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 wel-
come,

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 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 fa

vour

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 WOL.

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 raised me. [Aside.
K. Hen. Come hither, Gardiner. [They converse apart.
Cam. My lord of York, was not one doctor Pace
In this man's place before him?

Wol.

Yes, he was.

Cam. Was he not held a learned man?
Wol.
Cam. Believe me, there's an ill opinion spread then

Yes, surely.

8 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.

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:9 which so griev'd him, That he ran mad, and died.

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 live not to be grip'd by meaner persons.

K. Hen. Deliver this with modesty to the queen.
[Exit GARD.
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

So sweet 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
To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than
'Tis sweet at first to acquire,-after this process,

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

To leave is] The latter word was added by Mr. Theobald. Malone.

To give her the avaunt!2 it is a pity

Would move a monster.

Old L.

Melt and lament for her.

Anne.

Hearts of most hard temper

O, God's will! much better,

She ne'er had known pomp: though it be temporal,
Yet, if that quarrel, fortune,3 do divorce

It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging

As soul and body's severing.4

Old L.

She's a stranger now again.5

Alas, poor lady!

2 To give her the avaunt!] To send her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a sentence of ejection. Johnson.

3 Yet, if that quarrel, fortune,] She calls fortune a quarrel or arrow, from her striking so deep and suddenly. Quarrel was a large arrow so called. Thus Fairfax:

twang'd the string, out flew the quarrel long."

Warburton.

Such is Dr. Warburton's interpretation. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

That quarreler Fortune.

I think the poet may be easily supposed to use quarrel for quarreller, as murder for the murderer, the act for the agent Johnson Dr. Johnson may be right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

but that your royalty

"Holds idleness your subject, I should take you
"For Idleness itself."

Like Martial's-" Non Vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed Vitium."
We might, however, read:

Yet if that quarrel fortune to divorce

It from the bearer.

i. e. if any quarrel happen or chance to divorce it from the bearer. To fortune is a verb used by Shakspeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

I'll tell you as we pass along,

"That you will wonder what hath fortuned." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I, c. ii:

4

"It fortuned (high heaven did so ordaine)" &c. Steevens.

panging

As soul and body's severing.] So Bartram, in All's well that ends well: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body." Steevens. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

5

"The soul and body rive not more at parting,

"Than greatness going off." Malone.

stranger now again.] Again an alien; not only no longer queen, but no longer an Englishwoman. Johnson.

It rather means, she is alienated from the King's affection, is a

Anne.

So much the more

Must pity drop upon her. Verily,

I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.

And venture maidenhead for 't; and so would you,
For all this spice of your hypocrisy :

You, that have so fair parts of woman on you,
Have too a woman's heart; which ever yet
Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty;

Which, to say sooth, are blessings: and which gifts
(Saving your mincing) the capacity

Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive,
If you might please to stretch it.

Anne.
Nay, good troth,-
Old L. Yes, troth, and troth,-You would not be a

queen?

Anne. No, not for all the riches under heaven.

Old L. 'Tis strange; a three-pence bow'd would hire

me,

stranger to his bed; for she still retained the rights of an Englishwoman, and was princess dowager of Wales. So, in the second scene of the third Act:

Katharine no more

"Shall be call'd queen; but princess dowager,
"And widow to prince Arthur." Tollet.

Dr. Johnson's interpretation appears to me to be the true one.

I agree with Mr. Tollet. So, in King Lear:

Malone.

"Dower'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,”i. e. the revocation of my love has reduced her to the condition of an unfriended stranger. Steevens.

6 our best having.] That is, our best possession.

Macbeth:

"Of noble having and of royal hope."

In Spanish, hazienda. Johnson.

7

cheveril

is kid-skin, soft leather. Johnson.

So, in Histriomastix, 1610:

So, in

"The cheveril conscience of corrupted law. Steevens.

Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you,
What think you of a duchess? have you limbs
To bear that load of title?

Anne.

No, in truth.

Old L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a

little; 8

I would not be a young count in your way,
For more than blushing comes to: if your back
Cannot vouchsafe this burden, 'tis too weak
Ever to get a boy.

Anne.

How you do talk!

I swear again, I would not be a queen
For all the world.

Old L.

In faith, for little England

You'd venture an embaliing: I myself

Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd

8 Pluck off a little; &c.] What must she pluck off? I think we may better read:

Pluck up a little.

Pluck up! is an idiomatical expression for take courage. Johnson. The old lady first questions Anne Bullen about being a queen, which she declares her aversion to; she then proposes the title of a duchess, and asks her if she thinks herself equal to the task of sustaining it; but as she still declines the offer of greatness,

- Pluck off a little,

says she; i. e. let us still further divest preferment of its glare, let us descend yet lower, and more upon a level with your own quality; and then adds:

I would not be a young count in your way,

which is an inferior degree of honour to any before enumerated. Steevens.

In faith, for little England

You'd venture an emballing: I myself

Would for Carnarvonshire.] Little England seems very properly opposed to all the world; but what has Carnarvonshire to do here? Does it refer to the birth of Ed ard II, at Carnarvon? or may not this be the allusion? By little England is meant, perhaps, that territory in Pembrokeshire, where the Flemings settled in Henry Ist's time, who speaking a language very different from the Welsh, and bearing some affinity to the English, this fertile spot was called by the Britons, as we are told by Camden, Little England beyond Wales; and, as it is a very fruitful country, may be justly opposed to the mountainous and barren county of Carnarvon. Whalley.

So, in A short Relation of a long Journey &c. by John Taylor the Water Poet: " Concerning Pembrookshire, the people do speak English in it almost generally, and therefore they call it Little