Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt Befeech you, fir, to fpare me, till I may Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whofe counfel 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 3 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 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. 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, 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: 5 "I am not prone to weeping, as our fex 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, WOL. I do profefs, You speak not like yourfelf; who ever yet O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong: I have no spleen against you; nor injustice Yea, the whole confiftory of Rome. You charge me, 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, 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, To bring my whole caufe 'fore his holiness, [She curt'fies to the King, and offers to depart. Stubborn to juftice, apt to accuse it, and 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, 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, The Queen rifes naturally in her defcription. She paints the 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 Yong nobles of the land," &c. STEEVENS. 1 |