That it shall please you to declare, in hearing K. Hen. My lord cardinal, 8 although not there At once and fully satisfied,)] The sense which is encumbered with words, is no more than this-I must be loosed, though when so loosed, I shall not be satisfied fully and at once; that is, I shall not be immediately satisfied. Johnson. 9 might-] Old copy, redundantly-that might. Steevens. 1 Desir'd it to be stirr'd;] The useless words-to be, might, in my opinion, be safely omitted, as they clog the metre, without enforcement of the sense. Steevens. 2 The passages made toward it:] i. e. closed, or fastened. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act III, sc. i: "Why at this time the doors are made against you." For the present explanation and pointing, I alone am answerable. A similar phrase occurs in Macbeth: "Stop up the access and passage to remorse." Yet the sense in which these words have hitherto been received may be the true one. 3 -on my honour, Steevens. I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,] The King, having first addressed to Wolsey, breaks off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, that he speaks the Cardinal's sentiments And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to 't,- My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness, A marriage, 'twixt the duke of Orleans and Our daughter Mary: I' the progress of this business, (I mean, the bishop) did require a respite; upon the point in question; and clears him from any attempt, or wish, to stir that business. Theobald. 4 Scruple, and prick,] Prick of conscience was the term in confession. Johnson. The expression is from Holinshed, where the king says: "The special cause that mov'd me unto this matter was a certaine scrupulositie that pricked my conscience," &c. See Holinshed, p. 907. Steevens. 5 A marriage,] Old copy-And marriage. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 6 This respite shook The bosom of my conscience,] Though this reading be sense, yet, I verily believe, the poet wrote: The bottom of my conscience, Shakspeare, in all his historical plays, was a most diligent ob. server of Holinshed's Chronicle. Now Holinshed, in the speech which he has given to King Henry upon this subject, makes him deliver himself thus: "Which words, once conceived within the secret bottom of my conscience, ingendred such a scrupulous doubt, that my conscience was incontinently accombred, vexed, and disquieted." Vid. Life of Henry VIII, p. 907. Theobald. The phrase recommended by Mr. Theobald occurs again, in King Henry VI, Part I: for therein should we read "The very bottom and soul of hope." It is repeated also in Measure for Measure, All's Well that Ends Well, King Henry VI, P, II, Coriolanus, &c. Steevens. That many maz'd considerings did throng, The grave does to the dead: for her male issue When I first mov'd you. Lin. Very well, my liege. K. Hen. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself to say How far you satisfy'd me. Lin. So please your highness, The question did at first so stagger me,— Bearing a state of mighty moment in 't, And consequence of dread, that I committed The daring'st counsel which I had, to doubt; And did entreat your highness to this course, Which you are running here. 7 -hulling in The wild sea-] That is, floating without guidance; tossed here and there. Johnson. The phrase belongs to navigation. A ship is said to hull, when she is dismasted, 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 then mov'd you, My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave Under your hands and seals. Therefore, go on: To wear our mortal state to come, with her, Cam. [They rise to depart.1 I then mov'd you,] "I moved it in confession to you, my lord of Lincoln, then my ghostly father. And forasmuch as then you yourself were in some doubt, you moved me to ask the counsel of all these my lords. Whereupon I moved you, my lord of Canter. bury, 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." Holinshed's Life of Henry VIII, p. 908. Theobald. 9 That's paragon'd o' the world.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, I think, better: Again, in Cymbeline: "an angel! or, if not, "An earthly paragon.” To paragon, however, is a verb used by Shakspeare, both in Antony and Cleopatra, and Othello: "If thou with Cæsar paragon again "My man of men. a maid "That paragons description and wild fame." Steevens. They rise to depart.] Here the modern editors add: [The King speaks to Cranmer.] This marginal direction is not found in the old folio, and was wrongly introduced by some subsequent editor. K. Hen. I may perceive, [Aside. These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor [Exeunt, in manner as they entered. ACT III.....SCENE I. Palace at Bridewell. A Room in the Queen's Apartment. The Queen, and some of her Women, at work.2 Q. Kath. Take thy lute, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles; Sing, and disperse them, if thou canst: leave working, SONG. Orpheus with his lute made trees, Bow themselves, when he did sing: There had made a lasting spring. Cranmer was now absent from court on an embassy, as appears from the last scene of this act, where Cromwell informs Wolsey that he is returned and installed archbishop of Canterbury: "My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer, "Prythee, return!" is no more than an apostrophe to the absent bishop of that name. Ridley. 2 at work.] Her majesty (says Cavendish) on being informed that the cardinals were coming to visit her, "rose up, having a skein of red silke about her neck, being at work with her maidens." Cavendish attended Wolsey in this visit; and the Queen's answer, in p. 275, is exactly conformable to that which he has recorded, and which he appears to have heard her pronounce. Malone. |