That many maz’d considerings did throng, And press'd in with this caution. First, methought, I stood not in the smile of heaven; who had Commanded nature, that my lady's womb, If it conceiv'd a male child by me, should Do no more offices of life to 't, than The grave does to the dead: for her male issue Or died where they were made, or shortly after This world had air’d them: Hence I took a thought, This was a judgment on me; that my kingdom, Well worthy the best heir o'the world, should not Be gladded in 't by me: Then follows, that - I weigh'd the danger which my realms stood in By this my issue's fail; and that gave to me Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in The wild sea? of my conscience, I did steer Toward this remedy, whereupon we are Now present here together; that's to say, I meant to rectify my conscience, which I then did feel full sick, and yet not well, By all the reverend fathers of the land, And doctors learn'd. First, I began in private With you, my lord of Lincoln; you remember How under my oppression I did reek, 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. ? — hulling in The wild sea- ] That is, floating without guidance; tossed bere and there. Fohnson. 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, So please your highness, 8 I then mou'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 Canterbury, first to have your licence, in as much as you were metropoliian, 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: the primest creature That's paragon oʻthe world. Johnson. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: “No: but she is an earthly paragon." Again, in Cymbeline : “— an angel! or, if not, " An earthly paragon." To paragon, however, is a verb used by Shakspeare, both in An. tony and Cleopatra, and Othello: “ If thou with Cæsar paragon again “ That paragons description and wild fame.” Steevens. 1 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 This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome. . My learn’d and well-beloved servant, Cranmer, Pr’ythee return! with thy approach, I know, My comfort comes along. Break up the court: I say, set on. [Exeunt, in manner as they entered. ACT III.....SCENE I. Palace at Bridewell. A Room in the Queen's Apartment. 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, « Priythee, 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 pro nounce Malone. Every thing that heard him play, Hung their heads, and then lay by. Enter a Gentleman. Gent. An't please your grace, the two great cardinals Would they speak with me? Pray their graces Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS. Peace to your highness! wife; I would be all, against the worst may happen. What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords? Wol. May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw 5 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 Speak it here; 6 Enoy 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 enay." Malone. ? 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. I 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 examine 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 edi. tors have liked nonsense better, and contrarily to the ancient and only copy, have published: And that way I am wise in. Fohnson. 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. |