The King takes his State. The Lords of the Council take their several Places. The Cardinal places himself under the King's Feet, on his right Side.

A Noise within, crying, Room for the Queen. Enter the Queen, ushered by the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK: she kneels. The King riseth from his State, takes her up, kisses, and placeth her by him.

Q. KATH. Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a suitor.

K. HEN. Arise, and take place by us :-Half your suit

Never name to us; you have half our power:
The other moiety, ere you ask, is given;
Repeat your will, and take it.

Q. KATH.

Thank your majesty.

That you would love yourself; and, in that love, Not unconsider'd leave your honour, nor

The dignity of your office, is the point

Of my petition.

K. HEN.

Lady mine, proceed.

Q. KATH. I am solicited, not by a few, And those of true condition, that your subjects Are in great grievance: there have been commis

sions

Sent down among them, which hath flaw'd the heart
Of all their loyalties:wherein, although,
My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter-on

Of these exactions, yet the king our master,

6

as putter-on

Of these exactions,] The instigator of these exactions; the

(Whose honour heaven shield from soil!) even he escapes not

Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears

In loud rebellion.

NOR. Not almost appears, It doth appear: for, upon these taxations, The clothiers all, not able to maintain The many to them 'longing,' have put off The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who, Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger And lack of other means, in desperate manner Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar, And Danger serves among them.8

person who suggested to the King the taxes complained of, and incited him to exact them from his subjects. So, in Macbeth: The powers above

"Put on their instruments."

Again, in Hamlet:

"Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause."

See Vol. X. p. 252, n. 4. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

7 The many to them 'longing,] The many is the meiny, the train, the people. Dryden is, perhaps, the last that used this word:

"The kings before their many rode." JOHNSON.

I believe the many is only the multitude, the oi roλλol. Thus, Coriolanus, speaking of the rabble, calls them—

the mutable rank-scented many. 99 STEEVENS.

* And Danger serves among them.] Could one easily believe that a writer, who had, but immediately before, sunk so low in his expression, should here rise again to a height so truly sublime? where, by the noblest stretch of fancy, Danger is personalized as serving in the rebel army, and shaking the established government. WARBURton.

Chaucer, Gower, Skelton, and Spenser, have personified Danger. The first, in his Romaunt of the Rose; the second, in his fifth Book, De Confessione Amantis; the third, in his Bouge of Court

K. HEN.

Taxation!

Wherein? and what taxation?-My lord cardinal,
You that are blam'd for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?

WOL.

Please you, sir,

I know but of a single part, in aught

Pertains to the state; and front but in that file' Where others tell steps with me.

Q. KATH.

No, my lord,

You know no more than others: but you frame Things, that are known alike;

wholesome

which are not

To those which would not know them, and yet must
Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions,
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to the hearing; and, to bear them,
The back is sacrifice to the load. They say,
They are devis'd by you; or else you suffer
Too hard an exclamation.

K. HEN.

Still exaction!

The nature of it? In what kind, let's know,
Is this exaction?

"With that, anone out start dangere;"

and the fourth, in the 10th Canto of the 4th Book of his Fairy Queen, and again in the fifth Book and the ninth Canto.

9

STEEVENS.

- front but in that file-] I am but primus inter pares.

I am but first in the row of counsellors. JOHNSON.

This was the very idea that Wolsey wished to disclaim. It was not his intention to acknowledge that he was the first in the row of counsellors, but that he was merely on a level with the rest, and stept in the same line with them. M. MASON.

1 You know no more than others: &c.] That is, you know no more than other counsellors, but you are the person who frame those things which are afterwards proposed, and known equally by all. M. MASON.

Q. KATH.

I am much too venturous

In tempting of your patience; but am bolden'd
Under your promis'd pardon. The subject's grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from
each

The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay; and the pretence for this

Is nam'd, your wars in France: This makes bold

mouths:

Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze Allegiance in them; their curses now,

Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass,
That tractable obedience is a slave

To each incensed will.2 I would, your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.3

tractable obedience &c.] i. e. those who are tractable and obedient, must give way to others who are angry.

MUSGRAVE.

The meaning of this is, that the people were so much irritated by oppression, that their resentment got the better of their obedience. M. MASON.

The meaning, I think, is-Things are now in such a situation, that resentment and indignation predominate in every man's breast over duty and allegiance. MALONE.

• There is no primer business.] In the old edition

There is no primer baseness.

The queen is here complaining of the suffering of the commons, which, she suspects, arose from the abuse of power in some great men. But she is very reserved in speaking her thoughts concerning the quality of it. We may be assured then, that she did not, in conclusion, call it the highest baseness; but rather made use of a word that could not offend the Cardinal, and yet would incline the King to give it a speedy hearing. I read therefore:

There is no primer business.

i. e. no matter of state that more earnestly presses a despatch. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton (for reasons which he has given in his note) would read:

no primer business :

K. HEN.

This is against our pleasure.

WOL.

By my life,

And for me,

I have no further gone in this, than by
A single voice; and that not pass'd me, but
By learned approbation of the judges.

If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know
My faculties, nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing,-let me say,
'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint5
Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow

That is new trimm'd; but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones,” is

but I think the meaning of the original word is sufficiently clear. No primer baseness is no mischief more ripe or ready for redress. So, in Othello:

4

"Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkies-—.' STEEVENS.

If I am traduc'd by tongues, which neither know My faculties, nor person,] The old copy-by ignorant tongues. But surely this epithet must have been an interpolation, the ignorance of the supposed speakers being sufficiently indicated by their knowing neither the faculties nor person of the Cardinal. I have, therefore, with Sir T. Hanmer, restored the measure, by the present omission. STEEVENS.

5 We must not stint-] To stint is to stop, to retard. Many instances of this sense of the word are given in a note on Romeo and Juliet, Act I. sc. iii. STEEVENS.

6 Το cope-] To engage with, to encounter.

still used in some counties.

So,

7

in As you like it:

JOHNSON.

The word is

"I love to cope him in these sullen fits." STEEVENS.

once weak ones,] The modern editors read-or weak