The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 254

by William Shakespeare

What he deserves of you and me, I know;

  What we can do to him – though now the time

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  And came to th’eye o’th’ 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

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  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

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  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.

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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,

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  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’,

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  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.

  Enter WOLSEY and CROMWELL.

  The Cardinal.

  NORFOLK Observe, observe: he’s moody.

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  [They stand apart.]

  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

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  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. Exit Cromwell.

  It shall be to the Duchess of Alençon,

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  The French King’s sister: he shall marry her.

  Anne Bullen? No, I’ll no Anne Bullens for him:

  There’s more in’t than fair visage. Bullen?

  No, we’ll no Bullens. Speedily I wish

  To hear from Rome. The Marchioness of Pembroke?

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  NORFOLK He’s discontented.

  SUFFOLK Maybe he hears the King

  Does whet his anger to him.

  SURREY Sharp enough,

  Lord, for thy justice.

  WOLSEY

  The late Queen’s gentlewoman? A knight’s daughter

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

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  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

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  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.

  Enter KING, reading of a schedule, and LOVELL.

  SURREY

  I would ’twere something that would fret the string,

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  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,

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  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

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  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,

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  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,

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  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

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  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.

  [King takes his seat; and whispers Lovell, who goes to

  the Cardinal.]

  WOLSEY Heaven forgive me.

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  [to the King] 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

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  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

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  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,

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  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

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  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?

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  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?

  165

  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,

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  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

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  Appear in forms more horrid – yet my duty,

  As doth a rock against the chiding flood,

 

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