King Henry VIII
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, | ||
Bow themselves when he did sing: | 5 | |
To his music plants and flowers | ||
Ever sprung; as sun and showers | ||
There had made a lasting spring. | ||
Every thing that heard him play, | ||
Even the billows of the sea, | 10 | |
Hung their heads, and then lay by. | ||
In sweet music is such art, | ||
Killing care and grief of heart | ||
Fall asleep, or hearing, die. | ||
[Enter a Gentleman] | ||
QUEEN KATHARINE | How now! | 15 |
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. | |
QUEEN KATHARINE | Pray their graces | 20 |
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, | ||
They should be good men; their affairs as righteous: | 25 | |
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. | ||
What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords? | 30 | |
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: | |
There’s nothing I have done yet, o’ my conscience, | 35 | |
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 | ||
Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw ’em, | 40 | |
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. | ||
CARDINAL WOLSEY | Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina | 45 |
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: | ||
A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, | 50 | |
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, | ||
The willing’st sin I ever yet committed | 55 | |
May be absolved in English. | ||
CARDINAL WOLSEY | Noble lady, | |
I am sorry my integrity should breed, | ||
And service to his majesty and you, | ||
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant. | 60 | |
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 | ||
How you stand minded in the weighty difference | 65 | |
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, | |
My Lord of York, out of his noble nature, | 70 | |
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, | ||
His service and his counsel. | 75 | |
QUEEN KATHARINE | [Aside] To betray me.– | |
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, | ||
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? | ||
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] |
Continue to Henry VIII, Act 3, Scene 2