties, nor perfon,] The old copy-by ignorant tongues. But furely this epithet muft have been an interpolation, the ignorance of the fuppofed fpeakers being fufficiently indicated by their knowing neither the faculties nor person of the Cardinal. I have, therefore, with Sir T. Hanmer, reftored the measure, by the prefent omiffion. STEEVENS.

5 We must not ftint-] To ftint is to stop, to retard. Many inftances of this fenfe of the word are given in a note on Romeo and Juliet, A&t I. fc. iii. STEEVENS.

To cope-] To engage with, to encounter. The word is ftill ufed in fome counties. JOHNSON.

7

So, in As you like it:

"I love to cope him in these fullen fits." STEEvens.

once weak ones,] The modern editors read-or weak