s relative truth
arising from its historic fidelity and dramatic consistency, but _truth_
as a quality of the soul; this is the basis of the character. We often
hear it remarked that those who are themselves perfectly true and
artless, are in this world the more easily and frequently deceived--a
common-place fallacy: for we shall ever find that truth is as undeceived
as it is undeceiving, and that those who are true to themselves and
others, may now and then be mistaken, or in particular instances duped
by the intervention of some other affection or quality of the mind; but
they are generally free from illusion, and they are seldom imposed upon
in the long run by the shows of things and superfices of characters. It
is by this integrity of heart and clearness of understanding, this light
of truth within her own soul, and not through any acuteness of
intellect, that Katherine detects and exposes the real character of
Wolsey, though unable either to unravel his designs, or defeat them.

... My lord, my lord,
I am a simple woman, much too weak
T' oppose your cunning.

She rather intuitively feels than knows his duplicity, and in the
dignity of her simplicity she towers above his arrogance as much as she
scorns his crooked policy. With this essential truth are combined many
other qualities, natural or acquired, all made out with the same
uncompromising breadth of execution and fidelity of pencil, united with
the utmost delicacy of feeling. For instance, the apparent contradiction
arising from the contrast between Katherine's natural disposition and
the situation in which she is placed; her lofty Castilian pride and her
extreme simplicity of language and deportment; the inflexible resolution
with which she asserts her right, and her soft resignation to unkindness
and wrong; her warmth of temper breaking through the meekness of a
spirit subdued by a deep sense of religion; and a degree of austerity
tinging her real benevolence;--all these qualities, opposed yet
harmonizing, has Shakspeare placed before us in a few admirable scenes.

Katherine is at first introduced as pleading before the king in behalf
of the commonalty, who had been driven by the extortions of Wolsey into
some illegal excesses. In this scene, which is true to history, we have
her upright reasoning mind, her steadiness of purpose, her piety and
benevolence, placed in a strong light. The unshrinking dignity with
which she opposes withou