t descending to brave the Cardinal, the stern
rebuke addressed to the Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, are finely
characteristic; and by thus exhibiting Katherine as invested with all
her conjugal rights and influence, and royal state, the subsequent
situations are rendered more impressive. She is placed in the first
instance on such a height in our esteem and reverence, that in the midst
of her abandonment and degradation, and the profound pity she afterwards
inspires, the first effect remains unimpaired, and she never falls
beneath it.

In the beginning of the second act we are prepared for the proceedings
of the divorce, and our respect for Katherine heightened by the general
sympathy for "the good queen," as she is expressively entitled, and by
the following beautiful eulogium on her character uttered by the Duke of
Norfolk:--

He (Wolsey) counsels a divorce--a loss of her
That like a jewel hath hung twenty years
About his neck, yet never lost her lustre.
Of her that loves him with that excellence
That angels love good men with; even of her,
That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls,
Will bless the King!

The scene in which Anna Bullen is introduced as expressing her grief and
sympathy for her royal mistress, is exquisitely graceful.

Here's the pang that pinches;
His highness having liv'd so long with her, and she
So good a lady, that no tongue could ever
Pronounce dishonor of her,--by my life
She never knew harm-doing. O now, after
So many courses of the sun enthron'd,
Still growing in a majesty and pomp,--the which
To leave is a thousand-fold more bitter, than
'Tis sweet at first to acquire,--after this process,
To give her the avaunt! it is a pity
Would move a monster.

OLD LADY.

Hearts of most hard temper
Melt and lament for her.

ANNE.

O, God's will! much better
She ne'er had known pomp: though it be temporal,
Yet if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce
It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance, panging
As soul and body's severing.

OLD LADY.

Alas, poor lady!
She's a stranger now again.

ANNE.

So much the more
Must pity drop upon her. Verily,
I swear 'tis