The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 253

by William Shakespeare


  WOMAN [Sings.]

  Orpheus, with his lute, made trees

  And the mountain tops that freeze

  Bow themselves, when he did sing.

  5

  To his music, plants and flowers

  Ever sprung, as sun and showers

  There had made a lasting spring.

  Everything that heard him play,

  Even the billows of the sea,

  10

  Hung their heads and then lay by.

  In sweet music is such art,

  Killing care and grief of heart

  Fall asleep or, hearing, die.

  Enter GRIFFITH.

  KATHERINE How now?

  15

  GRIFFITH

  An’t please your grace, the two great Cardinals

  Wait in the presence.

  KATHERINE Would they speak with me?

  GRIFFITH They willed me say so, madam.

  KATHERINE Pray their graces

  To come near. Exit Griffith.

  What can be their business

  With me, a poor weak woman, fallen from favour?

  20

  I do not like their coming. Now I think on’t,

  They should be good men, their affairs as righteous –

  But all hoods make not monks.

  Enter the two Cardinals, WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS.

  WOLSEY Peace to your highness.

  KATHERINE

  Your graces find me here part of a housewife:

  I would be all, against the worst may happen.

  25

  What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords?

  WOLSEY May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw

  Into your private chamber? We shall give you

  The full cause of our coming.

  KATHERINE Speak it here.

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

  30

  Deserves a corner. Would all other women

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

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

  Above a number – if my actions

  Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw ’em,

  35

  Envy and base opinion set against ’em,

  I know my life so even. If your business

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

  Out with it boldly. Truth loves open dealing.

  WOLSEY Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, Regina serenissima –

  40

  KATHERINE O, good my lord, no Latin.

  I am not such a truant since my coming

  As not to know the language I have lived in.

  A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, suspicious.

  45

  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 willingest sin I ever yet committed

  May be absolved in English.

  WOLSEY Noble lady,

  50

  I am sorry my integrity should breed –

  And service to his majesty and you –

  So deep suspicion where all faith was meant.

  We come not by the way of accusation,

  To taint that honour every good tongue blesses,

  55

  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

  Between the King and you, and to deliver,

  Like free and honest men, our just opinions

  60

  And comforts to your cause.

  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 –

  65

  Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace,

  His service and his counsel.

  KATHERINE [aside] To betray me.

  [to them] 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 an answer

  70

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

  More near my life, I fear – with my weak wit,

  And to such men of gravity and learning,

  In truth I know not. I was set at work

  Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking

  75

  Either for such men or such business.

  For her sake that I have been – for I feel

  The last fit of my greatness – good your graces,

  Let me have time and counsel for my cause.

  Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless.

  80

  WOLSEY

  Madam, you wrong the King’s love with these fears:

  Your hopes and friends are infinite.

  KATHERINE In England

  But little for my profit. Can you think, lords,

  That any Englishman dare give me counsel?

  Or be a known friend ’gainst his highness’ pleasure –

  85

  Though he be grown so desperate to be honest –

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

  They that must weigh out my afflictions,

  They that my trust must grow to, live not here:

  They are, as all my other comforts, far hence

  90

  In mine own country, lords.

  CAMPEIUS I would your grace

  Would leave your griefs and take my counsel.

  KATHERINE How, sir?

  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,

  95

  For if the trial of the law o’ertake ye,

  You’ll part away disgraced.

  WOLSEY He tells you rightly.

  KATHERINE

  Ye tell me what ye wish for both – my ruin.

  Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon ye!

  Heaven is above all yet: there sits a judge

  100

  That no king can corrupt.

  CAMPEIUS Your rage mistakes us.

  KATHERINE

  The more shame for ye. Holy men I thought ye,

  Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues –

  But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I fear ye.

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

  105

  The cordial 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

  110

  The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

  WOLSEY Madam, this is a mere distraction.

  You turn the good we offer into envy.

  KATHERINE Ye turn me into nothing. Woe upon ye,

  And all such false professors! Would you have me –

  115

  If you have any justice, any pity,

  If ye be anything but churchmen’s habits –

  Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?

  Alas, ’has banished me his bed already;

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

  120

  And all the fellowship I hold now with him

  Is only my obedience. What can happen

  To me above this wretchedness? All your studies

  Make me a curse, like this.

  CAMPEIUS Your fears are worse.

  KATHERINE

  Have I lived thus long – l
et me speak myself,

  125

  Since virtue finds no friends – a wife, a true one –

  A woman, I dare say without vainglory,

  Never yet branded with suspicion –

  Have I with all my full affections

  Still met the King, loved him next heaven, obeyed him,

  130

  Been, out of fondness, superstitious 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,

  135

  And to that woman, when she has done most,

  Yet will I add an honour: a great patience.

  WOLSEY

  Madam, you wander from the good we aim at.

  KATHERINE

  My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty

  To give up willingly that noble title

  140

  Your master wed me to. Nothing but death

  Shall e’er divorce my dignities.

  WOLSEY Pray hear me.

  KATHERINE Would I had never trod this English earth

  Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it.

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

  145

  What will become of me now, wretched lady?

  I am the most unhappy woman living.

  [to her women] Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?

  Shipwrecked upon a kingdom where no pity,

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

  150

  Almost no grave allowed me, like the lily

  That once was mistress of the field and flourished,

  I’ll hang my head and perish.

  WOLSEY If your grace

  Could but be brought to know our ends are honest,

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

  155

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

  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

  160

  Grow from the King’s acquaintance, by this carriage.

  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,

  165

  A soul as even as a calm. Pray think us

  Those we profess: peacemakers, friends, and servants.

  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

  170

  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 in your service.

  KATHERINE

  Do what ye will, my lords, and pray forgive me

  175

  If I have used myself unmannerly.

  You know I am a woman, lacking wit

  To make a seemly answer to such persons.

  Pray do my service to his majesty:

  He has my heart yet, and shall have my prayers

  180

  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

  She should have bought her dignities so dear.

  Exeunt.

  3.2 Enter the Duke of NORFOLK, Duke of SUFFOLK, Lord SURREY and Lord CHAMBERLAIN.

  NORFOLK If you will now unite in your complaints

  And force them with a constancy, the Cardinal

  Cannot stand under them. If you omit

  The offer of this time, I cannot promise

  But that you shall sustain more new disgraces

  5

  With these you bear already.

  SURREY I am joyful

  To meet the least occasion that may give me

  Remembrance of my father-in-law the Duke,

  To be revenged on him.

  SUFFOLK Which of the peers

  Have uncontemned gone by him, or at least

  10

  Strangely neglected? When did he regard

  The stamp of nobleness in any person

  Out of himself?

  CHAMBERLAIN My lords, you speak your pleasures.

 

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