The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

’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,