Is only my obedience. What can happen
To me, above this wretchedness? all your studies
Make me a curse like this.

2. KATH. Have I liv'd thus long-(let me speak

myself,

Since virtue finds no friends,)-a wife, a true one?
A woman (I dare say, without vain-glory,)
Never yet branded with fufpicion?

Have I with all my full affections

Still met the king? lov'd him next heaven? obey'd

him?

Been, out of fondness, fuperftitious 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 dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure;
And to that woman, when she has done most,
Yet will I add an honour, -a great patience.

WOL. Madam, you wander from the good we
aim at.

2. KATH. My lord, I dare not make myself fo

guilty, To give up willingly that noble title Your mafter wed me to: nothing but death

Shall e'er divorce my dignities.

WOL.

'Pray, hear me,

2. KATH. 'Would I had never trod this English

earth,

Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!

3-fuperftitious to him?] That is, ferved him with supersti

tious attention; done more than was required. JOHNSON,

1

Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your

hearts.

What will become of me now, wretched lady?
I am the most unhappy woman living.-
Alas! poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?
[To her women.

Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity,
No friends, no hope; no kindred weep for me,
Almost, no grave allow'd me:-Like the lily,
That once was mistress of the field, and flourish'd,
I'll hang my head, and perish.

WOL.

If your grace Could but be brought to know, our ends are honeft,

4 Ye have angels' faces,] She may perhaps allude to the old jingle of Angli and Angeli. JOHNSON.

I find this jingle in The Arraygnment of Paris, 1584. The goddesses refer the difpute about the golden apple to the decifion of Diana, who setting afide their respective claims, awards it to Queen Elizabeth; and adds:

"Her people are ycleped angeli,

"Or if I miss a letter, is the most."

In this paftoral, as it is called, the queen herself may be almost faid to have been a performer, for at the conclufion of it, Diana gives the golden apple into her hands, and the Fates depofit their infignia at her feet. It was presented before her Majesty by the children of her chapel.

It appears from the following paflage in The Spanish Masquerado, by Greene, 1585, that this quibble was originally the quibble of a faint: " England, a little island, where, as faint Augustin saith, there be people with angel faces, so the inhabitants have the courage and hearts of lyons." STEEVENS.

See also Nashe's Anatomie of Abfurditie, 1589: " For my part I meane to fufpend my fentence, and let an author of late memorie be my speaker; who affirmeth that they carry angels in their faces, and devils in their devices." MALONE.

sthe lily,

That once was mistress of the field,] So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book II. c. vi. ft. 16:

"The lily, lady of the flow'ring field." HOLT WHITE,

You'd feel more comfort: why should we, good

lady,
Upon what cause, wrong you? alas! our places,
The way of our profession is against it;
We are to cure such forrows, not to fow them.
For goodness' fake, confider what you do;
How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly
Grow from the king's acquaintance, by this car-

riage.

The hearts of princes kifs 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,
A foul as even as a calm; Pray, think us
Those we profess, peace-makers, friends, and fer-

vants.

CAM. 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 cafts
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.

2. KATH. Do what ye will, my lords: And, pray,

forgive me,

6 The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

So much they love it; but, to stubborn Spirits,

They swell, and grow as terrible as storms.] It was one of the charges brought against Lord Effex in the year before this play was probably written, by his ungrateful kinsman, Sir Francis Bacon, when that nobleman to the disgrace of humanity was obliged by a junto of his enemies to kneel at the end of the council-table for feveral hours, that in a letter written during his retirement in 1598, to the Lord Keeper, he had said, "There is no tempeft to the pas fionate indignation of a prince." MALONE.

i

:

If I have us'd myself unmannerly;"
You know, I am a woman, lacking wit
To make a seemly answer to fuch persons.
Pray, do my service to his majesty:
He has my heart yet; and shall have my prayers,
While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,
Bestow your counsels on me: the now begs,
That little thought, when she set footing here,
She should have bought her dignities so dear.

SCENE

II.

[Exeunt.

Antechamber to the King's Apartment.

Enter the Duke of NORFOLK, the Duke of SUFFOLK, the Earl of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

NOR. 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 promife, But that you shall sustain more new disgraces, With these you bear already.

SUR.

I am joyful
To meet the least occafion, that may give me
Remembrance of my father-in-law, the duke,

To be reveng'd on him.

7

SUF.

Which of the peers

If I have us'd myself unmarmerly;] That is, if I have behaved myself unmannerly. M. MASON.

8 And force them - Force is enforce, urge. JOHNSON.

So, in Measure for Measure:

Has he affections in him

". That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,

" When he would force it?" STEEVENS.

Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at least
Strangely neglected? when did he regard
The stamp of nobleness in any person,
Out of himself?2

CHAM. My lords, you speak your pleasures :
What he deferves of you and me, I know;
What we can do to him, (though now the time
Gives way to us,) I much fear. If you cannot
Bar his access to the king, never attempt
Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
Over the king in his tongue.

NOR.

O, fear him not;

His spell in that is out: the king hath found
Matter against him, that for ever mars

The honey of his language. No, he's fettled,
Not to come off, in his displeasure.

SUR.

9 -or at least

Sir,

Strangely neglected?] Which of the peers has not gone by him contemned or neglected? JOHNSON.

Our author extends to the words, strangely neglected, the negative comprehended in the word uncontemn'd. M. MASON.

Uncontemn'd, as I have before observed in a note on As you like it, must be understood, as if the author had written not contemn'd. See Vol. VI. p. 31, n. 5. MALONE.

2

when did he regard

The ftamp of nobleness in any perfon,

Out of himself?] The expression is bad, and the thought false. For it fuppofes Wolfey to be noble, which was not fo: we should read and point;

when did he regard

The stamp of nobleness in any perfon;

Out of't himself?

i. e. When did he regard nobleness of blood in another, having
none of his own to value himself upon? WARBURTON.

!

I do not think this correction proper. The meaning of the present reading is easy. When did he, however careful to carry his own dignity to the utmost height, regard any dignity of another?

JOHNSON.

1