’Twill not, Sir Thomas Lovell, take’t of me—
Till Cranmer, Cromwell—her two hands—and she,
Sleep in their graves.
LOVELL
Now, sir, you speak of two
The most remarked i‘th’ kingdom. As for Cromwell,
Beside that of the Jewel House is made Master
O’th’ Rolls and the King’s secretary. Further, sir,
Stands in the gap and trade of more preferments
With which the time will load him. Th’Archbishop
Is the King’s hand and tongue, and who dare speak
One syllable against him?
GARDINER
Yes, yes, Sir Thomas—
There are that dare, and I myself have ventured
To speak my mind of him, and, indeed, this day,
Sir—I may tell it you, I think—I have
Incensed the lords o’th’ Council that he is—
For so I know he is, they know he is—
A most arch heretic, a pestilence
That does infect the land; with which they, moved,
Have broken with the King, who hath so far
Given ear to our complaint, of his great grace
And princely care, foreseeing those fell mischiefs
Our reasons laid before him, hath commanded so
Tomorrow morning to the Council board
He be convented. He’s a rank weed, Sir Thomas,
And we must root him out. From your affairs
I hinder you too long. Good night, Sir Thomas.
LOVELL
Many good nights, my lord; I rest your servant.
Exeunt Gardiner and Page at one door
Enter King Henry and Suffolk at another door
KING HENRY (to Suffolk)
Charles, I will play no more tonight.
My mind’s not on’t. You are too hard for me.
SUFFOLK
Sir, I did never win of you before.
KING HENRY But little, Charles,
Nor shall not when my fancy’s on my play.
Now, Lovell, from the Queen what is the news?
LOVELL
I could not personally deliver to her
What you commanded me, but by her woman
I sent your message, who returned her thanks
In the great’st humbleness, and desired your highness
Most heartily to pray for her.
KING HENRY
What sayst thou? Ha?
To pray for her? What, is she crying out?
LOVELL
So said her woman, and that her suffrance made
Almost each pang a death.
KING HENRY
Alas, good lady.
SUFFOLK
God safely quit her of her burden, and
With gentle travail, to the gladding of
Your highness with an heir.
KING HENRY
’Tis midnight, Charles.
Prithee to bed, and in thy prayers remember
Th’estate of my poor queen. Leave me alone,
For I must think of that which company
Would not be friendly to.
SUFFOLK
I wish your highness
A quiet night, and my good mistress will
Remember in my prayers.
KING HENRY
Charles, good night.
Exit Suffolk
Enter Sir Anthony Denny
Well, sir, what follows?
DENNY
Sir, I have brought my lord the Archbishop,
As you commanded me.
KING HENRY
Ha, Canterbury?
DENNY
Ay, my good lord.
KING HENRY
’Tis true—where is he, Denny?
DENNY
He attends your highness’ pleasure.
KING HENRY
Bring him to us.
Exit Denny
LOVELL. (aside)
This is about that which the Bishop spake.
I am happily come hither.
Enter Cranmer the Archbishop, ushered by Denny
KING HENRY (to Lovell and Denny) Avoid the gallery.
⌈Denny begins to depart.⌉ Lovell seems to stay
Ha? I have said. Be gone.
What?
Exeunt Lovell and Denny
CRANMER (aside)
I am fearful. Wherefore frowns he thus?
’Tis his aspect of terror. All’s not well.
KING HENRY
How now, my lord? You do desire to know
Wherefore I sent for you.
CRANMER (kneeling) It is my duty
T’attend your highness’ pleasure.
KING HENRY
Pray you, arise,
My good and gracious Lord of Canterbury.
Come, you and I must walk a turn together.
I have news to tell you. Come, come—give me your
hand.
⌈Cranmer rises. They walk⌉
Ah, my good lord, I grieve at what I speak,
And am right sorry to repeat what follows.
I have, and most unwillingly, of late
Heard many grievous—I do say, my lord,
Grievous—complaints of you, which, being considered,
Have moved us and our Council that you shall
This morning come before us, where I know
You cannot with such freedom purge yourself
But that, till further trial in those charges
Which will require your answer, you must take
Your patience to you, and be well contented
To make your house our Tower. You a brother of us,
It fits we thus proceed, or else no witness
Would come against you.
CRANMER (kneeling)
I humbly thank your highness, And am right glad to catch this good occasion
Most throughly to be winnowed, where my chaff
And corn shall fly asunder. For I know
There’s none stands under more calumnious tongues
Than I myself, poor man.
KING HENRY
Stand up, good Canterbury.
Thy truth and thy integrity is rooted
In us, thy friend. Give me thy hand. Stand up.
Prithee, let’s walk.
Cranmer rises. They walk
Now, by my halidom,
What manner of man are you? My lord, I looked
You would have given me your petition that
I should have ta’en some pains to bring together
Yourself and your accusers, and to have heard you
Without indurance further.
CRANMER
Most dread liege, The good I stand on is my truth and honesty.
If they shall fail, I with mine enemies
Will triumph o’er my person, which I weigh not,
Being of those virtues vacant. I fear nothing
What can be said against me.
KING HENRY
Know you not
How your state stands i’th’ world, with the whole
world?
Your enemies are many, and not small; their practices
Must bear the same proportion, and not ever
The justice and the truth o’th’ question carries
The dew o’th’ verdict with it. At what ease
Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt
To swear against you? Such things have been
done.
You are potently opposed, and with a malice
Of as great size. Ween you of better luck,
I mean in perjured witness, than your master,
Whose minister you are, whiles here he lived
Upon this naughty earth? Go to, go to.
You take a precipice for no leap of danger,
And woo your own destruction.
CRANMER
God and your majesty
Protect mine innocence, or I fall into
; The trap is laid for me.
KING HENRY
Be of good cheer. They shall no more prevail than we give way to.
Keep comfort to you, and this morning see
You do appear before them. If they shall chance,
In charging you with matters, to commit you,
The best persuasions to the contrary
Fail not to use, and with what vehemency
Th’occasion shall instruct you. If entreaties
Will render you no remedy, ⌈giving his ring⌉ this ring
Deliver them, and your appeal to us
There make before them.
Cranmer weeps
Look, the good man weeps.
He’s honest, on mine honour. God’s blest mother,
I swear he is true-hearted, and a soul
None better in my kingdom. Get you gone,
And do as I have bid you.
Exit Cranmer
He has strangled
His language in his tears.
Enter the Old Lady
⌈LOVELL⌉ (within) Come back! What mean you?
⌈Enter Lovell, following her⌉
OLD LADY
I’ll not come back. The tidings that I bring
Will make my boldness manners. (To the King) Now
good angels
Fly o’er thy royal head, and shade thy person
Under their blessed wings.
KING HENRY
Now by thy looks
I guess thy message. Is the Queen delivered?
Say, ‘Ay, and of a boy.’
OLD LADY
Ay, ay, my liege,
And of a lovely boy. The God of heaven
Both now and ever bless her! ’Tis a girl
Promises boys hereafter. Sir, your queen
Desires your visitation, and to be
Acquainted with this stranger. ’Tis as like you
As cherry is to cherry.
KING HENRY
Lovell—
LOVELL
Sir?
KING HENRY
Give her an hundred marks. I’ll to the Queen.
Exit
OLD LADY
An hundred marks? By this light, I’ll ha’ more.
An ordinary groom is for such payment.
I will have more, or scold it out of him.
Said I for this the girl was like to him? I’ll
Have more, or else unsay’t; and now, while ’tis hot,
I’ll put it to the issue.
Exeunt
5.2 Enter ⌈pursuivants, pages, footboys, and grooms. Then enter⌉ Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
CRANMER
I hope I am not too late, and yet the gentleman
That was sent to me from the council prayed me
To make great haste. All fast? What means this?
(Calling at the door) Ho!
Who waits there?
Enter a Doorkeeper
Sure you know me?
DOORKEEPER
Yes, my lord,
But yet I cannot help you.
CRANMER
Why?
⌈Enter Doctor Butts, passing over the stage⌉
DOORKEEPER
Your grace must wait till you be called for.
CRANMER
So.
BUTTS (aside)
This is a piece of malice. I am glad
I came this way so happily. The King
Shall understand it presently.
Exit
CRANMER (aside)
‘Tis Butts, The King’s physician. As he passed along
How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me!
Pray heaven he found not my disgrace. For certain
This is of purpose laid by some that hate me—
God turn their hearts, I never sought their malice—
To quench mine honour. They would shame to make me
Wait else at door, a fellow Councillor,
’Mong boys, grooms, and lackeys. But their pleasures
Must be fulfilled, and I attend with patience.
Enter King Henry and Doctor Butts at a window, above
BUTTS
I’ll show your grace the strangest sight—
KING HENRY
What’s that, Butts?
BUTTS
I think your highness saw this many a day.
KING HENRY
Body o’me, where is it?
BUTTS (pointing at Cranmer, below)
There, my lord. The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury,
Who holds his state at door, ’mongst pursuivants,
Pages, and footboys.
KING HENRY
Ha? ‘Tis he indeed.
Is this the honour they do one another?
’Tis well there’s one above ’em yet. I had thought
They had parted so much honesty among ’em—
At least good manners—as not thus to suffer
A man of his place and so near our favour
To dance attendance on their lordships’ pleasures,
And at the door, too, like a post with packets!
By holy Mary, Butts, there’s knavery!
Let ’em alone, and draw the curtain close.
We shall hear more anon.
⌈Cranmer and the doorkeeper stand to one side. Exeunt the lackeys⌉ Above, Butts ⌈partly⌉ draws the curtain close. Below, a council table is brought in along with chairs and stools, and placed under the cloth of state. Enter the Lord Chancellor, who places himself at the upper end of the table, on the left hand, leaving a seat void above him at the table’s head as for Canterbury’s seat. The Duke of Suffolk, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, the Lord Chamberlain, and Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, seat themselves in order on each side of the table. Cromwell sits at the lower end, and acts as secretary
LORD CHANCELLOR (to Cromwell)
Speak to the business, master secretary.
Why are we met in council?
CROMWELL
Please your honours,
The chief cause concerns his grace of Canterbury.
GARDINER
Has he had knowledge of it?
CROMWELL
Yes.
NORFOLK (to the Doorkeeper)
Who waits there?
DOORKEEPER ⌈coming forward⌉
Without, my noble lords?
GARDINER
Yes.
DOORKEEPER
My lord Archbishop;
And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures.
LORD CHANCELLOR
Let him come in.
DOORKEEPER (to Cranmer) Your grace may enter now.
Cranmer approaches the Council table
LORD CHANCELLOR
My good lord Archbishop, I’m very sorry
To sit here at this present and behold
That chair stand empty, but we all are men
In our own natures frail, and capable
Of our flesh; few are angels; out of which frailty
And want of wisdom, you, that best should teach us,
Have misdemeaned yourself, and not a little,
Toward the King first, then his laws, in filling
The whole realm, by your teaching and your chaplains’—
For so we are informed—with new opinions,
Diverse and dangerous, which are heresies,
And, not reformed, may prove pernicious.
GARDINER
Which reformation must be sudden too,
My noble lords; for those that tame wild horses
Pace ’em not in their hands to make ’em gentle,
But stop their mouths with stubborn bits and spur ’em
Till they obey the manège. If we suffer,
Out of our easiness and childish pity
To one man’s honour, this contagious sickness,
Farewell all physic—and what follows then?
Commotions, uproars—with a general taint
Of the whole state, as of late days our neighbours,
The upper Germany, can dearly witness,
Yet freshly pitied in our memories. 65
CRANMER
My good lords, hitherto in all the progress
Both of my life and office, I have laboured,
And with no little study, that my teaching
And the strong course of my authority
Might go one way, and safely; and the end
Was ever to do well. Nor is there living—
I speak it with a single heart, my lords—
A man that more detests, more stirs against,
Both in his private conscience and his place,
Defacers of a public peace than I do.
Pray heaven the King may never find a heart
With less allegiance in it. Men that make
Envy and crooked malice nourishment
Dare bite the best. I do beseech your lordships
That, in this case of justice, my accusers,
Be what they will, may stand forth face to face,
And freely urge against me.
SUFFOLK
Nay, my lord,
That cannot be. You are a Councillor,
And by that virtue no man dare accuse you.
GARDINER (to Cranmer)
My lord, because we have business of more moment,
We will be short with you. ’Tis his highness’ pleasure
And our consent, for better trial of you,
From hence you be committed to the Tower
Where, being but a private man again,
You shall know many dare accuse you boldly,
More than, I fear, you are provided for.
CRANMER
Ah, my good lord of Winchester, I thank you.
You are always my good friend. If your will pass,
I shall both find your lordship judge and juror,
You are so merciful. I see your end—
’Tis my undoing. Love and meekness, lord,
Become a churchman better than ambition.
Win straying souls with modesty again;
Cast none away. That I shall clear myself,
Lay all the weight ye can upon my patience,
I make as little doubt as you do conscience
In doing daily wrongs. I could say more,
But reverence to your calling makes me modest.
GARDINER
My lord, my lord—you are a sectary,
That’s the plain truth. Your painted gloss discovers,
To men that understand you, words and weakness.
CROMWELL (to Gardiner)
My lord of Winchester, you’re a little,
By your good favour, too sharp. Men so noble,
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 409