The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Should the approach of this wild river break

  And stand unshaken yours.

  KING ’Tis nobly spoken.

  Take notice, lords: he has a loyal breast,

  200

  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

  215

  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’?

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  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

  225

  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?

  235

  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

  240

  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

  245

  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

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  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,

  260

  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,

  265

  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,

  280

  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

  295

  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,

  300

  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,

  305

  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,

  310

  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.

  325

  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,

  330

  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

  345

  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,

  355

  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,

  360

  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!

  365

  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,

  380

  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.

  385

  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