King Henry The Eighth

1 Trumpets, sennet, and cornets. Enter two Vergers, with short silver
2 wands; next them, two Scribes, in the habit of doctors; after them, the
3 Archbishop of Canterbury alone; after him, the Bishops of Lincoln, Ely,
4 Rochester, and Saint Asaph; next them, with some small distance,
5 follows a Gentleman bearing the purse with the great seal, and a
6 cardinal’s hat; then two Priests, bearing each a silver cross; then a
7 Gentleman Usher bare-headed, accompanied with a Sergeant-at-arms
8 bearing a silver mace; then two Gentlemen, bearing two great silver
9 pillars; after them, side by side, the two Cardinals; two Noblemen with
10 the sword and mace. The King takes place under the cloth of state. The
11 two Cardinals sit under him as judges. The Queen takes place some
12 distance from the King. The Bishops place themselves on each side the
13 court, in manner of consistory; below them the Scribes. The Lords sit
14 next the Bishops. The rest of the Attendants stand in convenient order
15 about the stage.
16 WOLSEY.
17 Whilst our commission from Rome is read,
18 Let silence be commanded.
19 KING.
20 What’s the need?
21 It hath already publicly been read,
22 And on all sides th’ authority allowed;
23 You may then spare that time.
24 WOLSEY.
25 Be’t so. Proceed.
26 SCRIBE.
27 Say, “Henry King of England, come into the court.”
28 CRIER.
29 Henry King of England, come into the court.
30 KING.
31 Here.
32 SCRIBE.
33 Say, “Katherine Queen of England, come into the court.”
34 CRIER.
35 Katherine Queen of England, come into the court.
36 [_The Queen makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the
37 court, comes to the King, and kneels at his feet; then speaks._]
38 QUEEN KATHERINE.
39 Sir, I desire you do me right and justice,
40 And to bestow your pity on me; for
41 I am a most poor woman and a stranger,
42 Born out of your dominions, having here
43 No judge indifferent nor no more assurance
44 Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
45 In what have I offended you? What cause
46 Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure
47 That thus you should proceed to put me off
48 And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness
49 I have been to you a true and humble wife,
50 At all times to your will conformable,
51 Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,
52 Yea, subject to your countenance, glad or sorry
53 As I saw it inclined. When was the hour
54 I ever contradicted your desire,
55 Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
56 Have I not strove to love, although I knew
57 He were mine enemy? What friend of mine
58 That had to him derived your anger did I
59 Continue in my liking? Nay, gave notice
60 He was from thence discharged? Sir, call to mind
61 That I have been your wife in this obedience
62 Upward of twenty years, and have been blessed
63 With many children by you. If, in the course
64 And process of this time, you can report,
65 And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
66 My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty
67 Against your sacred person, in God’s name,
68 Turn me away and let the foul’st contempt
69 Shut door upon me, and so give me up
70 To the sharp’st kind of justice. Please you, sir,
71 The King your father was reputed for
72 A prince most prudent, of an excellent
73 And unmatched wit and judgement. Ferdinand,
74 My father, King of Spain, was reckoned one
75 The wisest prince that there had reigned by many
76 A year before. It is not to be questioned
77 That they had gathered a wise council to them
78 Of every realm, that did debate this business,
79 Who deemed our marriage lawful. Wherefore I humbly
80 Beseech you, sir, to spare me till I may
81 Be by my friends in Spain advised, whose counsel
82 I will implore. If not, i’ th’ name of God,
83 Your pleasure be fulfilled.
84 WOLSEY.
85 You have here, lady,
86 And of your choice, these reverend fathers, men
87 Of singular integrity and learning,
88 Yea, the elect o’ th’ land, who are assembled
89 To plead your cause. It shall be therefore bootless
90 That longer you desire the court, as well
91 For your own quiet as to rectify
92 What is unsettled in the King.
93 CAMPEIUS.
94 His Grace
95 Hath spoken well and justly. Therefore, madam,
96 It’s fit this royal session do proceed,
97 And that without delay their arguments
98 Be now produced and heard.
99 QUEEN KATHERINE.
100 Lord Cardinal,
101 To you I speak.
102 WOLSEY.
103 Your pleasure, madam.
104 QUEEN KATHERINE.
105 Sir,
106 I am about to weep; but, thinking that
107 We are a queen, or long have dreamed so, certain
108 The daughter of a king, my drops of tears
109 I’ll turn to sparks of fire.
110 WOLSEY.
111 Be patient yet.
112 QUEEN KATHERINE.
113 I will, when you are humble; nay, before,
114 Or God will punish me. I do believe,
115 Induced by potent circumstances, that
116 You are mine enemy, and make my challenge
117 You shall not be my judge; for it is you
118 Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,
119 Which God’s dew quench! Therefore I say again,
120 I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul
121 Refuse you for my judge, whom, yet once more,
122 I hold my most malicious foe and think not
123 At all a friend to truth.
124 WOLSEY.
125 I do profess
126 You speak not like yourself, who ever yet
127 Have stood to charity and displayed th’ effects
128 Of disposition gentle and of wisdom
129 O’ertopping woman’s power. Madam, you do me wrong.
130 I have no spleen against you, nor injustice
131 For you or any. How far I have proceeded,
132 Or how far further shall, is warranted
133 By a commission from the Consistory,
134 Yea, the whole Consistory of Rome. You charge me
135 That I have “blown this coal”. I do deny it.
136 The King is present. If it be known to him
137 That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
138 And worthily, my falsehood, yea, as much
139 As you have done my truth. If he know
140 That I am free of your report, he knows
141 I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
142 It lies to cure me, and the cure is to
143 Remove these thoughts from you, the which before
144 His Highness shall speak in, I do beseech
145 You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking
146 And to say so no more.
147 QUEEN KATHERINE.
148 My lord, my lord,
149 I am a simple woman, much too weak
150 T’ oppose your cunning. You’re meek and humble-mouthed;
151 You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
152 With meekness and humility; but your heart
153 Is crammed with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
154 You have, by fortune and his Highness’ favours,
155 Gone slightly o’er low steps, and now are mounted
156 Where powers are your retainers, and your words,
157 Domestics to you, serve your will as ’t please
158 Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
159 You tender more your person’s honour than
160 Your high profession spiritual; that again
161 I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
162 Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,
163 To bring my whole cause ’fore his Holiness,
164 And to be judged by him.
165 [_She curtsies to the King and offers to depart._]
166 CAMPEIUS.
167 The Queen is obstinate,
168 Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and
169 Disdainful to be tried by’t. ’Tis not well.
170 She’s going away.
171 KING.
172 Call her again.
173 CRIER.
174 Katherine, Queen of England, come into the court.
175 GENTLEMAN USHER.
176 Madam, you are called back.
177 QUEEN KATHERINE.
178 What need you note it? Pray you keep your way.
179 When you are called, return. Now, the Lord help!
180 They vex me past my patience. Pray you, pass on.
181 I will not tarry; no, nor ever more
182 Upon this business my appearance make
183 In any of their courts.
184 [_Exeunt Queen and her Attendants._]
185 KING.
186 Go thy ways, Kate.
187 That man i’ th’ world who shall report he has
188 A better wife, let him in naught be trusted,
189 For speaking false in that. Thou art, alone—
190 If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness,
191 Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like government,
192 Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
193 Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out—
194 The queen of earthly queens. She’s noble born,
195 And like her true nobility she has
196 Carried herself towards me.
197 WOLSEY.
198 Most gracious sir,
199 In humblest manner I require your Highness
200 That it shall please you to declare, in hearing
201 Of all these ears—for where I am robbed and bound,
202 There must I be unloosed, although not there
203 At once and fully satisfied—whether ever I
204 Did broach this business to your Highness, or
205 Laid any scruple in your way which might
206 Induce you to the question on’t? or ever
207 Have to you, but with thanks to God for such
208 A royal lady, spake one the least word that might
209 Be to the prejudice of her present state,
210 Or touch of her good person?
211 KING.
212 My Lord Cardinal,
213 I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
214 I free you from’t. You are not to be taught
215 That you have many enemies that know not
216 Why they are so, but, like to village curs,
217 Bark when their fellows do. By some of these
218 The Queen is put in anger. You’re excused.
219 But will you be more justified? You ever
220 Have wished the sleeping of this business, never desired
221 It to be stirred, but oft have hindered, oft,
222 The passages made toward it. On my honour,
223 I speak my good Lord Cardinal to this point
224 And thus far clear him. Now, what moved me to’t,
225 I will be bold with time and your attention.
226 Then mark th’ inducement. Thus it came; give heed to’t:
227 My conscience first received a tenderness,
228 Scruple, and prick on certain speeches uttered
229 By th’ Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador,
230 Who had been hither sent on the debating
231 A marriage ’twixt the Duke of Orleans and
232 Our daughter Mary. I’ th’ progress of this business,
233 Ere a determinate resolution, he,
234 I mean the Bishop, did require a respite,
235 Wherein he might the King his lord advertise
236 Whether our daughter were legitimate,
237 Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
238 Sometimes our brother’s wife. This respite shook
239 The bosom of my conscience, entered me,
240 Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble
241 The region of my breast; which forced such way
242 That many mazed considerings did throng
243 And pressed in with this caution. First, methought
244 I stood not in the smile of heaven, who had
245 Commanded nature that my lady’s womb,
246 If it conceived a male child by me, should
247 Do no more offices of life to’t than
248 The grave does to th’ dead; for her male issue
249 Or died where they were made, or shortly after
250 This world had aired them. Hence I took a thought
251 This was a judgement on me, that my kingdom,
252 Well worthy the best heir o’ th’ world, should not
253 Be gladded in’t by me. Then follows that
254 I weighed the danger which my realms stood in
255 By this my issue’s fail, and that gave to me
256 Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
257 The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
258 Toward this remedy whereupon we are
259 Now present here together. That’s to say,
260 I meant to rectify my conscience, which
261 I then did feel full sick, and yet not well,
262 By all the reverend fathers of the land
263 And doctors learned. First I began in private
264 With you, my Lord of Lincoln. You remember
265 How under my oppression I did reek
266 When I first moved you.
267 LINCOLN.
268 Very well, my liege.
269 KING.
270 I have spoke long. Be pleased yourself to say
271 How far you satisfied me.
272 LINCOLN.
273 So please your Highness,
274 The question did at first so stagger me,
275 Bearing a state of mighty moment in’t
276 And consequence of dread, that I committed
277 The daring’st counsel which I had to doubt
278 And did entreat your Highness to this course
279 Which you are running here.
280 KING.
281 I then moved you,
282 My Lord of Canterbury, and got your leave
283 To make this present summons. Unsolicited
284 I left no reverend person in this court,
285 But by particular consent proceeded
286 Under your hands and seals. Therefore go on,
287 For no dislike i’ th’ world against the person
288 Of the good queen, but the sharp thorny points
289 Of my alleged reasons, drives this forward.
290 Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life
291 And kingly dignity, we are contented
292 To wear our mortal state to come with her,
293 Katherine, our Queen, before the primest creature
294 That’s paragoned o’ th’ world.
295 CAMPEIUS.
296 So please your Highness,
297 The Queen being absent, ’tis a needful fitness
298 That we adjourn this court till further day.
299 Meanwhile must be an earnest motion
300 Made to the Queen to call back her appeal
301 She intends unto his Holiness.
302 KING.
303 [_Aside_.] I may perceive
304 These cardinals trifle with me. I abhor
305 This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome.
306 My learned and well-beloved servant, Cranmer,
307 Prithee return. With thy approach, I know,
308 My comfort comes along.—Break up the court!
309 I say, set on.
310 [_Exeunt in manner as they entered._]