His highness shall speak in, I do beseech

You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking,

And to say so no more.

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,
With meekness and humility: but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profession spiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,

To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness,
And to be judg'd by him.

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't; '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 vex 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.

K. Hen.

[Exeunt QUEEN, GRIFFITH, and her Female Attendants. L.H.

Go thy ways, Kate:

That man i' th' world, who shall report he has
A better wife, let him in nought be trusted,
For speaking false in that: Thou art, alone,
The queen of earthly queens:-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,

That it shall please you to declare, in hearing
Of all these ears, (for where I am robb'd and bound,
There must I be unloos'd); whether ever I
Did broach this business to your highness; or
Laid any scruple in your way, which might
Induce you to the question on't?

K. Hen.
My lord cardinal,
I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
I free you from't. You are not to be taught
That you have many enemies, that know not
Why they are so, but like to village curs,
Bark when their fellows do: by some of these
The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd:
But will you be more justified?

you ever

Have wish'd the sleeping of this business;

And oft have hinder'd; oft

The passages made toward it:

Now what mov'd me to't?—Thus it came;—give heed

to't :

My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness,

Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd

By the Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador;

For no dislike i' th' world against the person

Of the good queen.

Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life,
And kingly dignity, we are contented

To wear our mortal state to come, with her,
Katharine our queen, before the primest creature
That's paragon'd o' th' world.

Cam.
The queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness
That we adjourn this court till further day :
Meanwhile must be an earnest motion
Made to the qeeen, to call back her appeal
She intends unto his holiness.

So please your highness,

[They rise to depart.

1

K. Hen. (Aside.) These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor This dilatory sloth, and tricks of Rome.

My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer,
Prythee return!* with thy approach, I know,

My comfort comes along. Break up the the court:
I say, set on.

[Exeunt the KING and his party L. 1 E.
breaks up as the Act drop falls.

The court

* Cranmer was now absent on an embassy. He was installed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1532, and in this capacity he pronounced the divorce between King Henry and Queen Katherine.

END OF ACT SECOND.

HISTORICAL NOTES TO ACT SECOND.

(1). The condemnation of Buckingham is thus described by Hall:

"The duke was brought to the bar sore chafing, and sweat marvelously; after he had made his reverence he paused awhile. *

*

After his sentence, "the Duke of Buckingham said,- My lord of Norfolk, you have said as a traitor should be said unto, but I was never none; but, my lords, I nothing malign for that you have done to me, but the eternal God forgive you my death, as I do: I shall never sue to the king for life, howbeit he is a gracious prince, and more grace may come from him than I desire. I desire you, my lords, and all my fellows to pray for me.'

"Then was the edge of the axe turned towards him, and so led into a barge. Sir Thomas Lovell desired him to sit on the cushions and carpet ordained for him; he said, 'Nay, for when I went to Westminster, I was Duke of Buckingham; now I am but Edward Bohun, the most caitiff of the world.' Thus they landed at the Temple, where received him Sir Nicolas Vaux and Sir William Sandes, and led him through the city, who desired ever the people to pray for him, of whom some wept and lamented, and said, This is the end of evil life. God forgive him! he was a proud prince; it is a pity that he behaved him so against his king and liege lord, whom God preserve. Thus about four of the clock he was brought as a cast man to the Tower."

(2.) Lorenzo Campeggio, of history, nuncio from Pope Clement the Seventh, whose object was to delay, as far as possible, the proceedings of the divorce between Henry and Katherine.

"Meanwhile preparations were making to receive him in London. Wolsey, feeling contempt for the poverty of the Roman cardinals, and very uneasy about "the equipage with which his colleague was likely to make his entrance into the capital, sent a number of shewy chests, rich carpets, litters hung with drapery, and harnessed mules. On the other hand, Campeggio, whose secret mission was to keep in the back-ground, and above all to do nothing, feared these banners, and trappings, and all the parade of a triumphal

D

entry. Alleging therefore an attack of the gout, in order to escape from the pomps his colleague had prepared for him, he quietly took a boat, and thus reached the palace of the Bishop of Bath, where he was to lodge.

"While the nuncio was thus proceeding unnoticed up the Thames, the equipages sent by Wolsey entered London through the midst of a gaping crowd, who looked on them with curiosity, as if they had come from the banks of the Tiber. Some of the mules, however, took fright and ran away, the coffers fell off and burst open, when there was a general rush to see their contents; but to the surprise of all they were empty. This was an excellent jest for the citizens of London. Fine outside, empty inside; a just emblem of the popedom, its embassy, and foolish pomps,' they said; 'a sham legate, a procession of masks, and the whole a farce!'

"Campeggio was come at last, and now what he dreaded most was an audience. I cannot move,' he said, 'or endure the motion of a litter.' Never had an attack of the gout been more seasonable. Wolsey, who paid him frequent visits, soon found him to be his equal in cunning. To no purpose did he treat him with every mark of respect, shaking his hand and making much of him; it was labour lost, the Roman nuncio would say nothing, and Wolsey began to despair. The king, on the contrary, was full of hope, and fancied he already had the act of divorce in his portfolio, because he had the nuncio in his kingdom."-Daubigné's Reformation.

On the 22nd of October, a month after his arrival, the nuncio, borne in a sedan-chair of red velvet, was carried to court.

(3.) "Ye shall understand, as I said before, that there was a court erected in the Black Friars in London, where these two Cardinals sat for judges. Now will I set you out the manner and order of the court there. First, there was a court placed with tables, benches, and bars, like a consistory, a place judicial (for the judges to sit on). There was also a cloth of estate under the which sat the king; and the queen sat some distance beneath the king: under the judges' feet sat the officers of the court. The chief scribe there was Dr. Stephens (who was after Bishop of Winchester); the apparitor was one Cooke, most commonly called Cooke of Winchester. Then sat there within the said court, directly before the king and the judges, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor Warham, and all the other bishops. Then at both the ends, with a bar made for them, the counsellors on both sides. The doctors for the king were Doctor Sampson, that was after Bishop of Chichester, and Doctor Bell, who after was Bishop of Worcester, with divers other. The proctors on the king's part were Doctor Peter, who was after made the king's chief secretary, and Doctor Tregonell, and divers other.