1 GENTLEMAN Sir,
You must no more call it ‘York Place’ – that’s past;
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For since the Cardinal fell, that title’s lost.
’Tis now the King’s, and called ‘Whitehall’.
3 GENTLEMAN I know it,
But ’tis so lately altered that the old name
Is fresh about me.
2 GENTLEMAN What two reverend bishops
Were those that went on each side of the Queen?
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3 GENTLEMAN
Stokesley and Gardiner, the one of Winchester,
Newly preferred from the King’s secretary;
The other, London.
2 GENTLEMAN He of Winchester
Is held no great good lover of the Archbishop’s,
The virtuous Cranmer.
3 GENTLEMAN All the land knows that.
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However, yet there is no great breach. When it comes,
Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him.
2 GENTLEMAN Who may that be, I pray you?
3 GENTLEMAN Thomas Cromwell,
A man in much esteem wi’th’ King, and truly
A worthy friend. The King has made him
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Master o’th’ Jewel House,
And one already of the Privy Council.
2 GENTLEMAN He will deserve more.
3 GENTLEMAN Yes, without all doubt.
Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way,
Which is to th’ court, and there ye shall be my guests:
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Something I can command. As I walk thither
I’ll tell ye more.
1 & 2 GENTLEMEN You may command us, sir. Exeunt.
4.2 Enter KATHERINE Dowager, sick, led between GRIFFITH, her gentleman usher, and PATIENCE, her woman.
GRIFFITH How does your grace?
KATHERINE O Griffith, sick to death.
My legs like loaden branches bow to th’earth,
Willing to leave their burden. Reach a chair. [Sits.]
So. Now, methinks, I feel a little ease.
Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou leddest me,
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That the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?
GRIFFITH Yes, madam, but I think your grace,
Out of the pain you suffered, gave no ear to’t.
KATHERINE
Prithee, good Griffith, tell me how he died.
If well, he stepped before me happily
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For my example.
GRIFFITH Well, the voice goes, madam.
For after the stout Earl Northumberland
Arrested him at York and brought him forward,
As a man sorely tainted, to his answer,
He fell sick suddenly and grew so ill
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He could not sit his mule.
KATHERINE Alas, poor man.
GRIFFITH
At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester;
Lodged in the abbey, where the reverend abbot,
With all his convent, honourably received him;
To whom he gave these words: ‘O father abbot,
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An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye.
Give him a little earth, for charity.’
So went to bed, where eagerly his sickness
Pursued him still, and three nights after this,
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About the hour of eight, which he himself
Foretold should be his last, full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears and sorrows,
He gave his honours to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.
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KATHERINE
So may he rest: his faults lie gently on him.
Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him,
And yet with charity. He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes; one that by suggestion
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Tied all the kingdom. Simony was fair play.
His own opinion was his law. I’th’ presence
He would say untruths, and be ever double
Both in his words and meaning. He was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful.
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His promises were as he then was, mighty;
But his performance, as he is now, nothing.
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.
GRIFFITH Noble madam,
Men’s evil manners live in brass, their virtues
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We write in water. May it please your highness
To hear me speak his good now?
KATHERINE Yes, good Griffith;
I were malicious else.
GRIFFITH This Cardinal,
Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashioned to much honour. From his cradle
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He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one,
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer.
And though he were unsatisfied in getting –
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Which was a sin – yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely: ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford – one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
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The other, though unfinished, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heaped happiness upon him,
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
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And found the blessedness of being little.
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.
KATHERINE After my death I wish no other herald,
No other speaker of my living actions,
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To keep mine honour from corruption
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.
Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth and modesty,
Now in his ashes honour. Peace be with him.
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Patience, be near me still, and set me lower.
I have not long to trouble thee. Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me that sad note
I named my knell, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.
[Sad and solemn music.]
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GRIFFITH
She is asleep. Good wench, let’s sit down quiet,
For fear we wake her. Softly, gentle Patience.
The vision
Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six
personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads
garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces,
branches of bays or palm in their hands. They first
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congé unto her, then dance; and at certain changes, the
first two hold a spare garland over her head, at which
the other four make reverend curtsies. Then the two
that held the garland deliver the same to the other next
two, who observe the same order in their changes and
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holding the garland over her head. Which done, they
deliver the same garland to the last two, who likewise
observe the same order. At which (as it were by
inspiration) she makes in her sleep signs of rejoicing and
holdeth up her hands to heaven. And so, in their
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dancing, vanish, carrying the garland with them.
The music continues.
KATHERINE
Spirits of peace, where are ye? Are ye all gone,
And leave me here in wretchedness behind ye?
GRIFFITH Madam, we are here.
KATHERINE It is not you I call for.
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Saw ye none enter since I slept?
GRIFFITH None, madam.
KATHERINE No? Saw you not even now a blessed troop
Invite me to a banquet, whose bright faces
Cast thousand beams upon me, like the sun?
They promised me eternal happiness
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And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel
I am not worthy yet to wear. I shall, assuredly.
GRIFFITH I am most joyful, madam, such good dreams
Possess your fancy.
KATHERINE Bid the music leave.
They are harsh and heavy to me. [Music ceases.]
PATIENCE Do you note
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How much her grace is altered on the sudden?
How long her face is drawn? How pale she looks,
And of an earthy cold? Mark her eyes.
GRIFFITH She is going, wench. Pray, pray.
PATIENCE Heaven comfort her.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER An’t like your grace –
KATHERINE You are a saucy fellow.
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Deserve we no more reverence?
GRIFFITH [to the Messenger] You are to blame,
Knowing she will not lose her wonted greatness,
To use so rude behaviour. Go to, kneel.
MESSENGER
I humbly do entreat your highness’ pardon.
My haste made me unmannerly. There is staying
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A gentleman sent from the King to see you.
KATHERINE
Admit him entrance, Griffith. But this fellow
Let me ne’er see again. Exit Messenger.
Enter Lord CAPUTIUS.
If my sight fail not,
You should be lord ambassador from the Emperor,
My royal nephew, and your name Caputius.
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CAPUTIUS Madam, the same. Your servant.
KATHERINE O my lord,
The times and titles now are altered strangely
With me since first you knew me. But I pray you,
What is your pleasure with me?
CAPUTIUS Noble lady,
First, mine own service to your grace; the next,
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The King’s request that I would visit you,
Who grieves much for your weakness and by me
Sends you his princely commendations
And heartily entreats you take good comfort.
KATHERINE
O my good lord, that comfort comes too late;
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’Tis like a pardon after execution.
That gentle physic given in time had cured me,
But now I am past all comforts here but prayers.
How does his highness?
CAPUTIUS Madam, in good health.
KATHERINE So may he ever do, and ever flourish
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When I shall dwell with worms and my poor name
Banished the kingdom. Patience, is that letter
I caused you write yet sent away?
PATIENCE No, madam.
KATHERINE Sir, I most humbly pray you to deliver
This to my lord the King.
CAPUTIUS Most willing, madam.
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KATHERINE
In which I have commended to his goodness
The model of our chaste loves, his young daughter –
The dews of heaven fall thick in blessings on her! –
Beseeching him to give her virtuous breeding –
She is young and of a noble, modest nature;
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I hope she will deserve well – and a little
To love her for her mother’s sake that loved him,
Heaven knows how dearly. My next poor petition
Is that his noble grace would have some pity
Upon my wretched women, that so long
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Have followed both my fortunes faithfully;
Of which there is not one, I dare avow –
And now I should not lie – but will deserve,
For virtue and true beauty of the soul,
For honesty and decent carriage,
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A right good husband – let him be a noble –
And sure those men are happy that shall have ’em.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 257