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K. HEN. Here.

SCRIBE. Say, Katharine queen of England, come

into court.

CRIER. Katharine queen of England, &c.

[The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court, comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks.]

2. KATH. Sir, I defire you, do me right and

justice;

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And to bestow your pity on me: for
I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
Born out of your dominions; having here
No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance
Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, fir,
In what have I offended you? what cause
Hath my behaviour given to your difpleasure,
That thus you should proceed to put me off,
And take your good grace from me? Heaven wit-

ness,

I have been to you a true and humble wife,
At all times to your will conformable:

Ever in fear to kindle your diflike,

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-goes about the court,] "Because (says Cavendish) she could not come to the king directlie, for the distance severed between them." MALONE.

1 Sir, I defire you do, me right and justice; &c.] This speech of the queen, and the king's reply, are taken from Holinshed with the most trifling variations. STEEVENS.

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8 At all times to your will conformable :) The character Queen Katharine here prides herself for, is given to another Queen in The Hiftorie of the uniting of the Kingdom of Portugall to the Crowne of Caftill, fo. 1600, p. 238: - at which time Queene Anne his wife fell ficke of a rotten fever, the which in few daies brought her to another life; wherewith the King was much grieved being a lady wholly conformable to his humour. REED.

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Yea, subject to your countenance; glad, or forry,
As I saw it inclin'd. When was the hour,
I ever contradicted your defire,

Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
Have I not strove to love, although I knew
He were mine enemy? what friend of mine,
That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I
Continue in my liking? nay, gave notice
He was from thence discharg'd? Sir, call to mind
That I have been your wife, in this obedience,
Upward of twenty years, and have been blest
With many children by you: If, in the course
And process of this time, you can report,
And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty,
Against your facred person, in God's name,

9-nay, gave notice) In modern editions:

nay, gave not notice

Though the author's common liberties of speech might justify the old reading, yet I cannot but think that not was dropped before notice, having the same letters, and would therefore follow Sir T. Hanmer's correction. JOHNSON.

Our author is fo licentious in his construction that I fuspect no corruption. MALONE.

Perhaps this inaccuracy (like a thousand others) is chargeable only on the blundering superintendants of the first folio. Instead of-nay, we might read:

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nor gave notice

He was from thence discharg'd? 'STEEVENS.

or my love and duty,

Againft your facred perfon,] There seems to be an error in the phrase "Against your sacred person;" but I don't know how to amend it. The sense would require that we should read, "Towards your facred perfon," or fome word of a fimilar import, which against will not bear; and it is not likely that against should be written by mistake for towards. M. MASON.

In the old copy there is not a comma in the preceding line after duty. Mr. M. Mason has justly observed that with such a punctuation the sense requires-Towards your facred perfon. A comina being

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Turn me away; and let the foul'ft contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To the sharpeft kind of justice. Please you, fir,
The king, your father, was reputed for
A prince most prudent, of an excellent
And unmatch'd wit and judgement: Ferdinand,
My father, king of Spain, was reckon'd one
The wifeft prince, that there had reign'd by many
A year before: It is not to be question'd
That they had gather'd a wife council to them
Of every realm, that did debate this business,
Who deem'd our marriage lawful: Wherefore I

humbly

Beseech you, fir, to spare me, till I may
Be by my friends in Spain advis'd; whose counsel
I will implore: if not; i'the name of God,

Your pleasure be fulfill'd!

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
To plead your caufe: It shall be therefore bootless,

That longer you defire the court; 3 as well

placed at duty, the construction 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 fuch an arrangement seems to make a breach of her
honour and matrimonial bond to be something diftinct from an of-
fence against the king's person, 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 business of the court; that you folicit a more diftant fession and
trial. To pray for a longer day, i. e. a more distant 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 substituted for defire. MALONE.

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His grace

Hath spoken well, and justly: Therefore, madam,

It's fit this royal fession do proceed;

And that, without delay, their arguments

Be now produced, and heard.

2. KATH.

Lord cardinal,

To you I fpeak.

WOL.

Your pleasure, madam?

2. KATH.

Sir,

I am about to weep; but, thinking that

We are a queen, (or long have dream'd so,) certain,

The daughter of a king, my drops of tears

I'll turn to sparks of fire.

WOL.

Be patient yet.

2. KATH. I will, when you are humble; nay,

before,

Or God will punish me. I do believe,
Induc'd by potent circumstances, that
You are mine enemy; and make my challenge,
You shall not be my judge:' for it is you
Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,-
Which God's dew quench!-Therefore, I say again,

4 I am about to weep; &c.] Shakspeare has given almost a fimilar sentiment to Hermione in The Winter's Tale, on an almost similar occafion:

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" I am not prone to weeping, as our sex

"Commonly are, &c.-but I have

"That honourable grief lodg'd here, which burns

"Worse 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 refuses a juryman, fays- I challenge him. JOHNSON.

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I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refuse you for my judge;' whom, yet once more,
I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
At all a friend to truth.

WOL.

I do profess,

You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display'd the effects
Of difpofition gentle, and of wisdom

O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me

wrong:

I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
For you, or any: how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further shall, is warranted
By a commiffion from the consistory,
Yea, the whole confiftory of Rome. You charge me,
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is present: If it be known to him,
That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood? yea, as much
As you have done my truth. But if he know
That I am free of your report, he knows,
I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lies, to cure me: and the cure is, to

I utterly abhor, yea, from my foul

Refuse you for my judge;] These are not mere words of paffion,

but technical terms in the canon law.

Deteftor and Recuso. The former, in the language of canonifts,
fignifies no more, than I protest againft. BLACKSTONE.

The words are Holinshed's: " -
and therefore openly pro-
tested that she did utterly abhor, refuse, and forsake such a judge."
MALONE.

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gainsay-] i. e. deny. So, in Lord Surry's tranflation of the fourth book of the Eneid:

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" I hold thee not, nor yet gainsay thy words."

STEEVENS.

-But if] The conjunction-But, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied, for the sake of measure, by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

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