Every thing that heard him play, Hung their heads, and then lay by. Killing care, and grief of heart, Fall asleep, or, hearing, die. Enter a Gentleman. Q. Kath. How now? Gent. An 't please your grace, the two great cardinals Wait in the presence. 3 Q. Kath. Would they speak with me? Pray their graces Gent. They will'd me say so, madam. Q. Kath. To come near. [Exit Gent.] What can be their business With me, a poor weak woman, fallen from favour? I do not like their coming, now I think on 't. They should be good men; their affairs as righteous:4 But all hoods make not monks.5 . Wol. Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS. Peace to your highness! Q. Kath. Your graces find me here part of a house wife; I would be all, against the worst may happen. 3 Wait in the presence.] i. e. in the presence-chamber. So, in Peacham's Compleat Gentleman: "The lady Anne of Bretaigne, passing thorow the presence in the court of France," &c. Steevens. 4 They should be good men; their affairs as righteous:] Affairs for professions; and then the sense is clear and pertinent. The proposition is they are priests. The illation, they are good men; for being understood: but if affairs be interpreted in its common signification, the sentence is absurd. Warburton. The sentence has no great difficulty: Affairs means not their present errand, but the business of their calling. Johnson. Being churchmen they should be virtuous, and every business they undertake as righteous as their sacred office: but all hoods, &c.-The ignorant editor of the second folio, not understanding the line, substituted are for as; and this capricious alteration (with many others introduced by the same hand,) has been adopted by all the modern editors. Malone. 5 all hoods make not monks.] Cucullus non facit monachum. Steevens Into your private chamber, we shall give you Q. Kath. Speak it here; There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience, Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw them, I know my life so even: If your business 6 Envy and base opinion set against them,] I would be glad that my conduct were in some publick trial confronted with mine enemies, that envy and corrupt judgment might try their utmost power against me. Johnson. Envy, in Shakspeare's age, often signified, malice. So, afterwards: "Ye turn the good we offer into envy." Malone. 7 Seek me out, &c.] I believe that a word has dropt out here, and that we should read: If your business Seek me, speak out, and that way I am wise in; i. e. in the way that I can understand it. Tyrwhitt. The metre shows here is a syllable dropt. would read: I know my life so even. If 'tis your business To seek me out, &c. Blackstone. The alteration proposed by Sir W. Blackstone injures one line as much as it improves the other. We might read: Doth seek me out, -. Ritson. 8 and that way I am wife in,] That is, if you come to ex. amine the title by which I am the King's wife; or, if you come to know how I have behaved as a wife. The meaning, whatever it be, is so coarsely and unskilfully expressed, that the latter editors have liked nonsense better, and contrarily to the ancient and only copy, have published: And that way I am wise in. Johnson. This passage is unskilfully expressed indeed; so much so, that I don't see how it can import either of the meanings that Johnson contends for, or indeed any other. I therefore think that the modern editors have acted rightly in reading wise instead of wife, for which that word might easily have been mistaken; nor can I think the passage, so amended, nonsense, the meaning of it being this: "If your business relates to me, or to any thing of which I have any knowledge." M. Mason. Wol. Tanta est ergà te mentis integritas, regina serenissima, Q. Kath. O, good my lord, no Latin ;9 I am not such a truant since my coming, As not to know the language I have liv'd in: A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, suspicious; Pray, speak in English: here are some will thank you, Wol. Noble lady, I am sorry, my integrity should breed, To taint that honour every good tongue blesses; You have too much, good lady: but to know Like free and honest men, our just opinions, Cam. Most honour'd madam, My lord of York,-out of his noble nature, His service and his counsel. Q. Kath. To betray me. [Aside 90 good my lord, no Latin;] So, Holinshed, p. 908: "Then began the cardinall to speake to her in Latine. Naie good my lord (quoth she) speake to me in English." Steevens. 1 (And service to his majesty and you)] This line stands so very aukwardly, that I am inclined to think it out of its place. The author perhaps wrote, as Mr. Edwards has suggested: "I am sorry my integrity sbould breed Malone. "So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant, "And service to his majesty and you." to your cause. se.] Old copy-our cause. editor of the second folio. Malone. 2 Corrected by the My lords, I thank you both for your good wills, In such a point of weight, so near mine honour, Wol. Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears; Your hopes and friends are infinite. Q. Kath. Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highness' pleasure, Cam. I would, your grace How, sir? Cam. Put your main cause into the king's protection; 3 For her sake that I have been, &c.] For the sake of that royalty which I have heretofore possessed. Malone. 4 (Though he be grown so desperate to be honest)] Do you think that any Englishman dare advise me; or, if any man should venture to advise with honesty, that he could live? Fohnson. 5 weigh out my afflictions.] This phrase is obscure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this sense cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewise to deliberate upon, to consider with due attention. This may, perhaps, be meant. Or the phrase, to weigh out, may signify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. Johnson. To weigh out is the same as to outweigh. In Macbeth, Shakspeare has overcome for come over. Steevens. He's loving, and most gracious: 'twill be much You'll part away disgrac'd. Wol. He tells you rightly. Q. Kath. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, my ruin:" Is this your christian counsel? out upon ye! Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge, That no king can corrupt, Cam. thought ye, holy men I Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues; I have more charity: But say, I warn'd ye; comfort? Take heed, for heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye. Wol. Madam, this is a mere distraction; You turn the good we offer into envy. Q. Kath. Ye turn me into nothing: Woe upon ye, If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits,) Cam. Your fears are worse. Q. Kath. Have I liv'd thus long-(let me speak my self, Since virtue finds no friends,)—a wife, a true one? 6 The more shame for ye;] If I mistake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good. The distress of Katharine might have kept her from the quibble to which she is irresistibly tempted by the word cardinal. Johnson. |