The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/15/02_04

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 13KB | 318 lines

A Hall in Black-Friars.
 Trumpets, sennet and cornets.
 Enter TWO VERGERS with short silver wands;
 next them, TWO SCRIBES in the habit of doctors;
 after them, the BISHOP OF CANTERBURY alone;
 after him, the Bishops of LINCOLN, ELY, ROCHESTER and ST.ASAPH;
 next them, with some small, distance follows a GENTLEMAN
 bearing the purse, with the great seal, and a Cardinal's hat;
 then TWO PRIESTS, bearing each a silver cross;
 then a GENTLEMAN USHER bareheaded,
 accompanied with a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS bearing a silver mace;
 then two GENTLEMEN bearing two great silver pillars;
 after them, side by side, the two CARDINALS,
 two NOBLEMEN, with the sword and mace.
 The KING takes place under the cloth of state.
 The two CARDINALS sit under him as judges.
 The QUEEN takes place some distance from the King.
 The BISHOPS place themselves on each side the court
 in manner of a consistory; below them the SCRIBES.
 The LORDS sit next the Bishops.
 The rest of the ATTENDANTS stand in convenient order about the stage.

Cardinal    Whilst our commission from Rome is read,
    Let silence be commanded.

King Henry                                What's the need?
    It hath already publicly been read,
    And on all sides the authority allowed;
    You may then spare that time.

Cardinal                                    Be't so. Proceed.

Scribe    Say, Henry King of England, come into the court.

Crier    Henry King of England, come into the court.

Scribe    Say, Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.

Crier    Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.

 The QUEEN makes no answer, rises out of her chair, goes about the court,
         comes to the King, and kneels at his feet. Then speaks.

Katharine    Sir, I desire you do me right and justice;
    And to bestow your pity on me; for
    I am a most poor woman, and a stranger,
    Born out of your dominions; having here
    No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance
    Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas sir!
    In what have I offended you? What cause
    Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure,
    That thus you should proceed to put me off
    And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness,
    I have been to you a true and humble wife,
    At all times to your will conformable,
    Ever in fear to kindle your dislike,
    Yea, subject to your countenance, glad or sorry
    As I saw it inclined. When was the hour
    I ever contradicted your desire,
    Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends
    Have I not strove to love, although I knew
    He were mine enemy? What friend of mine
    That had to him derived your anger, did I
    Continue in my liking; nay, gave notice
    He was from thence discharged? Sir, call to mind
    That I have been your wife in this obedience
    Upward of twenty years, and have been blest
    With many children by you. If, in the course
    And process of this time you can report,
    And prove it too, against mine honour aught,
    My bond to wedlock, or my love and duty,
    Against your sacred person, in God's name
    Turn me away, and let the foul'st contempt
    Shut door upon me, and so give me up
    To the sharp'st kind of justice. Please you, sir,
    The king your father was reputed for
    A prince most prudent, of an excellent
    And unmatched wit and judgment: Ferdinand,
    My father, King of Spain, was reckoned one
    The wisest prince that there had reigned by many
    A year before: it is not to be questioned
    That they had gathered a wise council to them
    Of every realm, that did debate this business,
    Who deemed our marriage lawful: wherefore I humbly
    Beseech you sir, to spare me till I may
    Be by my friends in Spain advised, whose counsel
    I will implore. If not, i'th'name of God,
    Your pleasure be fulfilled!

Cardinal                                You have here, lady,
    - And of your choice - these reverend fathers; men
    Of singular integrity and learning;
    Yea, the elect o'th'land, who are assembled
    To plead your cause. It shall be therefore bootless
    That longer you desire the court, as well
    For your own quiet as to rectify
    What is unsettled in the king.

Campeius                                    His grace
    Hath spoken well and justly: therefore, madam,
    It's fit this royal session do proceed,
    And that, without delay, their arguments
    Be now produced and heard.

Katharine                            Lord Cardinal,
    To you I speak.

Cardinal                    Your pleasure, madam.

Katharine                                    Sir,
    I am about to weep; but, thinking that
    We are a queen, or long have dreamed so, certain
    The daughter of a king, my drops of tears
    I'll turn to sparks of fire.

Cardinal                                Be patient yet.

Katharine    I will, when you are humble; nay, before,
    Or God will punish me. I do believe,
    Induced by potent circumstances, that
    You are mine enemy, and make my challenge
    You shall not be my judge; for it is you
    Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me,
    Which God's dew quench! Therefore, I say again,
    I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul
    Refuse you for my judge, whom yet once more
    I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
    At all a friend to truth.

Cardinal                            I do profess
    You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
    Have stood to charity and displayed the effects
    Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom
    O'ertopping woman's power. Madam, you do me wrong:
    I have no spleen against you, nor injustice
    For you or any: how far I have proceeded,
    Or how far further shall, is warranted
    By a commission from the consistory,
    Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge me
    That I have blown this coal: I do deny it.
    The king is present: if it be known to him
    That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
    And worthily, my falsehood, yea, as much
    As you have done my truth. If he know
    That I am free of your report, he knows
    I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
    It lies to cure me, and the cure is to
    Remove these thoughts from you: the which before
    His highness shall speak in, I do beseech
    You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking,
    And to say so no more.

Katharine                            My lord, my lord,
    I am a simple woman, much too weak
    To oppose your cunning. You're meek and humble-mouthed;
    You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
    With meekness and humility; but your heart
    Is crammed with arrogancy, spleen and pride.
    You have, by fortune and his highness' favours,
    Gone slightly o'er low steps, and now are mounted
    Where powers are your retainers, and your words,
    Domestics to you, serve your will as't please
    Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
    You tender more your person's honour than
    Your high profession spiritual; that again
    I do refuse you for my judge, and here,
    Before you all, appeal unto the Pope,
    To bring my whole cause 'fore his holiness
    And to be judged by him.
                                            [She curtsies to the King,
                                            and offers to depart.

Campeius                            The queen is obstinate,
    Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and
    Disdainful to be tried by't: 'tis not well.
    She's going away.

King Henry                        Call her again.

Crier    Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.

Gentleman
Usher    Madam, you are called back.

Katharine    What need you note it? Pray you, keep your way,
    When you are called return. Now the Lord help!
    They vex me past my patience. Pray you pass on;
    I will not tarry; no, nor ever more
    Upon this business my appearance make
    In any of their courts.
                          [Exeunt KATHARINE and her ATTENDANTS.

King Henry                            Go thy ways Kate:
    That man i'th'world who shall report he has
    A better wife, let him in nought be trusted,
    For speaking false in that: thou art alone-
    If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness,
    Thy meekness saintlike, wife-like government,
    Obeying in commanding, and thy parts
    Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out-
    The queen of earthly queens: she's noble born,
    And like her true nobility she has
    Carried herself towards me.

Cardinal                                Most gracious sir,
    In humblest manner I require your highness,
    That it shall please you to declare in hearing
    Of all these ears, for where I am robbed and bound
    There must I be unloosed, although not there
    At once and fully satisfied, whether ever I
    Did broach this business to your highness, or
    Laid any scruple in your way which might
    Induce you to the question on't; or ever
    Have to you, but with thanks to God for such
    A royal lady, spake one the least word that might
    Be to the prejudice of her present state,
    Or touch of her good person?

King Henry                                My Lord Cardinal,
    I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour,
    I free you from't. You are not to be taught
    That you have many enemies that know not
    Why they are so, but, like to village curs,
    Bark when their fellows do. By some of these
    The queen is put in anger. You're excused:
    But will you be more justified? You ever
    Have wished the sleeping of this business, never desired
    It to be stirred, but oft have hindered, oft,
    The passages made toward it. On my honour,
    I speak my good Lord Cardinal to this point,
    And thus far clear him. Now, what moved me to't,
    I will be bold with time and your attention:
    Then mark the inducement: thus it came; give heed to't:
    My conscience first received a tenderness,
    Scruple and prick, on certain speeches uttered
    By the Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador,
    Who had been hither sent on the debating
    A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and
    Our daughter Mary. I'th'progress of this business,
    Ere a determinate resolution, he-
    I mean the bishop - did require a respite,
    Wherein he might the king his lord advertise
    Whether our daughter were legitimate,
    Respecting this our marriage with the dowager,
    Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook
    The bosom of my conscience, entered me,
    Yea, with a spitting power, and made to tremble
    The region of my breast, which forced such way
    That many mazed considerings did throng,
    And pressed in with this caution. First, methought
    I stood not in the smile of heaven, who had
    Commanded nature, that my lady's womb,
    If it conceived a male child by me, should
    Do no more offices of life to't than
    The grave does to the dead: for her male issue
    Or died where they were made, or shortly after
    This world had aired them. Hence I took a thought
    This was a judgment on me, that my kingdom,
    Well worthy the best heir o'th'world, should not
    Be gladded in't by me. Then follows that
    I weighed the danger which my realms stood in
    By this my issue's fail, and that gave to me
    Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in
    The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
    Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
    Now present here together: that's to say,
    I meant to rectify my conscience, which
    I then did feel full sick, and yet not well,
    By all the reverend fathers of the land
    And doctors learned. First, I began in private
    With you, my Lord of Lincoln; you remember
    How under my oppression I did reek
    When I first moved you.

Lincoln                            Very well, my liege.

King Henry    I have spoke long; be pleased yourself to say
    How far you satisfied me.

Lincoln                                So please your highness,
    The question did at first so stagger me,
    Bearing a state of mighty moment in't,
    And consequence of dread, that I committed
    The daring'st counsel which I had to doubt,
    And did entreat your highness to this course
    Which you are running here.

King Henry                                I then moved you,
    My Lord of Canterbury, and got your leave
    To make this present summons: unsolicited
    I left no reverend person in this court,
    But by particular consent proceeded
    Under your hands and seals; therefore, go on;
    For no dislike i'th'world against the person
    Of the good queen, but the sharp thorny points
    Of my allegd reasons drives this forward:
    Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life
    And kingly dignity, we are contented
    To wear our mortal state to come with her,
    Katharine our queen, before the primest creature
    That's paragoned o'th'world.

Campeius                                So please your highness,
    The queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness
    That we adjourn this court till further day:
    Meanwhile must be an earnest motion
    Made to the queen to call back her appeal
    She intends unto his holiness.

King Henry                            [Aside.] I may perceive
    These cardinals trifle with me: I abhor
    This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome.
    [Aloud.] My learned and well-belovd servant, Cranmer,
    Prithee return; with thy approach, I know
    My comfort comes along. Break up the court:
    I say, set on.
                            [Exeunt, in manner as they entered.