King John & Henry VIII (38 page)

QUEEN KATHERINE
    How now?

GRIFFITH
    An’t please your grace, the two great cardinals

    Wait in the
presence
¹⁷
.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Would they speak with me?

GRIFFITH
    They
willed
¹⁹
me say so, madam.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    
Pray
²⁰
their graces

    To come near.

                    What can be their business

    With me, a poor weak woman, fall’n from favour?

    I do not like their coming: now I think on’t,

    They should be good men, their affairs
as righteous
²⁴
:

    But all hoods make not monks.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Peace to your highness.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Your graces find me here
part of
²⁷
a housewife:

    I would be
all
,
against
the
worst
²⁸
may happen.

    What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords?

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw

    Into your private chamber: we shall give you

    The full cause of our coming.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Speak it here.

    There’s nothing I have done yet, o’ my conscience,

    Deserves a
corner
³⁵
: would all other women

    
Could speak this with as
free
³⁶
a soul as I do.

    My lords, I care not, so much I am
happy
³⁷

    Above
a number
³⁸
, if my actions

    Were tried by ev’ry tongue, ev’ry eye saw ’em,

    
Envy
⁴⁰
and base opinion set against ’em,

    I know my life so
even
⁴¹
. If your business

    Seek me out, and
that way I am wife in
⁴²
,

    Out with it boldly: truth loves open dealing.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    
Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, Regina serenissima
⁴⁴
—

QUEEN KATHERINE
    O, good my lord, no Latin:

    I am not such a
truant
since my
coming
⁴⁶
,

    As not to know the language I have lived in:

    A
strange
⁴⁸
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:

    Believe me, she has had much wrong. Lord cardinal,

    The
willing’st
⁵²
sin I ever yet committed

    May be absolved in English.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Noble lady,

    I am sorry my integrity should breed,

    And service to his majesty and you,

    So deep suspicion, where
all
faith
⁵⁷
was meant:

    We come not
by the way
⁵⁸
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
⁶²

    Between the king and you, and to deliver,

    Like
free
⁶⁴
and honest men, our just opinions

    And comforts to your cause.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Most honoured 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.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    To betray me.—

    My lords, I thank you both for your good wills:

    Ye speak like honest men:— pray God ye prove so.

    But how to make ye
suddenly
⁷⁶
an answer

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

    More near my life, I fear — with my weak
wit
⁷⁸
,

    And to such men of gravity and learning:

    In truth I know not. I was
set
⁸⁰
at work

    Among my maids, full little, God knows,
looking
⁸¹

    Either for such men or such business:

    For
her sake that I have been
⁸³
— for I feel

    The last
fit
⁸⁴
of my greatness — good your graces,

    Let me have time and counsel for my cause:

    Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Madam, you wrong the king’s love with these fears.

    Your hopes and friends are infinite.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    In England

    But little for my
profit
⁹⁰
: 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
⁹³
to be honest,

    And
live a subject
? Nay
forsooth
⁹⁴
, my friends,

    They that must
weigh out
⁹⁵
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.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    I would your grace

    Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    How, sir?

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    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 ye,

    You’ll
part away
¹⁰⁶
disgraced.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    He tells you rightly.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Ye tell me what ye wish for both — my ruin:

    Is this your Christian counsel?
Out upon ye
¹⁰⁹
.

    Heaven is above all yet: there sits a judge

    That no king can corrupt.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Your rage
mistakes
¹¹²
us.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    The more shame for ye: holy men I thought ye,

    Upon my soul, two reverend
cardinal virtues
¹¹⁴
:

    But
cardinal sins
¹¹⁵
and hollow hearts I fear ye:

    Mend ’em for shame, my lords. Is this your comfort?

    The
cordial
¹¹⁷
that ye bring a wretched lady?

    A woman lost among ye, laughed at, scorned?

    I will not wish ye half my miseries:

    I have more charity. But say I warned ye:

    Take heed, for heaven’s sake, take heed, lest
at once
¹²¹

    The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Madam, this is a
mere distraction
¹²³
:

    You turn the good we offer into
envy
¹²⁴
.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Ye turn me into nothing. Woe upon ye

    And all such false
professors
¹²⁶
. Would you have me —

    If you have any justice, any pity,

    If ye be anything but churchmen’s
habits
¹²⁸
—

    Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?

    Alas, he’s banished me
his
¹³⁰
bed already,

    His love, too long ago. I am old, my lords,

    And all the
fellowship
¹³²
I hold now with him

    Is only my obedience. What can happen

    To me
above
this wretchedness? All your
studies
¹³⁴

    Make me a curse like this.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Your fears are worse.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Have I lived thus long — let me
speak
¹³⁷
myself,

    Since virtue finds no friends — a wife, a true one?

    A woman, I dare say without
vainglory
¹³⁹
,

    Never yet branded with suspicion?

    Have I with all my
full affections
¹⁴¹

    
Still
met the king? Loved him
next
¹⁴²
heaven? Obeyed him?

    Been, out of
fondness
,
superstitious
¹⁴³
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 dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure,

    And to that woman, when she has done most,

    Yet will I add an honour, a great patience.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Madam, you
wander from
¹⁵⁰
the good we aim at.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty,

    To give up willingly that noble title

    Your master wed me to: nothing but death

    Shall e’er divorce my
dignities
¹⁵⁴
.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Pray, hear me.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    
Would
¹⁵⁶
I had never trod this English earth,

    Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it:

    Ye have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts.

    What will become of me now, wretched lady?

    I am the most unhappy woman living.

    Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?

    Shipwrecked upon a kingdom, where no pity,

    No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me?

    Almost no grave allowed me? Like the lily

    That once was mistress of the field and flourished,

    I’ll hang my head and perish.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    If your grace

    Could but be brought to know our
ends
¹⁶⁸
are honest,

    You’d feel more comfort. Why should we, good lady,

    Upon what cause, wrong you? Alas, our
places
¹⁷⁰
,

    The way of our profession is against it:

    We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow ’em.

    For goodness’ sake, consider what you do,

    How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly

    Grow from the king’s acquaintance, by this
carriage
¹⁷⁵
.

    The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

    So much they love it, but to stubborn spirits

    They swell and grow as terrible as storms.

    I know you have a gentle, noble
temper
¹⁷⁹
,

    A soul as
even
as a
calm
¹⁸⁰
: pray think us

    Those we profess: peacemakers, friends and servants.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Madam, you’ll find it so: you wrong your virtues

    With these weak women’s fears. A noble spirit,

    As yours was put into you, ever
casts
¹⁸⁴

    Such doubts as false coin from it. The king loves you:

    Beware you lose it not: for us, if you please

    To trust us in your business, we are ready

    To use our utmost
studies
¹⁸⁸
in your service.

QUEEN KATHERINE
    Do what ye will, my lords: and pray forgive me

    If I have
used
¹⁹⁰
myself unmannerly.

    You know I am a woman, lacking wit

    To make a seemly answer to such persons.

    Pray
do my service
¹⁹³
to his majesty:

    He has my heart yet, and shall have my prayers

    While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,

    Bestow your counsels on me. She now begs,

    
That
little thought, when she
set footing here
¹⁹⁷
,

    She should have bought her dignities so dear.