Upon this business, my appearance make [Exeunt Queen, GRIFFITH, and her other Attendants. K. HEN. Go thy ways, Kate: Thy meekness faint-like, wife-like government,-- Carried herself towards me. WOL. There must I be unloos'd; although not there 2 could speak thee out,)] If thy feveral qualities had tongues to speak thy praife. JOHNSON. Rather-had tongues capable of fpeaking out thy merits; i. e. of doing them extenfive juftice. In Cymbeline we have a fimilar expreffion: "You speak him far." 3 although not there STEEVENS. At once and fully fatisfied,)] The fenfe, which is encumbered with words, is no more than this-I must be loofed, though when fo loofed, I fhall not be fatisfied fully and at once; that is, I fhall not be immediately satisfied. JOHNSON. Have to you, but with thanks to God for fuch Or touch of her good perfon? K. HEN. My lord cardinal, I do excufe you; yea, upon mine honour, The queen is put in anger. You are excus'd: I will be bold with time, and your attention: 2 -might-] Old copy, redundantly—that might. STEEVENS. 3 Defir'd it to be firr'd;] The ufelefs words to be, might, in my opinion, be fafely omitted, as they clog the metre, without enforcement of the fenfe. STEEVENS. 4 The paffages made toward it:] i. e. clofed, or fastened. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act III. fc. i: 66 Why at this time the doors are made against you." "Stop up the accefs and passage to remorse." Yet the fenfe in which these words have hitherto been received, may be the true one. STEEVENS. 5 -on my honour, I fpeak my good lord cardinal to this point,] The King, having firft addrefled to Wolfey, breaks off; and declares upon his honour to the whole court, that he fpeaks the Cardinal's fentiments upon the point in queftion; and clears him from any attempt, or with, to ftir that bufinefs. THEOBALD. Then mark the inducement. Thus it came;-give heed to't: My conscience firft receiv'd a tenderness, Scruple, and prick, on certain fpeeches utter'd A marriage,' 'twixt the duke of Orleans and (I mean, the bishop) did require a respite; Refpecting this our marriage with the dowager, Sometimes our brother's wife. This refpite fhook The bofom of my confcience, enter'd me, 8 6 Scruple, and prick,] Prick of confcience was the term in confeffion. JOHNSON. The expreffion is from Holinfhed, where the king fays: "The fpecial caufe that moved me unto this matter was a certaine fcrupulofitie that pricked my confcience," &c. See Holinfhed, p. 907. STEEVENS. 1 A marriage,] Old copy-And marriage. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 8 This refpite book The bofom of my confcience,] Though this reading be fenfe, yet, I verily believe, the poet wrote: The bottom of my confcience, Shakspeare, in all his hiftorical plays, was a moft diligent obferver of Holinfhed's Chronicle. Now Holinfhed, in the fpeech which he has given to King Henry upon this fubject, makes him deliver himfelf thus: "Which words, once conceived within the fecret bottom of my confcience, ingendred fuch a fcrupulous doubt, that my confcience was incontinently accombred, vexed, and difquieted." Vid. Life of Henry VIII. p. 907. THEOBALD. The phrafe recommended by Mr. Theobald occurs again, in King Henry VI. Part I: 66 - for therein fhould we read "The very bottom and foul of hope." It is repeated alfo in Meajure for Meafure, All's well that ends well, King Henry VI. P. II. Coriolanus, &c. STEEVENS. Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble And prefs'd in with this caution. Firft, methought, The grave does to the dead: for her male iffue When I first moy'd you. LIN. -hulling in Very well, my liege. The wild fea-] That is floating without guidance; tofs'd here and there. JOHNSON. The phrafe belongs to navigation. A fhip is faid to bull, when fhe is difmafted, and only her hull, or hulk, is left at the direction and mercy of the waves. So, in The Alarum for London, 1602: "And they lye hulling up and down the stream." STEEVENS. K. HEN. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself to fay How far you satisfy'd me. LIN. So please your highness, The question did at firft fo ftagger me,Bearing a state of mighty moment in't, And confequence of dread,-that I committed The daring'ft counsel which I had, to doubt; And did entreat your highness to this course, Which you are running here. K. HEN. I then mov'd you,* My lord of Canterbury; and got your leave To make this prefent fummons:-Unfolicited I left no reverend perfon in this court; But by particular confent proceeded, Under your hands and feals. Therefore, go on: 2 I then mov'd you,] "I moved it in confeffion to you, my lord of Lincoln, then my ghoftly father. And forafmuch as then you yourself were in fome doubt, you moved me to ask the counsel of all these my lords. Whereupon I moved you, my lord of Canterbury, first to have your licence, in as much as you were metropolitan, to put this matter in question; and so I did of all of you, my lords." Holinfhed's Life of Henry VIII. p. 908. THEOBALD. 3 That's paragon'd o'the world.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, I think, better: |