Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
Act 3 - Scene 1
London. QUEEN KATHARINE’s apartments.
Cardinal Wolsey : Madam, this is a mere distraction;
[p]You turn the good we offer into
envy.
Queen Katharine : Ye turn me into nothing: woe upon ye
[p]And all such false professors!
would you have me--
[p]If you have any justice, any pity;
[p]If ye be
any thing but churchmen's habits--
[p]Put my sick cause into his hands
that hates me?
[p]Alas, has banish'd me his bed already,
[p]His love,
too long ago! I am old, my lords,
[p]And all the fellowship I hold now
with him
[p]Is only my obedience. What can happen
[p]To me above this
wretchedness? all your studies
[p]Make me a curse like this.
Cardinal Campeius : Your fears are worse.
Queen Katharine : Have I lived thus long--let me speak myself,
[p]Since virtue finds no
friends--a wife, a true one?
[p]A woman, I dare say without
vain-glory,
[p]Never yet branded with suspicion?
[p]Have I with all my
full affections
[p]Still met the king? loved him next
heaven?
[p]obey'd him?
[p]Been, out of fondness, superstitious to
him?
[p]Almost forgot my prayers to content him?
[p]And am I thus
rewarded? 'tis not well, lords.
[p]Bring me a constant woman to her
husband,
[p]One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure;
[p]And
to that woman, when she has done most,
[p]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,
[p]To give up willingly
that noble title
[p]Your master wed me to: nothing but death
[p]Shall
e'er divorce my dignities.
Cardinal Wolsey : Pray, hear me.
Queen Katharine : Would I had never trod this English earth,
[p]Or felt the flatteries
that grow upon it!
[p]Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your
hearts.
[p]What will become of me now, wretched lady!
[p]I am the most
unhappy woman living.
[p]Alas, poor wenches, where are now your
fortunes!
[p]Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
[p]No friend,
no hope; no kindred weep for me;
[p]Almost no grave allow'd me: like
the lily,
[p]That once was mistress of the field and
flourish'd,
[p]I'll hang my head and perish.
Cardinal Wolsey : If your grace
[p]Could but be brought to know our ends are
honest,
[p]You'ld feel more comfort: why should we, good lady,
[p]Upon
what cause, wrong you? alas, our places,
[p]The way of our profession
is against it:
[p]We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow 'em.
[p]For
goodness' sake, consider what you do;
[p]How you may hurt yourself,
ay, utterly
[p]Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this
carriage.
[p]The hearts of princes kiss obedience,
[p]So much they
love it; but to stubborn spirits
[p]They swell, and grow as terrible
as storms.
[p]I know you have a gentle, noble temper,
[p]A soul as
even as a calm: pray, think us
[p]Those we profess, peace-makers,
friends, and servants.
Cardinal Campeius : Madam, you'll find it so. You wrong your virtues
[p]With these weak
women's fears: a noble spirit,
[p]As yours was put into you, ever
casts
[p]Such doubts, as false coin, from it. The king loves
you;
[p]Beware you lose it not: for us, if you please
[p]To trust us
in your business, we are ready
[p]To use our utmost studies in your
service.
Queen Katharine : Do what ye will, my lords: and, pray, forgive me,
[p]If I have used
myself unmannerly;
[p]You know I am a woman, lacking wit
[p]To make a
seemly answer to such persons.
[p]Pray, do my service to his
majesty:
[p]He has my heart yet; and shall have my prayers
[p]While I
shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,
[p]Bestow your counsels on
me: she now begs,
[p]That little thought, when she set footing
here,
[p]She should have bought her dignities so dear.
Queen Katharine : Take thy lute, wench: my soul grows sad with troubles;
[p]Sing, and
disperse 'em, if thou canst: leave working.
[p][SONG]
[p]Orpheus with
his lute made trees,
[p]And the mountain tops that freeze,
[p]Bow
themselves when he did sing:
[p]To his music plants and
flowers
[p]Ever sprung; as sun and showers
[p]There had made a lasting
spring.
[p]Every thing that heard him play,
[p]Even the billows of the
sea,
[p]Hung their heads, and then lay by.
[p]In sweet music is such
art,
[p]Killing care and grief of heart
[p]Fall asleep, or hearing,
die.
Queen Katharine : How now!
Gentleman : An't please your grace, the two great cardinals
[p]Wait in the
presence.
Queen Katharine : Would they speak with me?
Gentleman : They will'd me say so, madam.
Queen Katharine : Pray their graces
[p]To come near.
[p][Exit Gentleman]
[p]What can be
their business
[p]With me, a poor weak woman, fall'n from favour?
[p]I
do not like their coming. Now I think on't,
[p]They should be good
men; their affairs as righteous:
[p]But all hoods make not monks.
Cardinal Wolsey : Peace to your highness!
Queen Katharine : Your graces find me here part of a housewife,
[p]I would be all,
against the worst may happen.
[p]What are your pleasures with me,
reverend lords?
Cardinal Wolsey : May it please you noble madam, to withdraw
[p]Into your private
chamber, we shall give you
[p]The full cause of our coming.
Queen Katharine : Speak it here:
[p]There's nothing I have done yet, o' my
conscience,
[p]Deserves a corner: would all other women
[p]Could speak
this with as free a soul as I do!
[p]My lords, I care not, so much I
am happy
[p]Above a number, if my actions
[p]Were tried by every
tongue, every eye saw 'em,
[p]Envy and base opinion set against
'em,
[p]I know my life so even. If your business
[p]Seek me out, and
that way I am wife in,
[p]Out with it boldly: truth loves open
dealing.
Cardinal Wolsey : Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina
[p]serenissima,--
Queen Katharine : O, good my lord, no Latin;
[p]I am not such a truant since my
coming,
[p]As not to know the language I have lived in:
[p]A strange
tongue makes my cause more strange,
[p]suspicious;
[p]Pray, speak in
English: here are some will thank you,
[p]If you speak truth, for
their poor mistress' sake;
[p]Believe me, she has had much wrong: lord
cardinal,
[p]The willing'st sin I ever yet committed
[p]May be
absolved in English.
Cardinal Wolsey : Noble lady,
[p]I am sorry my integrity should breed,
[p]And service to
his majesty and you,
[p]So deep suspicion, where all faith was
meant.
[p]We come not by the way of accusation,
[p]To taint that
honour every good tongue blesses,
[p]Nor to betray you any way to
sorrow,
[p]You have too much, good lady; but to know
[p]How you stand
minded in the weighty difference
[p]Between the king and you; and to
deliver,
[p]Like free and honest men, our just opinions
[p]And
comforts to your cause.
Cardinal Campeius : Most honour'd madam,
[p]My Lord of York, out of his noble
nature,
[p]Zeal and obedience he still bore your grace,
[p]Forgetting,
like a good man your late censure
[p]Both of his truth and him, which
was too far,
[p]Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace,
[p]His service
and his counsel.
Queen Katharine : [Aside]. To betray me.--
[p]My lords, I thank you both for your good
wills;
[p]Ye speak like honest men; pray God, ye prove so!
[p]But how
to make ye suddenly an answer,
[p]In such a point of weight, so near
mine honour,--
[p]More near my life, I fear,--with my weak wit,
[p]And
to such men of gravity and learning,
[p]In truth, I know not. I was
set at work
[p]Among my maids: full little, God knows,
looking
[p]Either for such men or such business.
[p]For her sake that
I have been,--for I feel
[p]The last fit of my greatness,--good your
graces,
[p]Let me have time and counsel for my cause:
[p]Alas, I am a
woman, friendless, hopeless!
Cardinal Wolsey : Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears:
[p]Your hopes and
friends are infinite.
Queen Katharine : In England
[p]But little for my profit: can you think, lords,
[p]That
any Englishman dare give me counsel?
[p]Or be a known friend, 'gainst
his highness' pleasure,
[p]Though he be grown so desperate to be
honest,
[p]And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends,
[p]They that
must weigh out my afflictions,
[p]They that my trust must grow to,
live not here:
[p]They are, as all my other comforts, far hence
[p]In
mine own country, lords.
Cardinal Campeius : I would your grace
[p]Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.
Queen Katharine : How, sir?
Cardinal Campeius : Put your main cause into the king's protection;
[p]He's loving and
most gracious: 'twill be much
[p]Both for your honour better and your
cause;
[p]For if the trial of the law o'ertake ye,
[p]You'll part away
disgraced.
Cardinal Wolsey : He tells you rightly.
Queen Katharine : Ye tell me what ye wish for both,--my ruin:
[p]Is this your Christian
counsel? out upon ye!
[p]Heaven is above all yet; there sits a
judge
[p]That no king can corrupt.
Cardinal Campeius : Your rage mistakes us.
Queen Katharine : The more shame for ye: holy men I thought ye,
[p]Upon my soul, two
reverend cardinal virtues;
[p]But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I
fear ye:
[p]Mend 'em, for shame, my lords. Is this your
comfort?
[p]The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady,
[p]A woman lost
among ye, laugh'd at, scorn'd?
[p]I will not wish ye half my
miseries;
[p]I have more charity: but say, I warn'd ye;
[p]Take heed,
for heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once
[p]The burthen of my
sorrows fall upon ye.
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