MRS. SIDDONS AS QUEEN KATHARINE, ETC. 71 



Boccaccio tells it, we find a very noble woman who thought her- 

 self of so small account in this great world, that she claimed 

 nothing, while she held herself bound in all things to do her 

 best. Her goodness is above all strong, whereas Mrs. Beverley 

 is above all weak ; her husband ruins, cheats, insults her, and 

 she simply dotes on him all the time with slavish animal affec- 

 tion. No play can, however, be successful which has not some 

 merit, and it is easy to recognise that in the conduct of the plot 

 Moore shows skill, in so far that each scene reveals a deeper and 

 deeper misery. 



In Queen Katharine, Shakespeare has shown to what extent 

 a woman of heroic mould might continue to love a husband who 

 had mortally wronged her, and how fully the same woman could 

 be just to a fallen enemy. Katharine, unlike Mrs. Beverley, is 

 both good and strong. 



Professor Bell wrote as follows on the fly-leaf of ' King Henry 

 the Eighth : ' 



Mrs. Siddons's Queen Katharine is a perfect picture of a great, 

 dignified, somewhat impatient spirit, conscious of rectitude, and 

 adorned with every generous and every domestic virtue. 



Her dignified contempt of Wolsey when comparing her own royal 

 descent, her place and title as queen, her spotless honour, with the 

 mean arts and machinations by which this man was driving her into 

 the toils and breaking in upon her happiness ; her high spirit and 

 impatient temper ; the energies of a strong and virtuous mind 

 guarding the King at all hazards from popular discontent and de- 

 fending her own fame with eloquence and dignity ; her energy sub- 

 dued, but her queen-like dignity unimpaired by sickness ; and the 

 candour and goodness of her heart in her dying conversation con- 

 cerning her great enemy all this, beautifully painted by Mrs. Sid- 

 dons, making this one of the finest female characters in the English 

 drama. 



Our notes begin with the entrance of the Queen. The text, 

 as before, is that of Mrs. Inchbald. The words on which the 

 emphasis fell are underlined in the notes and are here printed 

 in italics. An acute accent marks a word on which the voice 

 was raised in pitch ; a grave accent marks a word on which the 

 voice fell. 



