My Lord of Norfolk, as you are truly noble, As you respect the common good, the state 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 scaring bell, when the brown wench Lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal. 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. CARDINAL WOLSEY So much fairer 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, You'll show a little honesty. CARDINAL 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, You wrought to be a legate; by which power You maim'd 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 To be your servant. 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 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 stamp'd on the king's coin. 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;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 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 legatine, within this kingdom, Fall into the compass of a praemunire, 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 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 CARDINAL WOLSEY CARDINAL WOLSEY So farewell to the little good you bear me.
Farewell! a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, 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, 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:
I feel my heart new open'd. 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:
