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Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and fo give me up
To the sharpeft kind of justice. Please you, fir,
The king, your father, was reputed for
A prince most prudent, of an excellent
And unmatch'd wit and judgement: Ferdinand,
My father, king of Spain, was reckon❜d one
The wifeft prince, that there had reign'd by many
A year before: It is not to be queftion'd
That they had gather'd a wife council to them
Of every realm, that did debate this business,
Who deem'd our marriage lawful: Wherefore I
humbly

Befeech you, fir, to fpare me, till I may

Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whofe counfel
I will implore: if not; i'the name of God,
Your pleasure be fulfill'd!

WOL.

You have here, lady,

(And of your choice,) these reverend fathers; men Of fingular integrity and learning,

Yea, the elect of the land, who are assembled
To plead your caufe: It fhall be therefore bootless,
That longer you defire the court; 3 as well

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placed at duty, the conftruction is-If you can report and prove aught against mine honour, my love and duty, or aught against your facred perfon, &c. but I doubt whether this was our author's intention; for such an arrangement seems to make a breach of her honour and matrimonial bond to be fomething diftinct from an offence against the king's perfon, which is not the cafe. Perhaps, however, by the latter words Shakspeare meant, against your life. MALONE.

3 That longer you defire the court;] That you defire to protract the bufinefs of the court; that you folicit a more diftant feffion and trial. To pray for a longer day, i. e. a more diftant one, when the trial or execution of criminals is agitated, is yet the language of the bar. In the fourth folio, and all the modern editions, defer is fubftituted for defire. MALONE.,

For your own quiet, as to rectify
What is unfettled in the king.

CAM.

His grace

Hath spoken well, and juftly: Therefore, madam, It's fit this royal feffion do proceed;

And that, without delay, their arguments

Be now produc'd, and heard.

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I am about to weep; but, thinking that

We are a queen, (or long have dream'd fo,) certain, The daughter of a king, my drops of tears

I'll turn to fparks of fire.

WOL.

Be patient yet.

2. KATH. I will, when you are humble; nay, before,

Or God will punish me. I do believe,
Induc'd by potent circumftances, that
You are mine enemy; and make my challenge,
You shall not be my judge:' for it is you
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,-
Which God's dew quench!-Therefore, I fay again,

4 I am about to weep; &c.] Shakspeare has given almost a fimilar fentiment to Hermione in The Winter's Tale, on an almoft fimilar occafion:

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"I am not prone to weeping, as our fex

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Commonly are, &c.-but I have

"That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns

"Worfe than tears drown;" &c.

and make my challenge,

STEEVENS.

You shall not be my judge:] Challenge is here a verbum juris, a law term. The criminal, when he refufes a juryman, fays I challenge him. JOHNSON.

I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refuse you for my judge; whom, yet once more,
I hold my moft malicious foe, and think not
At all a friend to truth.

WOL.

I do profefs,

You speak not like yourfelf; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and difplay'd the effects
Of difpofition gentle, and of wisdom

O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong:

I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
For you, or any: how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further fhall, is warranted
By a commiffion from the confiftory,

Yea, the whole confiftory of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is prefent: If it be known to him,
That I gainfay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falfehood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But if he know
That I am free of your report, he knows,
I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lies, to cure me: and the cure is, to

5 I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refufe you for my judge;] Thefe are not mere words of paffion, but technical terms in the canon law.

Deteftor and Recufo. The former, in the language of canonifts, fignifics no more, than I protest againft. BLACKSTONE.

The words are Holinfhed's: 66

and therefore openly protested that she did utterly abhor, refufe, and forfake fuch a judge."

6

MALONE.

-gainfay-] i. e. deny. So, in Lord Surry's tranflation

of the fourth book of the Eneid:

"I hold thee not, nor yet gainsay thy words."

STEEVENS.

"But if-] The conjunction-But, which is wanting in the old copy, was fupplied, for the fake of measure, by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

Remove these thoughts from you: The which before His highness shall speak in, I do befeech

You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking, And to fay fo no more.

2. KATH.

My lord, my lord, I am a fimple woman, much too weak

To oppose your cunning. You are meek, and humble-mouth'd;

You fign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility: but your heart
Is cramm'd with arrogancy, fpleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune, and his highness' favours,
Gone flightly o'er low fteps; and now are mounted,
Where powers are your retainers: and your words,
Domesticks to you, ferve your will,' as't please.

8 You fign your place and calling,] Sign, for answer.

WARBURTON.

I think, to fign, muft here be to show, to denote. By your outward meeknefs and humility, you how that you are of an holy order, but, &c. JOHNSON.

So, with a kindred fenfe, in Julius Cæfar:

66

Sign'd in thy fpoil, and crimfon'd in thy lethe."

9 Where powers are your retainers: and your words,

STEEVENS.

Domefticks to you, ferve your will,] You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue; and words therefore are degraded to the fervile ftate of performing any office which you fhall give them. In humbler and more common terms; Having now got power, you do not regard your word. JOHNSON.

The word power, when used in the plural and applied to one perfon only, will not bear the meaning that Dr. Johnson wishes to give it.

By powers are meant the Emperor and the King of France, in the pay of one or the other of whom Wolfey was conftantly retained; and it is well known that Wolfey entertained fome of the nobility of England among his domefticks, and had an absolute power over the rest. M. MASON.

Whoever were pointed at by the word powers, Shakspeare, furely, does not mean to fay that Wolfey was retained by them, but that they were retainers, or fubfervient, to Wolfey. MALONE.

Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person's honour, than
Your high profeffion fpiritual: That again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,

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

[She curt'fies to the King, and offers to depart.
Сам.
The queen is obftinate,

Stubborn to juftice, apt to accuse it, and
Difdainful to be try'd by it; '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,

I believe that powers, in the prefent inftance, are used merely to express perfons in whom power is lodged. The queen would infinuate that Wolfey had rendered the highest officers of state subfervient to his will. STEEVENS.

I believe we should read:

Where powers are your retainers, and your wards,
Domefticks to you, &c.

The Queen rifes naturally in her defcription. She paints the
powers of government depending upon Wolfey under three images;
as his retainers, his wards, his domeftick fervants. TYRWHITT.

So, in Storer's Life and Death of Thomas Wolfey, Cardinal, a poem, 1599:

"I muft have notice where their wards muft dwell;

"I car'd not for the gentry, for I had

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Yong nobles of the land," &c. STEEVENS.

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