Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
Act 2 - Scene 4
A hall in Black-Friars.
Cardinal Wolsey : Whilst our commission from Rome is read,
[p]Let silence be commanded.
Henry VIII : What's the need?
[p]It hath already publicly been read,
[p]And on all
sides the authority allow'd;
[p]You may, then, spare that time.
Cardinal Wolsey : Be't so. Proceed.
Scribe : Say, Henry King of England, come into the court.
Crier : Henry King of England, &c.
Henry VIII : Here.
Scribe : Say, Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.
Crier : Katharine Queen of England, &c.
[p][QUEEN KATHARINE makes no answer,
rises out of her]
[p]chair, goes about the court, comes to KING
HENRY
[p]VIII, and kneels at his feet; then speaks]
Queen Katharine : Sir, I desire you do me right and justice;
[p]And to bestow your pity
on me: for
[p]I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
[p]Born out of
your dominions; having here
[p]No judge indifferent, nor no more
assurance
[p]Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
[p]In what
have I offended you? what cause
[p]Hath my behavior given to your
displeasure,
[p]That thus you should proceed to put me off,
[p]And
take your good grace from me? Heaven witness,
[p]I have been to you a
true and humble wife,
[p]At all times to your will
conformable;
[p]Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,
[p]Yea, subject
to your countenance, glad or sorry
[p]As I saw it inclined: when was
the hour
[p]I ever contradicted your desire,
[p]Or made it not mine
too? Or which of your friends
[p]Have I not strove to love, although I
knew
[p]He were mine enemy? what friend of mine
[p]That had to him
derived your anger, did I
[p]Continue in my liking? nay, gave
notice
[p]He was from thence discharged. Sir, call to mind
[p]That I
have been your wife, in this obedience,
[p]Upward of twenty years, and
have been blest
[p]With many children by you: if, in the course
[p]And
process of this time, you can report,
[p]And prove it too, against
mine honour aught,
[p]My bond to wedlock, or my love and
duty,
[p]Against your sacred person, in God's name,
[p]Turn me away;
and let the foul'st contempt
[p]Shut door upon me, and so give me
up
[p]To the sharp'st kind of justice. Please you sir,
[p]The king,
your father, was reputed for
[p]A prince most prudent, of an
excellent
[p]And unmatch'd wit and judgment: Ferdinand,
[p]My father,
king of Spain, was reckon'd one
[p]The wisest prince that there had
reign'd by many
[p]A year before: it is not to be question'd
[p]That
they had gather'd a wise council to them
[p]Of every realm, that did
debate this business,
[p]Who deem'd our marriage lawful: wherefore I
humbly
[p]Beseech you, sir, to spare me, till I may
[p]Be by my
friends in Spain advised; whose counsel
[p]I will implore: if not, i'
the name of God,
[p]Your pleasure be fulfill'd!
Cardinal Wolsey : You have here, lady,
[p]And of your choice, these reverend fathers;
men
[p]Of singular integrity and learning,
[p]Yea, the elect o' the
land, who are assembled
[p]To plead your cause: it shall be therefore
bootless
[p]That longer you desire the court; as well
[p]For your own
quiet, as to rectify
[p]What is unsettled in the king.
Cardinal Campeius : His grace
[p]Hath spoken well and justly: therefore, madam,
[p]It's
fit this royal session do proceed;
[p]And that, without delay, their
arguments
[p]Be now produced and heard.
Queen Katharine : Lord cardinal,
[p]To you I speak.
Cardinal Wolsey : Your pleasure, madam?
Queen Katharine : Sir,
[p]I am about to weep; but, thinking that
[p]We are a queen, or
long have dream'd so, certain
[p]The daughter of a king, my drops of
tears
[p]I'll turn to sparks of fire.
Cardinal Wolsey : Be patient yet.
Queen Katharine : I will, when you are humble; nay, before,
[p]Or God will punish me. I
do believe,
[p]Induced by potent circumstances, that
[p]You are mine
enemy, and make my challenge
[p]You shall not be my judge: for it is
you
[p]Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me;
[p]Which God's dew
quench! Therefore I say again,
[p]I utterly abhor, yea, from my
soul
[p]Refuse you for my judge; whom, yet once more,
[p]I hold my
most malicious foe, and think not
[p]At all a friend to truth.
Cardinal Wolsey : I do profess
[p]You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
[p]Have
stood to charity, and display'd the effects
[p]Of disposition gentle,
and of wisdom
[p]O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me
wrong:
[p]I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
[p]For you or
any: how far I have proceeded,
[p]Or how far further shall, is
warranted
[p]By a commission from the consistory,
[p]Yea, the whole
consistory of Rome. You charge me
[p]That I have blown this coal: I do
deny it:
[p]The king is present: if it be known to him
[p]That I
gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
[p]And worthily, my falsehood! yea,
as much
[p]As you have done my truth. If he know
[p]That I am free of
your report, he knows
[p]I am not of your wrong. Therefore in
him
[p]It lies to cure me: and the cure is, to
[p]Remove these
thoughts from you: the which before
[p]His highness shall speak in, I
do beseech
[p]You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking
[p]And to
say so no more.
Queen Katharine : My lord, my lord,
[p]I am a simple woman, much too weak
[p]To oppose
your cunning. You're meek and
[p]humble-mouth'd;
[p]You sign your
place and calling, in full seeming,
[p]With meekness and humility; but
your heart
[p]Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
[p]You
have, by fortune and his highness' favours,
[p]Gone slightly o'er low
steps and now are mounted
[p]Where powers are your retainers, and your
words,
[p]Domestics to you, serve your will as't please
[p]Yourself
pronounce their office. I must tell you,
[p]You tender more your
person's honour than
[p]Your high profession spiritual: that
again
[p]I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
[p]Before you all,
appeal unto the pope,
[p]To bring my whole cause 'fore his
holiness,
[p]And to be judged by him.
Cardinal Campeius : The queen is obstinate,
[p]Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it,
and
[p]Disdainful to be tried by't: 'tis not well.
[p]She's going
away.
Henry VIII : Call her again.
Crier : Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.
Griffith : Madam, you are call'd back.
Queen Katharine : What need you note it? pray you, keep your way:
[p]When you are
call'd, return. Now, the Lord help,
[p]They vex me past my patience!
Pray you, pass on:
[p]I will not tarry; no, nor ever more
[p]Upon this
business my appearance make
[p]In any of their courts.
Henry VIII : Go thy ways, Kate:
[p]That man i' the world who shall report he
has
[p]A better wife, let him in nought be trusted,
[p]For speaking
false in that: thou art, alone,
[p]If thy rare qualities, sweet
gentleness,
[p]Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like
government,
[p]Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
[p]Sovereign and
pious else, could speak thee out,
[p]The queen of earthly queens:
she's noble born;
[p]And, like her true nobility, she has
[p]Carried
herself towards me.
Cardinal Wolsey : Most gracious sir,
[p]In humblest manner I require your
highness,
[p]That it shall please you to declare, in hearing
[p]Of all
these ears,--for where I am robb'd and bound,
[p]There must I be
unloosed, although not there
[p]At once and fully satisfied,--whether
ever I
[p]Did broach this business to your highness; or
[p]Laid any
scruple in your way, which might
[p]Induce you to the question on't?
or ever
[p]Have to you, but with thanks to God for such
[p]A royal
lady, spake one the least word that might
[p]Be to the prejudice of
her present state,
[p]Or touch of her good person?
Henry VIII : My lord cardinal,
[p]I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
[p]I free
you from't. You are not to be taught
[p]That you have many enemies,
that know not
[p]Why they are so, but, like to village-curs,
[p]Bark
when their fellows do: by some of these
[p]The queen is put in anger.
You're excused:
[p]But will you be more justified? You ever
[p]Have
wish'd the sleeping of this business; never desired
[p]It to be
stirr'd; but oft have hinder'd, oft,
[p]The passages made toward it:
on my honour,
[p]I speak my good lord cardinal to this point,
[p]And
thus far clear him. Now, what moved me to't,
[p]I will be bold with
time and your attention:
[p]Then mark the inducement. Thus it came;
give heed to't:
[p]My conscience first received a
tenderness,
[p]Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd
[p]By
the Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador;
[p]Who had been hither
sent on the debating
[p]A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans
and
[p]Our daughter Mary: i' the progress of this business,
[p]Ere a
determinate resolution, he,
[p]I mean the bishop, did require a
respite;
[p]Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
[p]Whether
our daughter were legitimate,
[p]Respecting this our marriage with the
dowager,
[p]Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
[p]The
bosom of my conscience, enter'd me,
[p]Yea, with a splitting power,
and made to tremble
[p]The region of my breast; which forced such
way,
[p]That many mazed considerings did throng
[p]And press'd in with
this caution. First, methought
[p]I stood not in the smile of heaven;
who had
[p]Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
[p]If it conceived a
male child by me, should
[p]Do no more offices of life to't
than
[p]The grave does to the dead; for her male issue
[p]Or died
where they were made, or shortly after
[p]This world had air'd them:
hence I took a thought,
[p]This was a judgment on me; that my
kingdom,
[p]Well worthy the best heir o' the world, should not
[p]Be
gladded in't by me: then follows, that
[p]I weigh'd the danger which
my realms stood in
[p]By this my issue's fail; and that gave to
me
[p]Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
[p]The wild sea of my
conscience, I did steer
[p]Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
[p]Now
present here together: that's to say,
[p]I meant to rectify my
conscience,--which
[p]I then did feel full sick, and yet not
well,--
[p]By all the reverend fathers of the land
[p]And doctors
learn'd: first I began in private
[p]With you, my Lord of Lincoln; you
remember
[p]How under my oppression I did reek,
[p]When I first moved
you.
Bishop Lincoln : Very well, my liege.
Henry VIII : I have spoke long: be pleased yourself to say
[p]How far you satisfied
me.
Bishop Lincoln : So please your highness,
[p]The question did at first so stagger
me,
[p]Bearing a state of mighty moment in't
[p]And consequence of
dread, that I committed
[p]The daring'st counsel which I had to
doubt;
[p]And did entreat your highness to this course
[p]Which you
are running here.
Henry VIII : I then moved you,
[p]My Lord of Canterbury; and got your leave
[p]To
make this present summons: unsolicited
[p]I left no reverend person in
this court;
[p]But by particular consent proceeded
[p]Under your hands
and seals: therefore, go on:
[p]For no dislike i' the world against
the person
[p]Of the good queen, but the sharp thorny points
[p]Of my
alleged reasons, drive this forward:
[p]Prove but our marriage lawful,
by my life
[p]And kingly dignity, we are contented
[p]To wear our
mortal state to come with her,
[p]Katharine our queen, before the
primest creature
[p]That's paragon'd o' the world.
Cardinal Campeius : So please your highness,
[p]The queen being absent, 'tis a needful
fitness
[p]That we adjourn this court till further day:
[p]Meanwhile
must be an earnest motion
[p]Made to the queen, to call back her
appeal
[p]She intends unto his holiness.
Henry VIII : [Aside]. I may perceive
[p]These cardinals trifle with me: I
abhor
[p]This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome.
[p]My learn'd and
well-beloved servant, Cranmer,
[p]Prithee, return: with thy approach,
I know,
[p]My comfort comes along. Break up the court:
[p]I say, set
on.
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