Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Henry VIII: Act III, Scene 2

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Henry VIII
Act III, Scene 2

London. Antechamber to King Henry VIII’s apartment.

Dismissal of Cardinal Wolsey

Dismissal of Cardinal Wolsey

Frederick Gilbert, 1859

  1. Enter the Duke of Norfolk, Duke of Suffolk, Lord Surrey, and
  2. Lord Chamberlain.

Duke of Norfolk

1 - 6
  1. If you will now unite in your complaints,
  2. And force them with a constancy, the Cardinal
  3. Cannot stand under them. If you omit
  4. The offer of this time, I cannot promise
  5. But that you shall sustain more new disgraces
  6. With these you bear already.

Earl of Surrey

7 - 10
  1.                              I am joyful
  2. To meet the least occasion that may give me
  3. Remembrance of my father-in-law, the Duke,
  4. To be reveng’d on him.

Duke of Suffolk

11 - 15
  1.                        Which of the peers
  2. Have uncontemn’d gone by him, or at least
  3. Strangely neglected? When did he regard
  4. The stamp of nobleness in any person
  5. Out of himself?

Lord Chamberlain

16 - 22
  1.                 My lords, you speak your pleasures.
  2. What he deserves of you and me I know;
  3. What we can do to him (though now the time
  4. Gives way to us) I much fear. If you cannot
  5. Bar his access to th’ King, never attempt
  6. Any thing on him; for he hath a witchcraft
  7. Over the King in ’s tongue.

Duke of Norfolk

23 - 27
  1.                             O, fear him not,
  2. His spell in that is out. The King hath found
  3. Matter against him that forever mars
  4. The honey of his language. No, he’s settled
  5. (Not to come off) in his displeasure.

Earl of Surrey

28 - 30
  1.                                       Sir,
  2. I should be glad to hear such news as this
  3. Once every hour.

Duke of Norfolk

31 - 34
  1.                  Believe it, this is true.
  2. In the divorce his contrary proceedings
  3. Are all unfolded; wherein he appears
  4. As I would wish mine enemy.

Earl of Surrey

35 - 36
  1.                             How came
  2. His practices to light?

Duke of Suffolk

37
  1.                         Most strangely.

Earl of Surrey

38
  1.                 O how? How?

Duke of Suffolk

39 - 45
  1. The Cardinal’s letters to the Pope miscarried,
  2. And came to th’ eye o’ th’ King, wherein was read
  3. How that the Cardinal did entreat his Holiness
  4. To stay the judgment o’ th’ divorce; for if
  5. It did take place, “I do,” quoth he, “perceive
  6. My king is tangled in affection to
  7. A creature of the Queen’s, Lady Anne Bullen.”

Earl of Surrey

46
  1. Has the King this?

Duke of Suffolk

47
  1.                    Believe it.

Earl of Surrey

48
  1.             Will this work?

Lord Chamberlain

49 - 53
  1. The King in this perceives him, how he coasts
  2. And hedges his own way. But in this point
  3. All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic
  4. After his patient’s death. The King already
  5. Hath married the fair lady.

Earl of Surrey

54
  1.                             Would he had!

Duke of Suffolk

55 - 56
  1. May you be happy in your wish, my lord,
  2. For I profess you have it.

Earl of Surrey

57 - 58
  1.                            Now all my joy
  2. Trace the conjunction!

Duke of Suffolk

59
  1.                        My amen to’t!

Duke of Norfolk

60
  1.               All men’s!

Duke of Suffolk

61 - 67
  1. There’s order given for her coronation.
  2. Marry, this is yet but young, and may be left
  3. To some ears unrecounted. But, my lords,
  4. She is a gallant creature, and complete
  5. In mind and feature. I persuade me, from her
  6. Will fall some blessing to this land, which shall
  7. In it be memoriz’d.

Earl of Surrey

68 - 70
  1.                     But will the King
  2. Digest this letter of the Cardinal’s?
  3. The Lord forbid!

Duke of Norfolk

71
  1.                  Marry, amen!

Duke of Suffolk

72 - 79
  1.              No, no;
  2. There be more wasps that buzz about his nose
  3. Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius
  4. Is stol’n away to Rome, hath ta’en no leave,
  5. Has left the cause o’ th’ King unhandled, and
  6. Is posted, as the agent of our Cardinal,
  7. To second all his plot. I do assure you
  8. The King cried “Ha!” at this.
Samuel Phelps as Cardinal Wolsey

Samuel Phelps as Cardinal Wolsey

Gebbie & Co., Johnston Forbes-Robertson, 1888

Lord Chamberlain

80 - 81
  1.                               Now God incense him,
  2. And let him cry “Ha!” louder!

Duke of Norfolk

82 - 83
  1.                               But, my lord,
  2. When returns Cranmer?

Duke of Suffolk

84 - 91
  1. He is return’d in his opinions, which
  2. Have satisfied the King for his divorce,
  3. Together with all famous colleges
  4. Almost in Christendom. Shortly, I believe,
  5. His second marriage shall be publish’d, and
  6. Her coronation. Katherine no more
  7. Shall be call’d Queen, but Princess Dowager
  8. And widow to Prince Arthur.

Duke of Norfolk

92 - 94
  1.                             This same Cranmer’s
  2. A worthy fellow, and hath ta’en much pain
  3. In the King’s business.

Duke of Suffolk

95 - 96
  1.                         He has, and we shall see him
  2. For it an archbishop.

Duke of Norfolk

97
  1.                       So I hear.

Duke of Suffolk

98 - 99
  1.            ’Tis so.
  2. Enter Wolsey and Cromwell.
  3. The Cardinal!

Duke of Norfolk

100
  1.               Observe, observe, he’s moody.

Cardinal Wolsey

101
  1. The packet, Cromwell, gave’t you the King?

Cromwell

102
  1. To his own hand, in ’s bedchamber.

Cardinal Wolsey

103 - 104
  1.                                    Look’d he
  2. O’ th’ inside of the paper?

Cromwell

105 - 109
  1.                             Presently
  2. He did unseal them, and the first he view’d,
  3. He did it with a serious mind; a heed
  4. Was in his countenance. You he bade
  5. Attend him here this morning.

Cardinal Wolsey

110 - 111
  1.                               Is he ready
  2. To come abroad?

Cromwell

112
  1.                 I think by this he is.

Cardinal Wolsey

113 - 119
  1. Leave me a while.
  2. Exit Cromwell.
  3. Aside.
  4. It shall be to the Duchess of Alanson,
  5. The French king’s sister; he shall marry her.
  6. Anne Bullen? No; I’ll no Anne Bullens for him,
  7. There’s more in’t than fair visage. Bullen?
  8. No, we’ll no Bullens. Speedily I wish
  9. To hear from Rome. The Marchioness of Pembroke?

Duke of Norfolk

120
  1. He’s discontented.

Duke of Suffolk

121 - 122
  1.                    May be he hears the King
  2. Does whet his anger to him.

Earl of Surrey

123 - 124
  1.                             Sharp enough,
  2. Lord, for thy justice!

Cardinal Wolsey

125 - 135
  1. Aside.
  2. The late Queen’s gentlewoman? A knight’s daughter,
  3. To be her mistress’ mistress? The Queen’s queen?
  4. This candle burns not clear, ’tis I must snuff it,
  5. Then out it goes. What though I know her virtuous
  6. And well deserving? Yet I know her for
  7. A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to
  8. Our cause, that she should lie i’ th’ bosom of
  9. Our hard-rul’d king. Again, there is sprung up
  10. An heretic, an arch-one, Cranmer; one
  11. Hath crawl’d into the favor of the King,
  12. And is his oracle.

Duke of Norfolk

136
  1.                    He’s vex’d at something.
  1. Enter King, reading of a schedule, and Lovell.

Earl of Surrey

137 - 138
  1. I would ’twere something that would fret the string,
  2. The master-cord on ’s heart!

Duke of Suffolk

139
  1.                              The King, the King!

King

140 - 144
  1. What piles of wealth hath he accumulated
  2. To his own portion! And what expense by th’ hour
  3. Seems to flow from him! How, i’ th’ name of thrift,
  4. Does he rake this together? Now, my lords,
  5. Saw you the Cardinal?

Duke of Norfolk

145 - 153
  1.                       My lord, we have
  2. Stood here observing him. Some strange commotion
  3. Is in his brain; he bites his lip, and starts,
  4. Stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground,
  5. Then lays his finger on his temple; straight
  6. Springs out into fast gait, then stops again,
  7. Strikes his breast hard, and anon he casts
  8. His eye against the moon. In most strange postures
  9. We have seen him set himself.

King

154 - 163
  1.                               It may well be,
  2. There is a mutiny in ’s mind. This morning
  3. Papers of state he sent me to peruse,
  4. As I requir’d; and wot you what I found
  5. There (on my conscience, put unwittingly)?
  6. Forsooth, an inventory, thus importing
  7. The several parcels of his plate, his treasure,
  8. Rich stuffs, and ornaments of household, which
  9. I find at such proud rate, that it outspeaks
  10. Possession of a subject.
The fall of Cardinal Wolsey

The fall of Cardinal Wolsey

Henry James Haley, early 20th century

Duke of Norfolk

164 - 166
  1.                          It’s heaven’s will!
  2. Some spirit put this paper in the packet,
  3. To bless your eye withal.

King

167 - 172
  1.                           If we did think
  2. His contemplation were above the earth,
  3. And fix’d on spiritual object, he should still
  4. Dwell in his musings, but I am afraid
  5. His thinkings are below the moon, not worth
  6. His serious considering.
  1. King takes his seat; whispers Lovell, who goes to the
  2. Cardinal.

Cardinal Wolsey

173 - 174
  1.                          Heaven forgive me!
  2. Ever God bless your Highness!

King

175 - 182
  1.                               Good my lord,
  2. You are full of heavenly stuff, and bear the inventory
  3. Of your best graces in your mind; the which
  4. You were now running o’er. You have scarce time
  5. To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span
  6. To keep your earthly audit; sure in that
  7. I deem you an ill husband, and am glad
  8. To have you therein my companion.

Cardinal Wolsey

183 - 189
  1.                                   Sir,
  2. For holy offices I have a time; a time
  3. To think upon the part of business which
  4. I bear i’ th’ state; and Nature does require
  5. Her times of preservation, which perforce
  6. I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,
  7. Must give my tendance to.

King

190
  1.                           You have said well.

Cardinal Wolsey

191 - 193
  1. And ever may your Highness yoke together
  2. (As I will lend you cause) my doing well
  3. With my well saying!

King

194 - 202
  1.                      ’Tis well said again,
  2. And ’tis a kind of good deed to say well,
  3. And yet words are no deeds. My father lov’d you,
  4. He said he did, and with his deed did crown
  5. His word upon you. Since I had my office,
  6. I have kept you next my heart, have not alone
  7. Employ’d you where high profits might come home,
  8. But par’d my present havings, to bestow
  9. My bounties upon you.

Cardinal Wolsey

203
  1. Aside.
  2.                       What should this mean?

Earl of Surrey

204
  1. Aside.
  2. The Lord increase this business!

King

205 - 209
  1.                                  Have I not made you
  2. The prime man of the state? I pray you tell me,
  3. If what I now pronounce you have found true;
  4. And if you may confess it, say withal
  5. If you are bound to us, or no. What say you?

Cardinal Wolsey

210 - 223
  1. My sovereign, I confess your royal graces
  2. Show’r’d on me daily have been more than could
  3. My studied purposes requite, which went
  4. Beyond all man’s endeavors. My endeavors
  5. Have ever come too short of my desires,
  6. Yet fill’d with my abilities. Mine own ends
  7. Have been mine so, that evermore they pointed
  8. To th’ good of your most sacred person and
  9. The profit of the state. For your great graces
  10. Heap’d upon me, poor undeserver, I
  11. Can nothing render but allegiant thanks,
  12. My pray’rs to heaven for you, my loyalty,
  13. Which ever has and ever shall be growing,
  14. Till death, that winter, kill it.

King

224 - 235
  1.                                   Fairly answer’d.
  2. A loyal and obedient subject is
  3. Therein illustrated; the honor of it
  4. Does pay the act of it, as i’ th’ contrary
  5. The foulness is the punishment. I presume
  6. That, as my hand has open’d bounty to you,
  7. My heart dropp’d love, my pow’r rain’d honor, more
  8. On you than any, so your hand and heart,
  9. Your brain, and every function of your power,
  10. Should, notwithstanding that your bond of duty,
  11. As ’twere in love’s particular, be more
  12. To me, your friend, than any.

Cardinal Wolsey

236 - 245
  1.                               I do profess
  2. That for your Highness’ good I ever labor’d
  3. More than mine own; that am, have, and will be
  4. (Though all the world should crack their duty to you
  5. And throw it from their soul, though perils did
  6. Abound, as thick as thought could make ’em, and
  7. Appear in forms more horrid), yet my duty,
  8. As doth a rock against the chiding flood,
  9. Should the approach of this wild river break,
  10. And stand unshaken yours.
The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey

The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey

John Pettie, 1869

King

246 - 250
  1.                           ’Tis nobly spoken.
  2. Take notice, lords, he has a loyal breast,
  3. For you have seen him open’t. Read o’er this,
  4. Giving him papers.
  5. And after, this, and then to breakfast with
  6. What appetite you have.
  1. Exit King, frowning upon the Cardinal; the Nobles throng
  2. after him, smiling and whispering.

Cardinal Wolsey

251 - 275
  1.                         What should this mean?
  2. What sudden anger’s this? How have I reap’d it?
  3. He parted frowning from me, as if ruin
  4. Leap’d from his eyes. So looks the chafed lion
  5. Upon the daring huntsman that has gall’d him;
  6. Then makes him nothing. I must read this paper;
  7. I fear, the story of his anger. ’Tis so!
  8. This paper has undone me. ’Tis th’ accompt
  9. Of all that world of wealth I have drawn together
  10. For mine own ends (indeed to gain the popedom
  11. And fee my friends in Rome). O negligence!
  12. Fit for a fool to fall by. What cross devil
  13. Made me put this main secret in the packet
  14. I sent the King? Is there no way to cure this?
  15. No new device to beat this from his brains?
  16. I know ’twill stir him strongly; yet I know
  17. A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune
  18. Will bring me off again. What’s this? “To th’ Pope”?
  19. The letter, as I live, with all the business
  20. I writ to ’s Holiness. Nay then, farewell!
  21. I have touch’d the highest point of all my greatness,
  22. And, from that full meridian of my glory,
  23. I haste now to my setting. I shall fall
  24. Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
  25. And no man see me more.
  1. Enter to Wolsey the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Earl
  2. of Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Duke of Norfolk

276 - 280
  1. Hear the King’s pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you
  2. To render up the great seal presently
  3. Into our hands, and to confine yourself
  4. To Asher-house, my Lord of Winchester’s,
  5. Till you hear further from his Highness.

Cardinal Wolsey

281 - 283
  1.                                          Stay!
  2. Where’s your commission, lords? Words cannot carry
  3. Authority so weighty.

Duke of Suffolk

284 - 285
  1.                       Who dare cross ’em,
  2. Bearing the King’s will from his mouth expressly?

Cardinal Wolsey

286 - 300
  1. Till I find more than will or words to do it
  2. (I mean your malice), know, officious lords,
  3. I dare and must deny it. Now I feel
  4. Of what coarse metal ye are moulded, envy,
  5. How eagerly ye follow my disgraces
  6. As if it fed ye, and how sleek and wanton
  7. Ye appear in every thing may bring my ruin!
  8. Follow your envious courses, men of malice!
  9. You have Christian warrant for ’em, and no doubt
  10. In time will find their fit rewards. That seal
  11. You ask with such a violence, the King
  12. (Mine and your master) with his own hand gave me;
  13. Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honors,
  14. During my life; and, to confirm his goodness,
  15. Tied it by letters-patents. Now, who’ll take it?

Earl of Surrey

301
  1. The King, that gave it.

Cardinal Wolsey

302
  1.                         It must be himself then.

Earl of Surrey

303
  1. Thou art a proud traitor, priest.

Cardinal Wolsey

304 - 306
  1.                                   Proud lord, thou liest!
  2. Within these forty hours Surrey durst better
  3. Have burnt that tongue than said so.

Earl of Surrey

307 - 317
  1.                                      Thy ambition,
  2. Thou scarlet sin, robb’d this bewailing land
  3. Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law;
  4. The heads of all thy brother cardinals
  5. (With thee and all thy best parts bound together)
  6. Weigh’d not a hair of his. Plague of your policy!
  7. You sent me deputy for Ireland,
  8. Far from his succor, from the King, from all
  9. That might have mercy on the fault thou gav’st him;
  10. Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity,
  11. Absolv’d him with an axe.

What should this mean?

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1908

Cardinal Wolsey

318 - 329
  1.                           This, and all else
  2. This talking lord can lay upon my credit,
  3. I answer is most false. The Duke by law
  4. Found his deserts. How innocent I was
  5. From any private malice in his end,
  6. His noble jury and foul cause can witness.
  7. If I lov’d many words, lord, I should tell you
  8. You have as little honesty as honor,
  9. That in the way of loyalty and truth
  10. Toward the King, my ever royal master,
  11. Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be,
  12. And all that love his follies.

Earl of Surrey

330 - 337
  1.                                By my soul,
  2. Your long coat, priest, protects you, thou shouldst feel
  3. My sword i’ th’ life-blood of thee else. My lords,
  4. Can ye endure to hear this arrogance?
  5. And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely,
  6. To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet,
  7. Farewell nobility! Let his Grace go forward,
  8. And dare us with his cap, like larks.

Cardinal Wolsey

338 - 339
  1.                                       All goodness
  2. Is poison to thy stomach.

Earl of Surrey

340 - 353
  1.                           Yes, that goodness
  2. Of gleaning all the land’s wealth into one,
  3. Into your own hands, Card’nal, by extortion;
  4. The goodness of your intercepted packets
  5. You writ to th’ Pope against the King. Your goodness,
  6. Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious.
  7. My Lord of Norfolk, as you are truly noble,
  8. As you respect the common good, the state
  9. Of our despis’d nobility, our issues
  10. (Whom, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen),
  11. Produce the grand sum of his sins, the articles
  12. Collected from his life. I’ll startle you
  13. Worse than the sacring bell, when the brown wench
  14. Lay kissing in your arms, Lord Cardinal.

Cardinal Wolsey

354 - 355
  1. How much, methinks, I could despise this man,
  2. But that I am bound in charity against it!

Duke of Norfolk

356 - 357
  1. Those articles, my lord, are in the King’s hand:
  2. But thus much, they are foul ones.

Cardinal Wolsey

358 - 360
  1.                                    So much fairer
  2. And spotless shall mine innocence arise
  3. When the King knows my truth.

Earl of Surrey

361 - 365
  1.                               This cannot save you.
  2. I thank my memory, I yet remember
  3. Some of these articles, and out they shall.
  4. Now, if you can blush, and cry “Guilty,” Cardinal,
  5. You’ll show a little honesty.

Cardinal Wolsey

366 - 368
  1.                               Speak on, sir,
  2. I dare your worst objections. If I blush,
  3. It is to see a nobleman want manners.

Earl of Surrey

369 - 372
  1. I had rather want those than my head. Have at you!
  2. First, that without the King’s assent or knowledge,
  3. You wrought to be a legate, by which power
  4. You maim’d the jurisdiction of all bishops.

Duke of Norfolk

373 - 376
  1. Then, that in all you writ to Rome, or else
  2. To foreign princes, “Ego et Rex meus”
  3. Was still inscrib’d; in which you brought the King
  4. To be your servant.

Duke of Suffolk

377 - 380
  1.                     Then, that without the knowledge
  2. Either of King or Council, when you went
  3. Ambassador to the Emperor, you made bold
  4. To carry into Flanders the great seal.

Earl of Surrey

381 - 384
  1. Item, you sent a large commission
  2. To Gregory de Cassado, to conclude,
  3. Without the King’s will or the state’s allowance,
  4. A league between his Highness and Ferrara.

Duke of Suffolk

385 - 386
  1. That out of mere ambition, you have caus’d
  2. Your holy hat to be stamp’d on the King’s coin.

Earl of Surrey

387 - 393
  1. Then, that you have sent innumerable substance
  2. (By what means got, I leave to your own conscience)
  3. To furnish Rome, and to prepare the ways
  4. You have for dignities, to the mere undoing
  5. Of all the kingdom. Many more there are,
  6. Which since they are of you, and odious,
  7. I will not taint my mouth with.

Lord Chamberlain

394 - 398
  1.                                 O my lord,
  2. Press not a falling man too far! ’Tis virtue.
  3. His faults lie open to the laws, let them,
  4. Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to see him
  5. So little of his great self.
Costume design for King Henry VIII

Costume design for King Henry VIII

Emma Hamilton Smith, Charles Hamilton Smith, circa 1856

Earl of Surrey

399
  1.                              I forgive him.

Duke of Suffolk

400 - 407
  1. Lord Cardinal, the King’s further pleasure is—
  2. Because all those things you have done of late
  3. By your power legative within this kingdom
  4. Fall into th’ compass of a praemunire—
  5. That therefore such a writ be sued against you,
  6. To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,
  7. Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be
  8. Out of the King’s protection. This is my charge.

Duke of Norfolk

408 - 412
  1. And so we’ll leave you to your meditations
  2. How to live better. For your stubborn answer
  3. About the giving back the great seal to us,
  4. The King shall know it, and, no doubt, shall thank you.
  5. So fare you well, my little good Lord Cardinal.
  1. Exeunt all but Wolsey.

Cardinal Wolsey

413 - 436
  1. So farewell—to the little good you bear me.
  2. Farewell? A long farewell to all my greatness!
  3. This is the state of man: today he puts forth
  4. The tender leaves of hopes, tomorrow blossoms,
  5. And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
  6. The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
  7. And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
  8. His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
  9. And then he falls as I do. I have ventur’d,
  10. Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
  11. This many summers in a sea of glory,
  12. But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride
  13. At length broke under me, and now has left me,
  14. Weary and old with service, to the mercy
  15. Of a rude stream that must forever hide me.
  16. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye!
  17. I feel my heart new open’d. O how wretched
  18. Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors!
  19. There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
  20. That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
  21. More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
  22. And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
  23. Never to hope again.
  24. Enter Cromwell, standing amazed.
  25.                      Why, how now, Cromwell?

Cromwell

437
  1. I have no power to speak, sir.

Cardinal Wolsey

438 - 441
  1.                                What, amaz’d
  2. At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder
  3. A great man should decline? Nay, and you weep
  4. I am fall’n indeed.

Cromwell

442
  1.                     How does your Grace?

Cardinal Wolsey

443 - 452
  1.                      Why, well;
  2. Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell;
  3. I know myself now, and I feel within me
  4. A peace above all earthly dignities,
  5. A still and quiet conscience. The King has cur’d me,
  6. I humbly thank his Grace; and from these shoulders,
  7. These ruin’d pillars, out of pity taken
  8. A load would sink a navy—too much honor.
  9. O, ’tis a burden, Cromwell, ’tis a burden
  10. Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven!

Cromwell

453
  1. I am glad your Grace has made that right use of it.

Cardinal Wolsey

454 - 458
  1. I hope I have. I am able now, methinks
  2. (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel),
  3. To endure more miseries and greater far
  4. Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer.
  5. What news abroad?

Cromwell

459 - 460
  1.                   The heaviest and the worst
  2. Is your displeasure with the King.

Cardinal Wolsey

461
  1.                                    God bless him!

Cromwell

462 - 463
  1. The next is, that Sir Thomas More is chosen
  2. Lord Chancellor in your place.

Cardinal Wolsey

464 - 470
  1.                                That’s somewhat sudden;
  2. But he’s a learned man. May he continue
  3. Long in his Highness’ favor, and do justice
  4. For truth’s sake and his conscience, that his bones,
  5. When he has run his course and sleeps in blessings,
  6. May have a tomb of orphants’ tears wept on him!
  7. What more?

Cromwell

471 - 472
  1.            That Cranmer is return’d with welcome,
  2. Install’d Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

Cardinal Wolsey

473
  1. That’s news indeed.
Scene designs for King Henry VIII

Scene designs for King Henry VIII

From Charles Kean's scrapbook

19th century

Cromwell

474 - 478
  1.                     Last, that the Lady Anne,
  2. Whom the King hath in secrecy long married,
  3. This day was view’d in open as his queen,
  4. Going to chapel; and the voice is now
  5. Only about her coronation.

Cardinal Wolsey

479 - 493
  1. There was the weight that pull’d me down. O Cromwell,
  2. The King has gone beyond me! All my glories
  3. In that one woman I have lost forever.
  4. No sun shall ever usher forth mine honors,
  5. Or gild again the noble troops that waited
  6. Upon my smiles. Go get thee from me, Cromwell!
  7. I am a poor fall’n man, unworthy now
  8. To be thy lord and master. Seek the King!
  9. That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him
  10. What, and how true, thou art; he will advance thee.
  11. Some little memory of me will stir him
  12. (I know his noble nature) not to let
  13. Thy hopeful service perish too. Good Cromwell,
  14. Neglect him not; make use now, and provide
  15. For thine own future safety.

Cromwell

494 - 500
  1.                              O my lord,
  2. Must I then leave you? Must I needs forgo
  3. So good, so noble, and so true a master?
  4. Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron,
  5. With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.
  6. The King shall have my service; but my pray’rs
  7. Forever and forever shall be yours.

Cardinal Wolsey

501 - 530
  1. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear
  2. In all my miseries; but thou hast forc’d me
  3. (Out of thy honest truth) to play the woman.
  4. Let’s dry our eyes; and thus far hear me, Cromwell,
  5. And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,
  6. And sleep in dull cold marble where no mention
  7. Of me more must be heard of, say I taught thee;
  8. Say Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,
  9. And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,
  10. Found thee a way, out of his wrack, to rise in;
  11. A sure and safe one, though thy master miss’d it.
  12. Mark but my fall, and that that ruin’d me:
  13. Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition!
  14. By that sin fell the angels; how can man then
  15. (The image of his Maker) hope to win by it?
  16. Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee;
  17. Corruption wins not more than honesty.
  18. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace
  19. To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not;
  20. Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s,
  21. Thy God’s, and truth’s; then if thou fall’st, O Cromwell,
  22. Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!
  23. Serve the King, and—prithee lead me in.
  24. There take an inventory of all I have,
  25. To the last penny, ’tis the King’s. My robe,
  26. And my integrity to heaven, is all
  27. I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell,
  28. Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal
  29. I serv’d my king, He would not in mine age
  30. Have left me naked to mine enemies.

Cromwell

531
  1. Good sir, have patience.

Cardinal Wolsey

532 - 533
  1.                          So I have. Farewell
  2. The hopes of court! My hopes in heaven do dwell.
  1. Exeunt.
Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

What piles of wealth hath he accumulated to his own portion!

From: Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare

Mary Cowden Clarke, Charles Cowden Clarke, 1870

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons