ions and theological
sophistries of her opponents with resolute simplicity and composure: "I
am a woman, and lack wit and learning to answer these opinions; but I am
sure that neither the king's father nor my father would have
condescended to our marriage, if it had been judged unlawful. As to your
saying that I should put the cause to eight persons of this realm, for
quietness of the king's conscience, I pray Heaven to send his Grace a
quiet conscience and this shall be your answer, that I say I am his
lawful wife, and to him lawfully married, though not worthy of it; and
in this point I will abide, till the court of Rome, which was privy to
the beginning, have made a final ending of it."[101]

Katherine's appearance in the court at Blackfriars, attended by a noble
troop of ladies and prelates of her counsel, and her refusal to answer
the citation, are historical.[102] Her speech to the king--

Sir, I beseech you do me right and justice,
And to bestow your pity on me, &c. &c.

is taken word for word (as nearly as the change from prose to blank
verse would allow) from the old record in Hall. It would have been easy
for Shakspeare to have exalted his own skill, by throwing a coloring of
poetry and eloquence into this speech, without altering the sense or
sentiment; but by adhering to the calm argumentative simplicity of
manner and diction natural to the woman, he has preserved the truth of
character without lessening the pathos of the situation. Her challenging
Wolsey as a "foe to truth," and her very expressions, "I utterly
refuse,--yea, from my soul _abhor_ you for my judge," are taken from
fact. The sudden burst of indignant passion towards the close of this
scene,

In one who ever yet
Had stood to charity, and displayed the effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom
O'ertopping woman's power;

is taken from nature, though it occurred on a different occasion.[103]

Lastly, the circumstance of her being called back after she had appealed
from the court, and angrily refusing to return, is from the life. Master
Griffith, on whose arm she leaned, observed that she was called: "On,
on," quoth she; "it maketh no matter, for it is no indifferent court for
me, therefore I will not tarry. Go on your ways."[104]

King Henry's own assertion, "I dare to say, my lords, that for her
womanhood, wisdom, nobility, and gentleness, never prince had such
another wife, and therefore if