K. HEN. Come hither, Gardiner.

[They converfe apart.

CAM. My lord of York, was not one doctor Pace In this man's place before him?

WOL.

CAM. Was he not held a learned man?

WOL.

Yes, he was.

Yes, furely.

CAM. Believe me, there's an ill opinion fpread

then

Even of yourself, lord cardinal.

WOL.

How! of me?

CAM. They will not stick to fay, you envy'd him; And, fearing he would rife, he was fo virtuous, Kept him a foreign man still:" which so griev'd him, That he ran mad, and died.

WOL. Heaven's peace be with him! That's chriftian care enough: for living murmurers, There's places of rebuke. He was a fool; For he would needs be virtuous: That good fellow, If I command him, follows my appointment; I will have none fo near elfe. Learn, this brother, We live not to be grip'd by meaner perfons.

K. HEN. Deliver this with modefty to the queen. [Exit GARDINER.

The most convenient place that I can think of,
For fuch receipt of learning, is Black-Friars;
There ye fhall meet about this weighty business:-
My Wolfey, fee it furnish'd.-O my lord,
Would it not grieve an able man, to leave
So fweet a bedfellow? But, confcience, confcience,-
O, 'tis a tender place, and I must leave her.

[Exeunt.

Kept him a foreign man fill:] Kept him out of the king's prefence, employed in foreign embaffies. JOHNSON.

SCENE III.

An Antechamber in the Queen's Apartments.

Enter ANNE BULLEN, and an old Lady.

ANNE. Not for that neither;-Here's the pang that pinches:

His highnefs having liv'd fo long with her; and

The

So good a lady, that no tongue could ever
Pronounce difhonour of her,-by my life,
She never knew harm-doing;-O now, after
So many courfes of the fun enthron'd,

Still growing in a majefty and pomp,—the which
To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than
'Tis fweet at first to acquire,-after this process,
To give her the avaunt! it is a pity

Would move a monfter.

OLD L.

Hearts of moft hard temper

Melt and lament for her.

ANNE.

O, God's will! much better,

She ne'er had known pomp: though it be tempo

ral,

Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce

To leave is] The latter word was added by Mr. Theobald.
MALONE.

3 To give her the avaunt!] To fend her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a fentence of ejection. JOHNSON,

4 Yet, if that quarrel, fortune,] She calls Fortune a quarrel or arrow, from her ftriking fo deep and fuddenly. Quarrel was a large arrow fo called. Thus Fairfax:

"twang'd the ftring, out flew the quarrel long."

WARBURTON,

It from the bearer, 'tis a fufferance, panging
As foul and body's fevering.'

OLD L.

She's a stranger now again."

Alas, poor lady!

Such is Dr. Warburton's interpretation. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

That quarreller Fortune.

I think the poet may be eafily fuppofed to ufe quarrel for quar-
reller, as murder for the murderer, the act for the agent. JOHNSON.
Dr. Johnson may be right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:
but that your royalty

66

"Holds idlenefs your fubject, I should take you
"For Idleness itself."

Like Martial's-" Non vitiofus homo es, Zoile, fed Vitium." We
might, however, read:

Yet if that quarrel fortune to divorce

It from the bearer.

i. e. if any quarrel happen or chance to divorce it from the bearer. To fortune is a verb used by Shakspeare in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

I'll tell you as we pass along,

"That you will wonder what hath fortuned."

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. I. c. ii:

"It fortuned (high heaven did so ordaine)" &c.

-panging

STEEVENS.

As foul and body's fevering.] So Bertram, in All's well that ends well: "I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body."

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra :

6

"The foul and body rive not more at parting,

"Than greatnefs going off." MALONE.

STEEVENS.

firanger now again.] Again an alien; not only no longer queen, but no longer an Englishwoman. JOHNSON.

It rather means, fhe is alienated from the king's affection, is a ftranger to his bed; for fhe ftill retained the rights of an Englishwoman, and was princefs dowager of Wales. So, in the fecond

fcene of the third act:

Katharine no more

"Shall be call'd queen; but princess dowager,
"And widow to prince Arthur." TOLLET.

Dr. Johnfon's interpretation appears to me to be the true one.

0

ANNE.

So much the more

Must pity drop upon her. Verily,
I fwear, 'tis better to be lowly born,

And range

with humble livers in content,

Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden forrow.

And venture maidenhead for't; and fo would you,
For all this fpice of your hypocrify:

You, that have fo fair parts of woman on you,
Have too a woman's heart; which ever yet
Affected eminence, wealth, fovereignty;

Which, to fay footh, are bleffings: and which gifts (Saving your mincing) the capacity

8

Of your foft cheveril confcience would receive, If you might please to stretch it.

ANNE.

Nay, good troth,—

OLD L. Yes, troth, and troth,-You would not

be a queen?

ANNE. No, not for all the riches under heaven. OLD L. 'Tis ftrange; a three-pence bow'd would hire me,

Old as I am, to queen it: But, I pray you,

7 our beft having.] That is, our beft poffeffion. So, in Macbeth:

"Of noble having and of royal hope."

In Spanish, bazienda. JOHNSON.

8

cheveril-] is kid-fkin, foft leather. JOHNSON.

So, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610:

"The cheveril confcience of corrupted law." STIEVENS.

What think you of a duchefs? have you limbs
To bear that load of title?

ANNE.

No, in truth.

OLD L. Then you are weakly made: Pluck off a little;"

I would not be a young count in your way,
For more than blyfhing comes to: if your back
Cannot vouchfafe this burden, 'tis too weak
Ever to get a boy.

ANNE.

How you do talk!

I swear again, I would not be a queen

For all the world.

OLD L.

In faith, for little England

You'd venture an emballing: I myself

2

Would for Carnarvonshire, although there 'long'd No more to the crown but that. Lo, who comes

9

here?

Pluck off a little ; &c.] What must she pluck off? I think we may better read:

Pluck up a little.

Pluck up is an idiomatical expreffion for take courage. JOHNSON. The old lady firft queftions Anne Bullen about being a queen, which the declares her averfion to; fhe then proposes the title of a duchefs, and afks her if she thinks herfelf equal to the task of fuftaining it; but as fhe ftill declines the offer of greatness;

Pluck off a little,

favs fhe; i. e. let us till further diveft preferment of its glare, let us defcend yet lower, and more upon a level with your own quality; and then adds:

I would not be a young count in your way, which is an inferior degree of honour to any before enumerated.

I feath, for little England

STEEVENS.

ventur an emballing: I myself
for Carnarvonshire,] Little England feems very properly
rld; but what has Carnarvonshire to do here?
birth of Edward II. at Carnarvon? or may
altun? By little England is meant, perhaps, that
abrokeshire, where the Flemings fettled in Henry It's