Enter Queen and her Women, as at work.QUEEN KATHERINE Take thy lute, wench. My soul grows sad with troubles. Sing, and disperse ’em if thou canst. Leave working.⌜WOMAN sings⌝ song. Orpheus with his lute made trees
And the mountaintops 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.
Everything 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.Enter a Gentleman.QUEEN KATHERINE 15How now?GENTLEMAN An ’t please your Grace, the two great cardinals Wait in the presence.QUEEN KATHERINE Would they speak with me?
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GENTLEMAN They willed me say so, madam.QUEEN KATHERINE 20 Pray their Graces To come near.⌜Gentleman exits.⌝ What can be their business With me, a poor weak woman, fall’n from favor? 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 the two Cardinals, Wolsey and Campeius.WOLSEY Peace to your Highness.QUEEN KATHERINE 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?WOLSEY May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw Into your private chamber, we shall give you The full cause of our coming.QUEEN KATHERINE 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 actions40 Were tried by ev’ry tongue, ev’ry 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.WOLSEY 45Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina
serenissima—QUEEN KATHERINE O, good my lord, no Latin! I am not such a truant since my coming
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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.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 honor every good tongue blesses, Nor to betray you any way to sorrow— You have too much, good lady—but to know65 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.CAMPEIUS Most honored 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 KATHERINE, ⌜aside⌝ To betray me.— My lords, I thank you both for your good wills. You speak like honest men; pray God you prove so. But how to make you suddenly an answer80 In such a point of weight, so near mine honor— 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
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Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking85 Either for such men or such business. 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.WOLSEY 90 Madam, you wrong the King’s love with these fears; Your hopes and friends are infinite.QUEEN KATHERINE In England But little for my profit. Can you think, lords, That any Englishman dare give me counsel,95 Or be a known friend, ’gainst his Highness’ pleasure, 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.100 They are, as all my other comforts, far hence In mine own country, lords.CAMPEIUS I would your Grace Would leave your griefs and take my counsel.QUEEN KATHERINE How, sir?CAMPEIUS 105 Put your main cause into the King’s protection. He’s loving and most gracious. ’Twill be much Both for your honor better and your cause, For if the trial of the law o’ertake you, You’ll part away disgraced.WOLSEY 110 He tells you rightly.QUEEN KATHERINE You tell me what you wish for both: my ruin. Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon you! Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge That no king can corrupt.CAMPEIUS 115 Your rage mistakes us.
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QUEEN KATHERINE The more shame for you! Holy men I thought you, Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues; But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I fear you. Mend ’em, for shame, my lords. Is this your comfort?120 The cordial that you bring a wretched lady, A woman lost among you, laughed at, scorned? I will not wish you half my miseries; I have more charity. But say I warned you: Take heed, for heaven’s sake, take heed, lest at once125 The burden of my sorrows fall upon you.WOLSEY Madam, this is a mere distraction. You turn the good we offer into envy.QUEEN KATHERINE You turn me into nothing! Woe upon you And all such false professors. Would you have me—130 If you have any justice, any pity, If you be anything but churchmen’s habits— Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me? Alas, has banished me his bed already, His love, too, long ago. I am old, my lords,135 And all the fellowship I hold now with him Is only my obedience. What can happen To me above this wretchedness? All your studies Make me a curse like this.CAMPEIUS Your fears are worse.QUEEN KATHERINE 140 Have I lived thus long—let me speak myself, Since virtue finds no friends—a wife, a true one— A woman, I dare say without vainglory, Never yet branded with suspicion— Have I with all my full affections145 Still met the King, loved him next heav’n, obeyed him, Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him, Almost forgot my prayers to content him,
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And am I thus rewarded? ’Tis not well, lords. Bring me a constant woman to her husband,150 One that ne’er dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure, And to that woman, when she has done most, Yet will I add an honor: a great patience.WOLSEY Madam, you wander from the good we aim at.QUEEN KATHERINE My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty155 To give up willingly that noble title Your master wed me to. Nothing but death Shall e’er divorce my dignities.WOLSEY Pray hear me.QUEEN KATHERINE Would I had never trod this English earth160 Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it! You have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts. What will become of me now, wretched lady? I am the most unhappy woman living. ⌜To her Women.⌝ Alas, poor wenches, where are now165 your fortunes? Shipwracked upon a kingdom where no pity, No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me, Almost no grave allowed me, like the lily That once was mistress of the field and flourished,170 I’ll hang my head and perish.WOLSEY 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,175 The way of our profession, is against it. 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.
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180 The hearts of princes kiss obedience, 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 us185 Those we profess: peacemakers, friends, and servants.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 loves190 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.QUEEN KATHERINE Do what you will, my lords, and pray forgive me195 If I have used 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 prayers200 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.They exit.