| | And to such men of gravity and learning, | |
| | In truth, I know not. I was set at work | |
| | Among my maids: full little, God knows, looking | |
| | Either for such men or such business. | 85 |
| | For her sake that I have been,--for I feel | |
| | The last fit of my greatness,--good your graces, | |
| | Let me have time and counsel for my cause: | |
| | Alas, I am a woman, friendless, hopeless! | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears: | 90 |
| | Your hopes and friends are infinite. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | In England | |
| | But little for my profit: can you think, lords, | |
| | That any Englishman dare give me counsel? | |
| | Or be a known friend, 'gainst his highness' pleasure, | 95 |
| | Though he be grown so desperate to be honest, | |
| | And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends, | |
| | They that must weigh out my afflictions, | |
| | They that my trust must grow to, live not here: | |
| | They are, as all my other comforts, far hence | 100 |
| | In mine own country, lords. | |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | I would your grace | |
| | Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | How, sir? | |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Put your main cause into the king's protection; | 105 |
| | He's loving and most gracious: 'twill be much | |
| | Both for your honour better and your cause; | |
| | For if the trial of the law o'ertake ye, | |
| | You'll part away disgraced. | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | He tells you rightly. | 110 |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | 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. | |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Your rage mistakes us. | 115 |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | The more shame for ye: holy men I thought ye, | |
| | Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues; | |
| | But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I fear ye: | |
| | Mend 'em, for shame, my lords. Is this your comfort? | |
| | The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady, | 120 |
| | A woman lost among ye, laugh'd at, scorn'd? | |
| ACT III SCENE I | London. QUEEN KATHARINE's apartments. | |
| | Enter QUEEN KATHARINE and her Women, as at work | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Take thy lute, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles; | |
| | Sing, and disperse 'em, if thou canst: leave working. | |
| | SONG | |
| | Orpheus with his lute made trees, | |
| | And the mountain tops that freeze, | 5 |
| | Bow themselves when he did sing: | |
| | To his music plants and flowers | |
| | Ever sprung; as sun and showers | |
| | There had made a lasting spring. | |
| | Every thing that heard him play, | 10 |
| | Even the billows of the sea, | |
| | Hung their heads, and then lay by. | |
| | In sweet music is such art, | |
| | Killing care and grief of heart | |
| | Fall asleep, or hearing, die. | 15 |
| | Enter a Gentleman | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | How now! | |
| Gentleman | An't please your grace, the two great cardinals | |
| | Wait in the presence. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Would they speak with me? | |
| Gentleman | They will'd me say so, madam. | 20 |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Pray their graces | |
| | To come near. | |
| | Exit Gentleman | |
| | What can be their business | |
| | With me, a poor weak woman, fall'n from favour? | |
| | I do not like their coming. Now I think on't, | 25 |
| | They should be good men; their affairs as righteous: | |
| | But all hoods make not monks. | |
| | Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY and CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Peace to your highness! | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Your graces find me here part of a housewife, | |
| | I would be all, against the worst may happen. | 30 |
| | What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords? | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | May it please you noble madam, to withdraw | |
| | Into your private chamber, we shall give you | |
| | The full cause of our coming. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Speak it here: | 35 |
| | There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience, | |
| | Deserves a corner: would all other women | |
| | Could speak this with as free a soul as I do! | |
| | My lords, I care not, so much I am happy | |
| | Above a number, if my actions | 40 |
| | Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw 'em, | |
| | Envy and base opinion set against 'em, | |
| | I know my life so even. If your business | |
| | Seek me out, and that way I am wife in, | |
| | Out with it boldly: truth loves open dealing. | 45 |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina | |
| | serenissima,-- | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | O, good my lord, no Latin; | |
| | I am not such a truant since my coming, | |
| | As not to know the language I have lived in: | 50 |
| | A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, | |
| | suspicious; | |
| | Pray, speak in English: here are some will thank you, | |
| | If you speak truth, for their poor mistress' sake; | |
| | Believe me, she has had much wrong: lord cardinal, | 55 |
| | The willing'st sin I ever yet committed | |
| | May be absolved in English. | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Noble lady, | |
| | I am sorry my integrity should breed, | |
| | And service to his majesty and you, | 60 |
| | So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant. | |
| | We come not by the way of accusation, | |
| | To taint that honour every good tongue blesses, | |
| | Nor to betray you any way to sorrow, | |
| | You have too much, good lady; but to know | 65 |
| | How you stand minded in the weighty difference | |
| | Between the king and you; and to deliver, | |
| | Like free and honest men, our just opinions | |
| | And comforts to your cause. | |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Most honour'd madam, | 70 |
| | My Lord of York, out of his noble nature, | |
| | Zeal and obedience he still bore your grace, | |
| | Forgetting, like a good man your late censure | |
| | Both of his truth and him, which was too far, | |
| | Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace, | 75 |
| | His service and his counsel. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Aside | |
| | My lords, I thank you both for your good wills; | |
| | Ye speak like honest men; pray God, ye prove so! | |
| | But how to make ye suddenly an answer, | |
| | In such a point of weight, so near mine honour,-- | 80 |
| | More near my life, I fear,--with my weak wit, | |
| | I will not wish ye half my miseries; | |
| | I have more charity: but say, I warn'd ye; | |
| | Take heed, for heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once | |
| | The burthen of my sorrows fall upon ye. | 125 |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Madam, this is a mere distraction; | |
| | You turn the good we offer into envy. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Ye turn me into nothing: woe upon ye | |
| | And all such false professors! would you have me-- | |
| | If you have any justice, any pity; | 130 |
| | If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits-- | |
| | Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me? | |
| | Alas, has banish'd me his bed already, | |
| | His love, too long ago! I am old, my lords, | |
| | And all the fellowship I hold now with him | 135 |
| | Is only my obedience. What can happen | |
| | To me above this wretchedness? all your studies | |
| | Make me a curse like this. | |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Your fears are worse. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Have I lived thus long--let me speak myself, | 140 |
| | Since virtue finds no friends--a wife, a true one? | |
| | A woman, I dare say without vain-glory, | |
| | Never yet branded with suspicion? | |
| | Have I with all my full affections | |
| | Still met the king? loved him next heaven? | 145 |
| | obey'd him? | |
| | Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him? | |
| | Almost forgot my prayers to content him? | |
| | And am I thus rewarded? 'tis not well, lords. | |
| | Bring me a constant woman to her husband, | 150 |
| | One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure; | |
| | And to that woman, when she has done most, | |
| | Yet will I add an honour, a great patience. | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Madam, you wander from the good we aim at. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty, | 155 |
| | To give up willingly that noble title | |
| | Your master wed me to: nothing but death | |
| | Shall e'er divorce my dignities. | |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | Pray, hear me. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Would I had never trod this English earth, | 160 |
| | Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it! | |
| | Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts. | |
| | What will become of me now, wretched lady! | |
| | I am the most unhappy woman living. | |
| | Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes! | 165 |
| | Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity, | |
| | No friend, no hope; no kindred weep for me; | |
| | Almost no grave allow'd me: like the lily, | |
| | That once was mistress of the field and flourish'd, | |
| | I'll hang my head and perish. | 170 |
| CARDINAL WOLSEY | If your grace | |
| | Could but be brought to know our ends are honest, | |
| | You'ld feel more comfort: why should we, good lady, | |
| | Upon what cause, wrong you? alas, our places, | |
| | The way of our profession is against it: | 175 |
| | We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow 'em. | |
| | For goodness' sake, consider what you do; | |
| | How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly | |
| | Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this carriage. | |
| | The hearts of princes kiss obedience, | 180 |
| | So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits | |
| | They swell, and grow as terrible as storms. | |
| | I know you have a gentle, noble temper, | |
| | A soul as even as a calm: pray, think us | |
| | Those we profess, peace-makers, friends, and servants. | 185 |
| CARDINAL CAMPEIUS | Madam, you'll find it so. You wrong your virtues | |
| | With these weak women's fears: a noble spirit, | |
| | As yours was put into you, ever casts | |
| | Such doubts, as false coin, from it. The king loves you; | |
| | Beware you lose it not: for us, if you please | 190 |
| | To trust us in your business, we are ready | |
| | To use our utmost studies in your service. | |
| QUEEN KATHARINE | Do what ye will, my lords: and, pray, forgive me, | |
| | If I have used myself unmannerly; | |
| | You know I am a woman, lacking wit | 195 |
| | To make a seemly answer to such persons. | |
| | Pray, do my service to his majesty: | |
| | He has my heart yet; and shall have my prayers | |
| | While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers, | |
| | Bestow your counsels on me: she now begs, | 200 |
| | That little thought, when she set footing here, | |
| | She should have bought her dignities so dear. | |
| | Exeunt | |
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