Out with it boldly; Truth loves open dealing.

WOL. Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina serenissima,

Q. KATH. O, good my lord, no Latin;2 I am not such a truant since my coming, As not to know the language I have liv'd in: 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;

If your business

Seek me, speak out, and that way I am wise in;

i. e. in the way that I can understand it. TYRWHITT.
The metre shows here is a syllable dropt. I would read:
I know my life so even. If 'tis your business
To seek me out, &c. BLACKSTONE.

The alteration proposed by Sir W. Blackstone injures one line as much as it improves the other. We might read:

1

Doth seek me out,

RITSON.

and that way I am wife in,] That is, if you come to examine the title by which I am the King's wife; or, if you come to know how I have behaved as a wife. The meaning, whatever it may be, is so coarsely and unskilfully expressed, that the latter editors have liked nonsense better, and contrarily to the ancient and only copy, have published:

And that way I am wise in. JOHNSON.

This passage is unskilfully expressed indeed; so much so, that I don't see how it can import either of the meanings that Johnson contends for, or indeed any other. I therefore think that the modern editors have acted rightly in reading wise instead of wife, for which that word might easily have been mistaken; nor can I think the passage, so amended, nonsense, the meaning of it being this: "If your business relates to me, or to any thing of which I have any knowledge." M. MASON.

O, good my lord, no Latin;] So, Holinshed, p. 908: "Then began the cardinall to speake to her in Latine. Naie good my lord (quoth she) speake to me in English."

STEEVENS.

Believe me, she has had much wrong: Lord car

dinal,

The willing'st sin I ever yet committed,

May be absolv'd in English.

WOL.

Noble lady,

I am sorry, my integrity should breed,
And service to his majesty and you,)3
So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant.
We come not by the way of accusation,

To taint that honour every good tongue blesses;
Nor to betray you any way to sorrow;

You have too much, good lady: but to know
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.*

CAM.

Most honour'd madam,

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,

His service and his counsel.

Q. KATH.

To betray me. [Aside. My lords, I thank you both for your good wills, Ye speak like honest men, (pray God, ye prove so!) But how to make you suddenly an answer,

In such a point of weight, so near mine honour,

3

(And service to his majesty and you,)] This line stands so very aukwardly, that I am inclined to think it out of its place. The author perhaps wrote, as Mr. Edwards has suggested: "I am sorry my integrity should breed

"So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant,
"And service to his majesty and you." MALONE.

to your cause.
.] Old copy-our cause. Corrected by

the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

(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
Among my maids; full little, God knows, looking
Either for such men, or such business.
For her sake that I have been,5 (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.

WOL. Madam, you wrong the king's love with these fears;

Your hopes and friends are infinite.

I

Q. KATH. In England, But little for my profit: Can you think, lords, That any Englishman dare give me counsel? 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; They are, as all my other comforts, far hence, In mine own country, lords.

For her sake that I have been, &c.] For the sake of that royalty which I have heretofore possessed. MALONE.

6

(Though he be grown so desperate to be honest,)] Do you think that any Englishman dare advise me; or, if any man should venture to advise with honesty, that he could live?

JOHNSON.

— weigh out my afflictions,] This phrase is obscure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this sense cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewise to deliberate upon, to consider with due attention. This may, perhaps, be meant. Or the phrase, to weigh out, may signify to counterbalance, to counteract with equal force. JOHNSON.

To weigh out is the same as to outweigh. In Macbeth, Shakspeare has overcome for come over. STEEVENS.

CAM.

I would, your grace

Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.

Q. KATH.

How, sir?

CAM. Put your main cause into the king's protection;

He's loving, and most gracious; 'twill be much
Both for your honour better, and your cause;
For, if the trial of the law o'ertake you,
You'll part away disgrac❜d.

WOL.

He tells you rightly.

Q. KATH. Ye tell me what ye wish for both, my

ruin :

Is this your christian counsel? out upon ye!
Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge,
That no king can corrupt.

CAM.

Your rage mistakes us.

Q. KATH. The more shame for ye;" holy men I thought ye,

Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues ;
But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye:
Mend them for shame, my lords. Is this your
comfort?

The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady?
A woman lost among ye, laugh'd at, scorn'd?
I will not wish ye half my miseries,

ye;

I have more charity: But say, I warn'd
Take heed, for heaven's sake, take heed, lest at once
The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

WOL. Madam, this is a mere distraction;

You turn the good we offer into envy.

• The more shame for ye;] If I mistake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good.

The distress of Katharine might have kept her from the quibble to which she is irresistibly tempted by the word cardinal. JOHNSON.

Q. KATH. Yeturn me into nothing: Woe upon ye, And all such false professors! Would ye have me (If you have any justice, any pity;

If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits,)
Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?
Alas! he has banish'd me his bed already;
His love, too long ago: I am old, my lords,
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.

CAM.

Your fears are worse.

Q. KATH. Have I liv'd thus long-(let me speak

myself,

Since virtue finds no friends,)-a wife, a true one?
A woman (I dare say, without vain-glory,)
Never yet branded with suspicion?

Have I with all my full affections

Still met the king? lov'd him next heaven? obey'd him?

Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him?"
Almost forgot my prayers to content him?
And am I thus rewarded? 'tis not well, lords.
Bring me a constant woman to her husband,
One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure
And to that woman, when she has done most,
Yet will I add an honour,-a great patience.
WOL. Madam, you wander from the good we

aim at.

Q. KATH. My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty,

To give up willingly that noble title

— superstitious to him?] That is, served him with superstitious attention; done more than was required. JOHNSON.