Your master wed me to: nothing but death
Shall e'er divorce my dignities.

WOL.

'Pray, hear me.

Q. KATH. 'Would I had never trod this English

earth,

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?
[To her Women.
Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
No friends, no hope; no kindred weep for me,
Almost, no grave allow'd me :-Like the lily,

Ye have angels' faces,] She may perhaps allude to the old jingle of Angli and Angeli. JOHNSON.

I find this jingle in The Arraygnment of Paris, 1584. The goddesses refer the dispute about the golden apple to the decision of Diana, who setting aside their respective claims, awards it to Queen Elizabeth; and adds:

"Her people are ycleped angeli,

"Or if I miss a letter, is the most."

In this pastoral, as it is called, the Queen herself may be almost said to have been a performer, for at the conclusion of it, Diana gives the golden apple into her hands, and the Fates deposit their insignia at her feet. It was presented before her Majesty by the children of her chapel.

It appears, from the following passage in The Spanish Masquerado, by Greene, 1585, that this quibble was originally the quibble of a saint: "England, a little island, where, as saint Augustin saith, there be people with angel faces, so the inhabitants have the courage and hearts of lyons." STEEVENS.

See also Nashe's Anatomie of Absurditie, 1589: "For my part I meane to suspend my sentence, and let an author of late memorie be my speaker; who affirmeth that they carry angels in their faces, and devils in their devices." MALOne.

That once was mistress of the field, and flourish'd, I'll hang my head, and perish.

WOL. If your grace Could but be brought to know, our ends are honest, You'd feel more comfort: why should we, good

lady,

Upon what cause, wrong you? alas! our places,
The way of our profession is against it;

We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow them.
For goodness' sake, consider what you do;
How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly
Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this car-
riage.

The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it; but, to stubborn spirits,
They swell, and grow as terrible as storms.3
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 ser-

vants.

CAM. Madam, you'll find it so. You wrong your

virtues

-the lily,

That once was mistress of the field,] So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book II. c. vi. st. 16:

"The lily, lady of the flow'ring field." HOLT WHITE. The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it; but, to stubborn spirits,

They swell, and grow as terrible as storms.] It was one of the charges brought against Lord Essex, in the year before this play was probably written, by his ungrateful kinsman, Sir Francis Bacon, when that nobleman, to the disgrace of humanity, was obliged, by a junto of his enemies, to kneel at the end of the council-table for several hours, that in a letter written during his retirement, in 1598, to the Lord Keeper, he had said, "There is no tempest to the passionate indignation of a prince."

MALONE.

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
To trust us in your business, we are ready
To use our utmost studies in your service.

Q. KATH. Do what ye will, my lords: And, pray, forgive me,

If I have us'd myself unmannerly ;*

You know, I am a woman, lacking wit
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,
That little thought, when she set footing here,
She should have bought her dignities so dear.
[Exeunt.

4

If I have us'd myself unmannerly;] That is, if I have behaved myself unmannerly. M. MASON.

SCENE II,

Ante-chamber to the King's Apartment.

Enter the Duke of NORFOLK, the Duke of SufFOLK, the Earl of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

5

NOR. If you will now unite in your complaints And force them with a constancy, the cardinal Cannot stand under them: If you omit

The offer of this time, I cannot promise,

But that you shall sustain more new disgraces,
With these you bear already.

SUR.
I am joyful
To meet the least occasion, that may give me
Remembrance of my father-in-law, the duke,
To be reveng❜d on him.

SUF.
Which of the peers
Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at least
Strangely neglected? when did he regard

6

And force them-] Force is enforce, urge. JOHNSON. So, in Measure for Measure:

Has he affections in him

"That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,
"When he would force it?" STEEVENS.

or at least

Strangely neglected?] Which of the peers has not gone by him contemned or neglected? JOHNSON.

Our author extends to the words, strangely neglected, the negative comprehended in the word uncontemn'd. M. MASON.

Uncontemn'd, as I have before observed in a note on As you like it, must be understood, as if the author had written not contemn'd. See Vol. VIII. p. 34, n. 7. MALONE.

The stamp of nobleness in any person,
Out of himself?"

CHAM. My lords, you speak your pleasures:
What he deserves of you and me, I know;
What we can do to him, (though now the time
Gives way to us,) I much fear. If you cannot
Bar his access to the king, never attempt
Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
Over the king in his tongue.

NOR.
O, fear him not;
His spell in that is out: the king hath found
Matter against him, that for ever mars

The honey of his language. No, he's settled,
Not to come off, in his displeasure.

SUR.

Sir,

I should be glad to hear such news as this
Once every hour.

NOR.

Believe it, this is true.

In the divorce, his contrary proceedings
Are all unfolded; wherein he appears,
As I could wish mine enemy.

7 when did he regard

The stamp of nobleness in any person,

Out of himself?] The expression is bad, and the thought false. For it supposes Wolsey to be noble, which was not so: we should read and point:

when did he regard

The stamp of nobleness in any person;

Out of't himself?

i. e. When did he regard nobleness of blood in another, having none of his own to value himself upon? WARburton.

I do not think this correction proper. The meaning of the present reading is easy. When did he, however careful to carry his own dignity to the utmost height, regard any dignity of another? JOHNSON.

contrary proceedings-] Private practices opposite to his publick procedure. JOHNSON.