SCENE II. Ante-chamber to the King’s apartment.

NORFOLK

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 promise

But that you shall sustain more new disgraces

With these you bear already.

SURREY

I am joyful

To meet the least occasion that may give me

Remembrance of my father-in-law the Duke,

To be revenged on him.

SUFFOLK

Which of the peers

Have uncontemned gone by him, or at least

Strangely neglected? When did he regard

The stamp of nobleness in any person

Out of himself?

CHAMBERLAIN

My lords, you speak your pleasures.

What he deserves 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 th’ King, never attempt

Anything on him, for he hath a witchcraft

Over the King in ’s tongue.

NORFOLK

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 settled,

Not to come off, in his displeasure.

SURREY

Sir,

I should be glad to hear such news as this

Once every hour.

NORFOLK

Believe it, this is true.

In the divorce his contrary proceedings

Are all unfolded, wherein he appears

As I would wish mine enemy.

SURREY

How came

His practices to light?

SUFFOLK

Most strangely.

SURREY

O, how, how?

SUFFOLK

The Cardinal’s letters to the Pope miscarried,

And came to th’ eye o’ the King, wherein was read

How that the Cardinal did entreat his Holiness

To stay the judgement o’ th’ divorce; for if

It did take place, “I do” quoth he “perceive

My king is tangled in affection to

A creature of the Queen’s, Lady Anne Bullen.”

SURREY

Has the King this?

SUFFOLK

Believe it.

SURREY

Will this work?

CHAMBERLAIN

The King in this perceives him how he coasts

And hedges his own way. But in this point

All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic

After his patient’s death. The King already

Hath married the fair lady.

SURREY

Would he had!

SUFFOLK

May you be happy in your wish, my lord,

For I profess you have it.

SURREY

Now, all my joy

Trace the conjunction!

SUFFOLK

My amen to’t!

NORFOLK

All men’s.

SUFFOLK

There’s order given for her coronation.

Marry, this is yet but young, and may be left

To some ears unrecounted. But, my lords,

She is a gallant creature, and complete

In mind and feature. I persuade me, from her

Will fall some blessing to this land which shall

In it be memorized.

SURREY

But will the King

Digest this letter of the Cardinal’s?

The Lord forbid!

NORFOLK

Marry, amen!

SUFFOLK

No, no.

There be more wasps that buzz about his nose

Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius

Is stolen away to Rome; hath ta’en no leave;

Has left the cause o’ th’ King unhandled, and

Is posted, as the agent of our Cardinal,

To second all his plot. I do assure you

The King cried “Ha!” at this.

CHAMBERLAIN

Now, God incense him,

And let him cry “Ha!” louder.

NORFOLK

But, my lord,

When returns Cranmer?

SUFFOLK

He is returned in his opinions, which

Have satisfied the King for his divorce,

Together with all famous colleges

Almost in Christendom. Shortly, I believe,

His second marriage shall be published, and

Her coronation. Katherine no more

Shall be called Queen, but Princess Dowager

And widow to Prince Arthur.

NORFOLK

This same Cranmer’s

A worthy fellow, and hath ta’en much pain

In the King’s business.

SUFFOLK

He has, and we shall see him

For it an archbishop.

NORFOLK

So I hear.

SUFFOLK

’Tis so.

NORFOLK

Observe, observe; he’s moody.

WOLSEY

The packet, Cromwell,

Gave’t you the King?

CROMWELL

To his own hand, in ’s bedchamber.

WOLSEY

Looked he o’ th’ inside of the paper?

CROMWELL

Presently

He did unseal them, and the first he viewed,

He did it with a serious mind; a heed

Was in his countenance. You he bade

Attend him here this morning.

WOLSEY

Is he ready

To come abroad?

CROMWELL

I think by this he is.

WOLSEY

Leave me a while.

NORFOLK

He’s discontented.

SUFFOLK

Maybe he hears the King

Does whet his anger to him.

SURREY

Sharp enough,

Lord, for thy justice!

WOLSEY

[Aside.] The late queen’s gentlewoman, a knight’s daughter,

To be her mistress’ mistress? The Queen’s Queen?

This candle burns not clear. ’Tis I must snuff it;

Then out it goes. What though I know her virtuous

And well deserving? Yet I know her for

A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to

Our cause, that she should lie i’ th’ bosom of

Our hard-ruled King. Again, there is sprung up

An heretic, an arch-one, Cranmer, one

Hath crawled into the favour of the King

And is his oracle.

NORFOLK

He is vexed at something.

SURREY

I would ’twere something that would fret the string,

The master-cord on ’s heart.

SUFFOLK

The King, the King!

KING

What piles of wealth hath he accumulated

To his own portion! And what expense by th’ hour

Seems to flow from him! How, i’ th’ name of thrift

Does he rake this together? Now, my lords,

Saw you the Cardinal?

NORFOLK

My lord, we have

Stood here observing him. Some strange commotion

Is in his brain. He bites his lip, and starts,

Stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground,

Then lays his finger on his temple; straight

Springs out into fast gait; then stops again,

Strikes his breast hard, and anon he casts

His eye against the moon. In most strange postures

We have seen him set himself.

KING

It may well be

There is a mutiny in ’s mind. This morning

Papers of state he sent me to peruse,

As I required; and wot you what I found

There—on my conscience, put unwittingly?

Forsooth, an inventory, thus importing

The several parcels of his plate, his treasure,

Rich stuffs and ornaments of household, which

I find at such proud rate that it outspeaks

Possession of a subject.

NORFOLK

It’s heaven’s will!

Some spirit put this paper in the packet

To bless your eye withal.

KING

If we did think

His contemplation were above the earth

And fixed on spiritual object, he should still

Dwell in his musings, but I am afraid

His thinkings are below the moon, not worth

His serious considering.

WOLSEY

Heaven forgive me!

Ever God bless your Highness.

KING

Good my lord,

You are full of heavenly stuff, and bear the inventory

Of your best graces in your mind, the which

You were now running o’er. You have scarce time

To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span

To keep your earthly audit. Sure, in that

I deem you an ill husband, and am glad

To have you therein my companion.

WOLSEY

Sir,

For holy offices I have a time; a time

To think upon the part of business which

I bear i’ th’ state; and Nature does require

Her times of preservation, which perforce

I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,

Must give my tendance to.

KING

You have said well.

WOLSEY

And ever may your Highness yoke together,

As I will lend you cause, my doing well

With my well saying.

KING

’Tis well said again,

And ’tis a kind of good deed to say well.

And yet words are no deeds. My father loved you;

He said he did, and with his deed did crown

His word upon you. Since I had my office,

I have kept you next my heart, have not alone

Employed you where high profits might come home,

But pared my present havings to bestow

My bounties upon you.

WOLSEY

[Aside.] What should this mean?

SURREY

[Aside.] The Lord increase this business!

KING

Have I not made you

The prime man of the state? I pray you tell me,

If what I now pronounce you have found true,

And, if you may confess it, say withal

If you are bound to us or no. What say you?

WOLSEY

My sovereign, I confess your royal graces,

Showered on me daily, have been more than could

My studied purposes requite, which went

Beyond all man’s endeavours. My endeavours

Have ever come too short of my desires,

Yet filed with my abilities. Mine own ends

Have been mine so that evermore they pointed

To th’ good of your most sacred person and

The profit of the state. For your great graces

Heaped upon me, poor undeserver, I

Can nothing render but allegiant thanks,

My prayers to heaven for you, my loyalty,

Which ever has and ever shall be growing,

Till death, that winter, kill it.

KING

Fairly answered.

A loyal and obedient subject is

Therein illustrated. The honour of it

Does pay the act of it, as i’ th’ contrary,

The foulness is the punishment. I presume

That, as my hand has opened bounty to you,

My heart dropped love, my power rained honour, more

On you than any, so your hand and heart,

Your brain, and every function of your power,

Should, notwithstanding that your bond of duty,

As ’twere in love’s particular, be more

To me, your friend, than any.

WOLSEY

I do profess

That for your Highness’ good I ever laboured

More than mine own, that am, have, and will be.

Though all the world should crack their duty to you

And throw it from their soul, though perils did

Abound as thick as thought could make ’em, and

Appear in forms more horrid—yet my duty,

As doth a rock against the chiding flood,

Should the approach of this wild river break,

And stand unshaken yours.

KING

’Tis nobly spoken.

Take notice, lords: he has a loyal breast,

For you have seen him open’t.

WOLSEY

What should this mean?

What sudden anger’s this? How have I reaped it?

He parted frowning from me, as if ruin

Leaped from his eyes. So looks the chafed lion

Upon the daring huntsman that has galled him,

Then makes him nothing. I must read this paper—

I fear, the story of his anger. ’Tis so.

This paper has undone me. ’Tis th’ account

Of all that world of wealth I have drawn together

For mine own ends—indeed, to gain the popedom

And fee my friends in Rome. O negligence,

Fit for a fool to fall by! What cross devil

Made me put this main secret in the packet

I sent the King? Is there no way to cure this?

No new device to beat this from his brains?

I know ’twill stir him strongly; yet I know

A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune,

Will bring me off again. What’s this? “To th’ Pope”?

The letter, as I live, with all the business

I writ to ’s Holiness. Nay then, farewell!

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness,

And from that full meridian of my glory

I haste now to my setting. I shall fall

Like a bright exhalation in the evening,

And no man see me more.

NORFOLK

Hear the King’s pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you

To render up the great seal presently

Into our hands, and to confine yourself

To Asher House, my Lord of Winchester’s,

Till you hear further from his Highness.

WOLSEY

Stay.

Where’s your commission, lords? Words cannot carry

Authority so weighty.

SUFFOLK

Who dares cross ’em,

Bearing the King’s will from his mouth expressly?

WOLSEY

Till I find more than will or words to do it—

I mean your malice—know, officious lords,

I dare and must deny it. Now I feel

Of what coarse metal ye are moulded, envy!

How eagerly ye follow my disgraces,

As if it fed ye, and how sleek and wanton

Ye appear in everything may bring my ruin!

Follow your envious courses, men of malice;

You have Christian warrant for ’em, and no doubt

In time will find their fit rewards. That seal

You ask with such a violence, the King,

Mine and your master, with his own hand gave me;

Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honours,

During my life; and, to confirm his goodness,

Tied it by letters-patents. Now, who’ll take it?

SURREY

The King that gave it.

WOLSEY

It must be himself, then.

SURREY

Thou art a proud traitor, priest.

WOLSEY

Proud lord, thou liest.

Within these forty hours Surrey durst better

Have burnt that tongue than said so.

SURREY

Thy ambition,

Thou scarlet sin, robbed this bewailing land

Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law.

The heads of all thy brother cardinals,

With thee and all thy best parts bound together,

Weighed not a hair of his. Plague of your policy!

You sent me Deputy for Ireland,

Far from his succour, from the King, from all

That might have mercy on the fault thou gav’st him,

Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity,

Absolved him with an axe.

WOLSEY

This, and all else

This talking lord can lay upon my credit,

I answer is most false. The Duke by law

Found his deserts. How innocent I was

From any private malice in his end,

His noble jury and foul cause can witness.

If I loved many words, lord, I should tell you

You have as little honesty as honour,

That in the way of loyalty and truth

Toward the King, my ever royal master,

Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be,

And all that love his follies.

SURREY

By my soul,

Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou shouldst feel

My sword i’ th’ lifeblood of thee else. My lords,

Can ye endure to hear this arrogance?

And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely,

To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet,

Farewell, nobility. Let his Grace go forward

And dare us with his cap, like larks.

WOLSEY

All goodness

Is poison to thy stomach.

SURREY

Yes, that goodness

Of gleaning all the land’s wealth into one,

Into your own hands, Cardinal, by extortion;

The goodness of your intercepted packets

You writ to the Pope against the King. Your goodness,

Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious.

My Lord of Norfolk, as you are truly noble,

As you respect the common good, the state

Of our despised nobility, our issues,

Who, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen,

Produce the grand sum of his sins, the articles

Collected from his life. I’ll startle you

Worse than the sacring bell when the brown wench

Lay kissing in your arms, Lord Cardinal.

WOLSEY

How much, methinks, I could despise this man,

But that I am bound in charity against it!

NORFOLK

Those articles, my lord, are in the King’s hand;

But thus much, they are foul ones.

WOLSEY

So much fairer

And spotless shall mine innocence arise

When the King knows my truth.

SURREY

This cannot save you.

I thank my memory I yet remember

Some of these articles, and out they shall.

Now, if you can blush and cry “Guilty,” Cardinal,

You’ll show a little honesty.

WOLSEY

Speak on, sir;

I dare your worst objections. If I blush,

It is to see a nobleman want manners.

SURREY

I had rather want those than my head. Have at you!

First, that without the King’s assent or knowledge,

You wrought to be a legate, by which power

You maimed the jurisdiction of all bishops.

NORFOLK

Then, that in all you writ to Rome, or else

To foreign princes, “ego et rex meus”

Was still inscribed, in which you brought the King

To be your servant.

SUFFOLK

Then, that without the knowledge

Either of King or Council, when you went

Ambassador to the Emperor, you made bold

To carry into Flanders the great seal.

SURREY

Item, you sent a large commission

To Gregory de Cassado, to conclude,

Without the King’s will or the state’s allowance,

A league between his Highness and Ferrara.

SUFFOLK

That out of mere ambition you have caused

Your holy hat to be stamped on the King’s coin.

SURREY

Then, that you have sent innumerable substance—

By what means got, I leave to your own conscience—

To furnish Rome and to prepare the ways

You have for dignities, to the mere undoing

Of all the kingdom. Many more there are,

Which, since they are of you, and odious,

I will not taint my mouth with.

CHAMBERLAIN

O my lord,

Press not a falling man too far! ’Tis virtue.

His faults lie open to the laws; let them,

Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to see him

So little of his great self.

SURREY

I forgive him.

SUFFOLK

Lord Cardinal, the King’s further pleasure is,

Because all those things you have done of late

By your power legative within this kingdom

Fall into th’ compass of a praemunire,

That therefore such a writ be sued against you

To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,

Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be

Out of the King’s protection. This is my charge.

NORFOLK

And so we’ll leave you to your meditations

How to live better. For your stubborn answer

About the giving back the great seal to us,

The King shall know it and, no doubt, shall thank you.

So fare you well, my little good Lord Cardinal.

WOLSEY

So farewell to the little good you bear me.

Farewell? A long farewell to all my greatness!

This is the state of man: today he puts forth

The tender leaves of hopes; tomorrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,

And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,

And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,

This many summers in a sea of glory,

But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride

At length broke under me and now has left me,

Weary and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me.

Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye!

I feel my heart new opened. O, how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!

There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to,

That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,

More pangs and fears than wars or women have;

And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,

Never to hope again.

CROMWELL

I have no power to speak, sir.

WOLSEY

What, amazed

At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder

A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep,

I am fallen indeed.

CROMWELL

How does your Grace?

WOLSEY

Why, well.

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.

I know myself now, and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A still and quiet conscience. The King has cured me,

I humbly thank his Grace, and from these shoulders,

These ruined pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy: too much honour.

O, ’tis a burden, Cromwell, ’tis a burden

Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven.

CROMWELL

I am glad your Grace has made that right use of it.

WOLSEY

I hope I have. I am able now, methinks,

Out of a fortitude of soul I feel,

To endure more miseries and greater far

Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer.

What news abroad?

CROMWELL

The heaviest and the worst

Is your displeasure with the King.

WOLSEY

God bless him.

CROMWELL

The next is that Sir Thomas More is chosen

Lord Chancellor in your place.

WOLSEY

That’s somewhat sudden.

But he’s a learned man. May he continue

Long in his Highness’ favour, and do justice

For truth’s sake and his conscience, that his bones,

When he has run his course and sleeps in blessings,

May have a tomb of orphans’ tears wept on him.

What more?

CROMWELL

That Cranmer is returned with welcome,

Installed Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

WOLSEY

That’s news indeed.

CROMWELL

Last, that the Lady Anne,

Whom the King hath in secrecy long married,

This day was viewed in open as his Queen,

Going to chapel, and the voice is now

Only about her coronation.

WOLSEY

There was the weight that pulled me down.

O Cromwell,

The King has gone beyond me. All my glories

In that one woman I have lost for ever.

No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours,

Or gild again the noble troops that waited

Upon my smiles. Go, get thee from me, Cromwell.

I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now

To be thy lord and master. Seek the King;

That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him

What and how true thou art. He will advance thee;

Some little memory of me will stir him—

I know his noble nature—not to let

Thy hopeful service perish too. Good Cromwell,

Neglect him not; make use now, and provide

For thine own future safety.

CROMWELL

O my lord,

Must I then leave you? Must I needs forgo

So good, so noble, and so true a master?

Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron,

With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.

The King shall have my service, but my prayers

For ever and for ever shall be yours.

WOLSEY

Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear

In all my miseries, but thou hast forced me,

Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman.

Let’s dry our eyes, and thus far hear me, Cromwell,

And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,

And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention

Of me more must be heard of, say, I taught thee;

Say Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory

And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,

Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in,

A sure and safe one, though thy master missed it.

Mark but my fall and that that ruined me.

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition!

By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,

The image of his maker, hope to win by it?

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee.

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace

To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not.

Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,

Thy God’s, and truth’s. Then if thou fall’st, O Cromwell,

Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!

Serve the King. And, prithee, lead me in.

There take an inventory of all I have.

To the last penny; ’tis the King’s. My robe

And my integrity to heaven is all

I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell,

Had I but served my God with half the zeal

I served my king, He would not in mine age

Have left me naked to mine enemies.

CROMWELL

Good sir, have patience.

WOLSEY

So I have. Farewell,

The hopes of court! My hopes in heaven do dwell.

ACT III

SCENE II. Ante-chamber to the King’s apartment.