Should the approach of this wild river break
And stand unshaken yours.
KING ’Tis nobly spoken.
Take notice, lords: he has a loyal breast,
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For you have seen him open’t.
[Gives him papers.] Read o’er this,
And after, this, and then to breakfast with
What appetite you have.
Exit King, frowning upon the Cardinal; the nobles
throng after him, smiling and whispering.
WOLSEY What should this mean?
What sudden anger’s this? How have I reaped it?
He parted frowning from me, as if ruin
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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
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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
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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’?
220
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
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Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.
Enter to Wolsey the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK, the
Earl of SURREY and the Lord CHAMBERLAIN.
NORFOLK
Hear the King’s pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you
To render up the great seal presently
Into our hands, and to confine yourself
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To Esher 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 dare cross ’em,
Bearing the King’s will from his mouth expressly?
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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
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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
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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?
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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
255
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,
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Far from his succour, from the King, from all
That might have mercy on the fault thou gavest 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,
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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
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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,
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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,
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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;
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The ‘goodness’ of your intercepted packets
You writ to th’ 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
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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
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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,
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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,
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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,
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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
315
To be your servant.
<
br /> 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
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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.
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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,
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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
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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,
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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
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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.
Exeunt all but Wolsey.
WOLSEY So, farewell to the little good you bear me.
350
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,
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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,
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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!
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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;
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And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.
Enter CROMWELL, standing amazed.
Why, how now, Cromwell?
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
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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,
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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.
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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
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 255
