And prove it too, against mine honour aught, knife To the sharpest kind of justice. Please you, sir, A prince most prudent, of an excellent That they had gather'd a wise council to them Who deem'd our marriage lawful: Wherefore I humbly Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whose counsel 7 —or my love and duty, Against your sacred person,] There seems to be an error in the phrase "Against your sacred person;" but I don't know how to amend it. The sense would require that we should read, "Towards your sacred person," or some word of a similar import, which against will not bear: and it is not likely that against should be written by mistake for towards. M. Mason. In the old copy there is not a comma in the preceding line after duty. Mr. M. Mason has justly observed that, with such a punctuation, the sense requires-Towards your sacred person. A comma being placed at duty, the construction is-If you can report and prove aught against mine honour, my love and duty, or aught against your sacred person, &c. but I doubt whether this was our author's intention; for such an arrangement seems to make a breach of her honour and matrimonial bond to be something distinct from an offence against the king's person, which is not the case. Perhaps, however, by the latter words Shakspeare meant, against your life. Malone. against my honour aught, My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty Against your sacred person, &c.] The meaning of this passage is sufficiently clear, but the construction of it has puzzled us all. It is evidently erroneous, but may be amended by merely removing the word or from the middle of the second line to the end of it. It will then run thus against my honour aught, My bond to wedlock,-my love and duty,-or This slight alteration makes it grammatical, as well as intelligi- I will implore: if not; i' the name of God, Wol. Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled 8 To plead your cause: It shall be therefore bootless, Cam. His grace Hath spoken well, and justly: Therefore, madam, And that, without delay, their arguments Be now produc'd, and heard. defer Q. Kath. Lord cardinal, To you I speak. Wol. Your pleasure, madam? Q. Kath. Sir, I am about to weep; but, thinking that We are a queen, (or long have dream'd so) certain, I'll turn to sparks of fire. Wol. Be patient yet. Q. Kath. I will, when you are humble; nay, before, Or God will punish me. I do believe, Induc'd by potent circumstances, that You are mine enemy; and make my challenge, 8 That longer you desire the court;] That you desire to protract the business of the court; that you solicit a more distant session and trial. To pray for a longer day, i. e. a more distant one, when the trial or execution of criminals is agitated, is yet the language of the bar.-In the fourth folio, and all the modern editions, defer is substituted for desire. Malone. 9 I am about to weep; &c.] Shakspeare has given almost a similar sentiment to Hermione, in The Winter's Tale, on an almost similar occasion: "I am not prone to weeping, as our sex Commonly are, &c.-but I have "That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns "Worse than tears drown;" &c. 11 and make my challenge, Steevens. You shall not be my judge:] Challenge is here a verbum juris, Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,— Which God's dew quench!-Therefore, I say again, I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul, Refuse 2 you for my judge; whom, yet once more, I hold my most malicious foe, and think not At all a friend to truth. Wol. I do profess, You speak not like yourself; who ever yet O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong: By a commission from the consistory, Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge me, That I have blown this coal: I do deny it: 3 The king is present: if it be known to him, Remove these thoughts from you: The which before You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking, a law term. The criminal, when he refuses a juryman, says-1 challenge him. Johnson. 2 I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul, Refuse you for my judge;] These are not mere words of passion, but technical terms in the canon law. Detestor and Recuso. The former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more, than I protest against. Blackstone. The words are Holinshed's: "and therefore openly protested that she did utterly abhor, refuse, and forsake such a judge.” 3 Malone. gainsay i. e. deny. So, in Lord Surrey's translation of the fourth Book of the Eneid: 4 "I hold thee not, nor yet gainsay thy words." Steevens. But if-] The conjunction-But, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied, for the sake of measure, by Sir T. Hanmer. Steevens. Q. Kath. My lord, my lord, I am a simple woman, much too weak To oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble mouth'd; You sign your place and calling, in full seeming, your heart 5 You sign your place and calling,] Sign, for answer Warburton. I think, to sign, must here be to show, to denote. By your outward meekness and humility, you show that you are of an holy order, but, &c. Johnson. So, with a kindred sense, in Julius Cesar: "Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson d in thy lethe." Steevens. 6 Where powers are your retainers: and your words, Domesticks to you, serve your will,] You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue; and words therefore are degraded to the servile state of performing an office which vou shall give them In humbler and more common terms: Having now got power, you do not regard your word. Johnson. The word power, when used in the plural and applied to one person only, will not bear the meaning that Dr. Johnson wishes to give it. By powers are meant the Emperor and the King of France, in the pay of one or the other of whom Wolsey was constantly retained; and it is well known that Wolsey entertained some of the nobility of England among his domestics, and had an absolute power over the rest. M Mason. Whoever were pointed at by the word powers, Shakspeare, surely, does not mean to say that Wolsey was retained by them, but that they were retainers, or subservient, to Wolsey. Malone. I believe that-powers, in the present instance, are used merely to express persons in whom power is lolged The Queen would insinuate that Wolsey had rendered the highest officers of state subservient to his will. Steevens. I believe we should read: Where powers are your retainers, and your wards, The Queen rises naturally in her description. She paints the pow ers of government depending upon Wolsey under three images; as his retainers, his wards, his domestick servants. Tr hitt So, in Storer's Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal, a poem, 1599: "I must have notice where their wards must dwell: "I car'd not for the gentry, for I had "Yong nobles of the land," &c. Steevens. Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you, To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness, Cam. [She curt'sies to the King, and offers to depart. The queen is obstinate, Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and Disdainful to be try'd by it; 'tis not well. She 's going away. K. Hen. Call her again. Crier. Katharine queen of England, come into the court. Grif. Madam, you are call'd back. Q. Kath. What need you note it? pray you, keep your way: When you are call'd, return.-Now the Lord help, They sex me past my patience!-pray you, pass on: I will not tarry; no, nor ever more, Upon this business, my appearance make In any of their courts. [Exeunt Queen, GRIF. and her other Attendants. K. Hen. Go thy ways, Kate: That man i' the world, who shall report he has A better wife, let him in nought be trusted, For speaking false in that: Thou art, alone, (If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness, Thy meekness saint-like, wife-ike government,— Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out,7) -She is noble born; And, like her true nobility, she has Carried herself towards me. Wol. Most gracious sir, In humblest manner I require your highness, 7 could speak thee out,)] If thy several qualities had tongues to speak thy praise Johnson. Rather-had tongues capable of speaking out thy merits. e. of doing them extensive justice. In Cymbeline we have a similar expression: "You speak him far." Steevens. |