King John & Henry VIII (40 page)

CARDINAL 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
¹⁸⁷

    I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,

    Must give my
tendance
¹⁸⁹
to.

KING HENRY VIII
    You have said well.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    And ever may your highness yoke together,

    As I will lend you cause, my doing well

    With my well saying.

KING HENRY VIII
    ’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
¹⁹⁷

    His word upon you. Since I had my office,

    I have kept you next my heart, have not
alone
¹⁹⁹

    Employed you where high profits might come home,

    But
pared
my present
havings
²⁰¹
, to bestow

    My bounties upon you.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    What should this mean?

SURREY
    The Lord increase this business!

KING HENRY VIII
    Have I not made you,

    The
prime
²⁰⁶
man of the state? I pray you tell me

    If what I now
pronounce
²⁰⁷
you have found true:

    And if you may confess it, say
withal
²⁰⁸

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

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    My sovereign, I confess your royal
graces
²¹⁰
,

    Showered on me daily, have been more than
could
²¹¹

    My studied purposes requite, which went

    Beyond all man’s endeavours. My endeavours

    Have ever come too short of my desires,

    Yet
filed
²¹⁵
with my abilities: mine own ends

    Have been mine
so
²¹⁶
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
²²⁰
thanks,

    My prayers to heaven for you, my loyalty,

    Which ever has and ever shall be growing,

    Till death, that winter, kill it.

KING HENRY VIII
    Fairly answered:

    A loyal and obedient subject is

    
Therein illustrated:
the honour of it
²²⁶

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

    The
foulness
²²⁸
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
²³²
,

    Should,
notwithstanding
that your
²³³
bond of duty,

    As ’twere
in love’s particular
²³⁴
, be more

    To me, your friend, than any.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    I do profess

    That for your highness’ good I ever laboured

    More than mine own:
that am, have and will be
²³⁸
—

    Though all the world should
crack
²³⁹
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
²⁴²
— yet my duty,

    As doth a rock against the
chiding
²⁴³
flood,

    Should the approach of this wild river
break
²⁴⁴
,

    And stand unshaken yours.

KING HENRY VIII
    ’Tis nobly spoken:

    Take notice, lords, he has a loyal breast,

    For you have seen him open’t. Read o’er this,

    And after, this, and then to breakfast with

    What appetite you have.

CARDINAL 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
chafèd
²⁵⁴
lion

    
Upon the daring huntsman that has
galled
²⁵⁵
him:

    Then
makes him nothing
²⁵⁶
. I must read this paper:

    I fear the
story
²⁵⁷
of his anger.— ’Tis so:

    This paper has
undone
me: ’tis the
account
²⁵⁸

    Of all that
world
²⁵⁹
of wealth I have drawn together

    For mine own ends — indeed, to gain the popedom,

    And
fee
²⁶¹
my friends in Rome. O negligence,

    Fit for a fool to fall by! What
cross
²⁶²
devil

    Made me put this
main
²⁶³
secret in the packet

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

    No new
device
²⁶⁵
to beat this from his brains?

    I know ’twill
stir
²⁶⁶
him strongly. Yet I know

    A way, if it
take right
²⁶⁷
, in spite of fortune

    Will
bring me off
²⁶⁸
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
²⁷²
of my glory,

    I haste now to my
setting
²⁷³
. I shall fall

    Like a bright
exhalation
²⁷⁴
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
²⁷⁷

    Into our hands, and to confine yourself

    To
Asher House
²⁷⁹
, my lord of Winchester’s,

    Till you hear further from his highness.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Stay:

    Where’s your
commission
²⁸²
, lords? Words cannot carry

    Authority so weighty.

SUFFOLK
    Who dare
cross
²⁸⁴
’em,

    Bearing the king’s will from his mouth expressly?

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Till I find more than will or words to do
it
²⁸⁶
—

    I mean your malice — know, officious lords,

    I dare and must deny it. Now I feel

    Of what coarse
metal
ye are moulded:
envy
²⁸⁹
.

    How eagerly ye follow my disgraces,

    As if it fed ye, and how
sleek
and
wanton
²⁹¹

    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
²⁹⁵
. That seal

    You ask with such a violence, the king,

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

    Bade me
enjoy
²⁹⁸
it, with the place and honours,

    During my life: and to confirm his goodness,

    
Tied
it by
letters patents
³⁰⁰
. Now, who’ll take it?

SURREY
    The king, that gave it.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    It must be himself, then.

SURREY
    Thou art a proud traitor, priest.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Proud lord, thou liest:

    Within these
forty hours
³⁰⁵
Surrey durst better

    Have burnt that tongue than said so.

SURREY
    Thy ambition,

    Thou
scarlet sin
³⁰⁸
, 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
³¹¹
bound together,

    
Weighed
not a hair
of
his. Plague of your
policy
³¹²
,

    You sent me deputy for Ireland,

    Far from
his succour
³¹⁴
, from the king, from all

    That might have mercy on the
fault
thou
gav’st
³¹⁵
him:

    Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity,

    Absolved him with an axe.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    This, and all else

    This talking lord can lay upon my
credit
³¹⁹
,

    I answer is most false. The duke by law

    Found his deserts. How innocent I was

    
From
³²²
any private malice in his end,

    His noble jury and foul
cause
³²³
can witness.

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

    You have as little honesty as honour,

    
That
³²⁶
in the way of loyalty and truth

    Toward the king, my ever royal master,

    Dare
mate
³²⁸
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’life-blood of thee else. My lords,

    Can ye endure to hear this arrogance?

    And from this
fellow
³³⁴
? If we live thus tamely,

    To be thus
jaded
³³⁵
by a piece of scarlet,

    Farewell nobility: let his grace go forward,

    And
dare
us with his cap, like larks
³³⁷
.

CARDINAL 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, Card’nal, by extortion:

    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

    Of our despised nobility, our
issues
³⁴⁸
,

    Whom if
he
³⁴⁹
live will scarce be gentlemen,

    Produce the grand sum of his sins, the
articles
³⁵⁰

    Collected from his life. I’ll startle you

    Worse than the
sacring bell
, when the
brown
wench
³⁵²

    Lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal.

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
³⁵⁶
:

    But
thus much
: they are
foul
³⁵⁷
ones.

CARDINAL 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
³⁶³
they shall.

    Now, if you can blush and cry ‘Guilty’, cardinal,

    You’ll show a little honesty.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Speak on, sir:

    I
dare
your worst
objections
³⁶⁷
: if I blush,

    It is to see a nobleman
want
³⁶⁸
manners.