And spotless, shall mine innocence arise,
When the king knows my truth.
Sur.

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.

IVol.

Speak on, sir:

I dare your worst objection: if I blush,
It is, to see a nobleman want manners.
Sur. I'd rather want those, than my head. Have
at you.

upon him;

And bears his blushing honours thick
The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost;

This cannot save you; 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 ventur'd,
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,6
More pangs and fears than wars or women have ;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.”-

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.

Nor. Then, that, in all you writ to Rome, or else
To foreign princes, Ego et Rex meus
Was still inscrib'd; in which you brought the king
To be your servant.

Suf.
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.

Sur. Item, you sent a large commission
To Gregory de Cassalis, to conclude,
Without the king's will, or the state's allowance,
A league between his highness and Ferrara.
Suf. That, cut of mere ambition, you have caus'd
Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the king's coin,1
Sur. Then, that you have sent innumerable sub-

stance

(By what means got, I leave to your own con-
science,)

To furnish Rome, and to prepare the ways
You have for dignities; to the mere2 undoing:
Of all the kingdom. Many more there are;
Which, since they are of you, and odious,
I will not taint my mouth with.
Cham.

my lord,

Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:

His faults lie open to the laws; let them,

Enter CROMWELL, amazedly.

Why, how now, Cromwell? Crom. I have no power to speak, sir.

What, amaz'd
my misfortunes? can thy spirit wonder,
A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep,
I am fallen indeed..

How does your grace?

Why, well;

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now; and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. The king has cur'd mne,
I humbly thank his grace; and from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would sink a navy, too much honour:
O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, 'tis a burden,
Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven.
Crom. I am glad, your grace has made that right
use of it.

Wol. I hope, I have: I am able now, methinks,

Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to see him (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel,)
So little of his great self.

Suf. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure

is,

Because all those things, you have done of late
By your power legatine3 within this kingdom,
Fall into the compass of a præmunire,4
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.
Nor. 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

That's somewhat sudden.

But he's a learned man. May he continue
Long in his highness' favour, and do justice
For truth's sake, and his conscience; that his bones,
When he has run his course, and sleeps in blessings,
May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on 'em!
What more?

Crom. That Cranmer is return'd with welcome,
Install'd lord archbishop of Canterbury.
Wol. That's news, indeed.
Crom.
Last, that the Lady Anne,
Whom the king hath in secrecy long married,
This day was view'd in open,1o as his queen,

6 Their ruin is their displeasure,' producing the
downfall and ruin of him on whom it lights.
7 Thomas Storer, in his Metrical Life of Wolsey.
[1599, has a similar image :-

'If once we fall, we fall Colossus-like,
We fall at once, like pillars of the sunne'

8 So in King Henry VI. Part 2:

'More can I bear, than you dare execute."

1 This was one of the articles exhibited against Wolsey, but rather with a view to swell the catalogue than from any serious cause of accusation; inasmuch as the Archbishops Cranmer, Bainbridge, and Warham were indulged with the same privileges. See Snelling's View of the Silver Coin of England.--Douce. 2 Absolute. 3 As the pope's legate. 4 The judgment in a writ of præmunire (a barbarous 9 The chancellor is the general guardian of orphans Steeword used instead of præmonere) is, that the defendant'A tomb of tears (says Johnson) is very harsh.' shall be out of the king's protection; and his lands and vens has adduced an Epigram of Martial, in which the tenements, goods and chattels forfeited to the king; Heliades are said to weep a tomb of tears,' over a viper. and that his body shall remain in prison at the king's V. Lib. iv. Epig. 59. Drummond, in his Teares for the pleasure. The old copy reads, erroneously, castles, Death of Moeliades, has the same conceit :instead of cattels, the old word for chattels, as it is found in Holinshed, p. 909.

5. Thus in Shakspeare's twenty-fifth Sonnet:-
"Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread,
But as the marigold in the sun's eye;
And in themselves their pride lies buried,

For at a frown they in their glory die.'

The Muses, Phœbus, Love, have raised of their teares
A crystal tomb to him, through which his worth appears.'
There is a similar conceit in King Richard II. Act iii
Sc. 3.

10 In open is a Latinism. 'Et castris in aperto posi
tis,' Liv. i. 33; i. e. in a place exposed on all sides to
view

Going to chapel; and the voice is now
Only about her coronation.

Vol. There was the weight that pull'd me down.
O Cromwell,

The king has gone beyond me, all my glories
In that one woman I have lost for ever:

No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours,

Or gild again the noble troops that waited

Upon my smiles.' Go, get thee from me, Cromwell:
I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now
To be thy lord and master: Seek the king;
That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him
What, and how true thou art: he will advance thee
Some little memory of me will stir him.

(I know his noble nature) not to let
Thy hopeful service perish too: Good Cromwell,
Neglect him not; make use2
now, and provide
For thine own future safety.

Crom.
O, my lord,
Must I then leave you? Must I needs forego
So good, so noble, and so true a master?
Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron,
With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.-
The king shall have my service; but my prayers
For ever, and for ever, shall be yours.

Wol. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear
In all my miseries; but thou hast forc'd me
Out of thy honest truth to play the woman.
Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, Crom-

well;

And,--when I am forgotten, as I shall be ;
And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of,—say, I taught thee;
Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour,-
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in;
A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it.
Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;3
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker, hope to win by't?
Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate
thee;

Corruption wins not more than honesty ;4
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:
Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O
Cromwell,

Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. Serve the king:
And,-Pr'ythee, lead me in:

There take an inventory of all I have,"

To the last penny: 'tis the king's: my robe,
And my integrity to heaven, is all

I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Crom-
well,

Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal

1 The number of persons who composed Cardinal Wolsey's household, according to the authentic copy of Cavendish, was five hundred. Cavendish's work, though written soon after the death of Wolsey, was not printed till 1641, and then in a most unfaithful and garbled manner, the object of the publication having been to Fender Laud odious, by showing how far church nower had been extended by Wolsey, and how dangerous that prelate was, who, in the opinion of many, followed his example. In that spurious copy we read that the number of the household was eight hundred persons. In other MSS. and in Dr. Wordsworth's edition, we find it stated at one hundred and eighty persons. 2 i. e. interest.

3 Ambition here means a criminal and inordinate ambition, that endeavours to obtain honours unsuited to the state of a subject. Wolsey does not mean to condemn every kind of ambition, for in the preceding line he says he will instruct Cromwell how to rise.

4 Wolsey speaks here not as a statesman but as a Christian. Nothing makes the hour of disgrace more irksome than the reflection that we have been deaf to offers of reconciliation, and perpetuated that enmity which we might have converted into friendship.

Nor, I'll assure you, better taken, sir.
That paper in your hand?
2 Gent. May I be bold to ask what that contains

1 Gent.

Yes; 'tis the list
Of those, that claim their offices this day,
By custom of the coronation.

The duke of Suffolk is the first, and claims
To be high steward; next, the duke of Norfolk,
He to be carl marshal: you may read the rest.

2 Gent. I thank you, sir; had I not known thos
customs,

I should have been beholden to your paper.
But, I beseech you, what's become of Katharine,
The princess dowager? how goes her business?

Of Canterbury, accompanied with other
1 Gent. That I can tell you too. The archbisho
Learned and reverend fathers of his order,
Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles off
From Ampthill, where the princess lay; to which
She oft was cited by them, but appear'd not:
And, to be short, for not appearance, and
The king's late scruple, by the main assent
Of all these learned men she was divorc'd,
And the late marriage made of none effect:

6 This was actually said by the cardinal when on hi. death-bed, in a conversation with Sir William Kingston the whole of which is very interesting:- Well, well, Master Kingston,' quoth he, "I see the matter against me how it is framed, but if I had served my God as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. Howbeit this is the just reward that I must receive for my worldly diligence and pains that I have had to do him service; only to sa tisfy his vain pleasure, not regarding my godly duty.'

When Samrah, deputy governor of Bassorah, was deposed by Moawryah, the sixth caliph, he is reported to have expressed himself in the same manner :—“If I had served God so well as I served him, he would never have condemned me to all eternity. A similar sentiment also occurs in The Earle of Murton's Tragedie, by Churchyard, 1593. Antonio Perez, the disgraced favourite, made the same complaint. Mr. Douce has also pointed out a remarkable passage in Pittscottie's History of Scotland, p. 261, edit. 1789, in which there is a great resemblance to these pathetic words of the cardinal. James V. imagined that Sir James Hamilton addressed him thus in a dream :-Though I was a sinner against God, I failed not to thee. Had I been as good a servant to the Lord my God as I was to thee, I had not died that death.'

7 Malone's explanation of this passage is entirely er 5 This inventory is still to be seen among the Harleian roneous; royal minds are high minds, or as we sti MSS. No. 599. Some of the particulars may be seen in say, princely dispositions. To avaunt himself royally : Stowe's Chronicle, p. 546, ed. 1631. See also Mr. El-Magnifice se efferre.'- Baret. lis's Historical Letters, vol. ii. p. 15.

8 i. e. the marriage lately conside ed as val

1 Happily is sometimes used by Shakspeare for hap-sage ly, peradventure; but it here more probably means opportunely.

2 Cardinals generally rode on mules, as a mark perhaps of humility. Cavendish says that Wolsey 'rode ike a cardinal sumptuously upon his mule, trapped altogether in crimson velvet and gilt stirrups.'

3 Roads, or rodes, here, is the same as courses, stages, or journeys. From whence also was formed out-rodes, in-rodes, &c.

4 i. e. of unbounded pride or haughtiness. Thus Ho-to those that accepted and sought his friendship wonder. linshed :-- This cardinal was of a great stomach, for he computed himself equal with princes, and by crafty suggestions got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on simony, and was not pitifull, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open presence he would lie and seie untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning: he would promise much and perform little he was vicious of his bodie, and gave the clergie evil example.' Ed. 1587, p. 922.

5 Suggestion here, I think, means wicked prompting. It is used in this sense in The Tempest. I have no doubt that we should read tyth'd instead of ty'd, as Dr. Far-preferrer of his servants, an advauncer of learning, mer proposed, and as the passage quoted from Holinshed warrants. The word tythes was not exclusively used to signify the emoluments of the clergy.

that held the garland, deliver the same to the other | Sends you his princely commendations, next two, who observe the same order in their And heartily entreats you take good comfort. changes, and holding the garland over her head: Kath. O my good lord, that comfort comes too which done, they deliver the same garland to the late; 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 dancing they vanish, | carrying the garland with them. The music con

1 Gray had probably this passage in his mind when he made his Bard exclaim on a similar occasion:

6 Stay, O stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn.' 2 Queen Katharine's servants, after the divorce at Dunstable, and the Pope's curse stuck up at Dunkirk, were directed to be sworn to serve her not as queen but as princess dowager. Some refused to take the oath, and so were forced to leave her service; and as for those who took it and stayed, she would not be served by them, by which means she was almost destitute of attendants. See Hall's Chronicle, fol. 219. Bishop Burnet says that all the women about her still called her queen. Hist. of the Reformation, p. 162.

· perceiving hirselfe to waxe verie weake and feeble, and to feele death approaching at hand, caused one of hir gentle women to write a letter to the king,