I sent the king? Is there no way to cure this? I writ to his holiness. Nay then, farewell! I haste now to my setting: I shall fall Re-enter the DUKES of NORFOLK 19 and SUFFOLK, the EARL of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain. Nor. Hear the king's pleasure, cardinal: who commands you To render up the great seal presently 18, Thus in Marlowe's King Edward II. :— 'Base fortune, now I see that in thy wheel 19 The time of this play is from 1521, just before the duke of Buckingham's commitment, to 1533, when Elizabeth was born and christened. The duke of Norfolk, therefore, who is introduced in the first scene of the first act, or in 1522, is not the same person who here, or in 1529, demands the great seal from Wolsey; for the former died in 1525. Having thus made two persons into one, so the poet has on the contrary made one person into two. The earl of Surrey here is the same who married the duke of Buckingham's daughter, as he himself tell us: but Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, who married the duke of Buck ingham's daughter, was at this time the individual above mentioned, duke of Norfolk. Cavendish, and the chroniclers who copied from him, mention only the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk being sent to demand the great seal. The reason for adding a third and fourth person is not very apparent. Into our hands; and to confine yourself Wol. Suf. As if it fed ye? and how sleek and wanton (Mine, and your master) with his own hand gave me: Wol. It must be himself then. Proud lord, thou liest; Wol. Sur. Thy ambition, 20 Asher was the ancient name of Esher, in Surrey. Shakspeare forgot that Wolsey was himself Bishop of Winchester, having succeeded Bishop Fox in 1528, holding the see in commendam. Esher was one of the episcopal palaces belonging to that see. 21 That is, Till I find more than (your malicious) will and words to do it, I dare and must deny it.' Thou scarlet sin, robb'd this bewailing land (With thee, and all thy best parts bound together) Weigh'd not a hair of his. Plague of your policy! You sent me deputy for Ireland; Far from his succour, from the king, from all That might have mercy on the fault thou gav'st him ; Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity, Absolv'd him with an axe. Wol. This, and all else upon my credit, The duke by law Found his deserts: how innocent I was His noble jury and foul cause can witness. Dare mate 22 a sounder man than Surrey can be, Sur. By my soul, Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou should'st feel My sword i' the life-blood of thee else. My lords, Can endure to hear this arrogance? ye And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely, 22 i. e. equal. 23 i. e. overcrowed, overmastered. The force of this term may be best understood from a proverb given by Cotgrave, in v. Rosse, a jade. Il n'est si bon cheval qui n'en deviendroit rosse: It would anger a saint, or crestfall the best man living to be so used.' Thus in Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 1:The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia We have jaded out o'the field.' Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward, Wol. Is poison to thy stomach. Sur. All goodness Yes, that goodness Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, Into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion; ness, Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious.— My lord of Norfolk, as you are truly noble, As you respect the common good, the state Of our despis'd nobility, our issues, Who, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen,- you Worse than the sacring bell 25, when the brown wench Lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal 26. Wol. How much, methinks, I could despise this man, But that I am bound in charity against it! 24 A cardinal's hat is scarlet, and the method of daring larks is by small mirrors on scarlet cloth, which engages the attention of the birds while the fowler draws his nets over them. The same thought occurs in Skelton's Why come ye not to Court? a satire on Wolsey: The red hat with his lure Bringeth all things under cure.' 25 The little bell which is rung to give notice of the elevation of the Host, and other offices of the Romish Church, is called the sacring or consecration bell. Thus in Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584:- He heard a little sacring bell ring to the elevation of a to-morrow mass.' 26 The amorous propensities of Cardinal Wolsey are much dwelt upon in Roy's Satire against him, printed in the Supplement to Mr. Park's edition of the Harleian Miscellany. But it was a common topic of invective against the clergy; all came under the censure, and many no doubt richly deserved it. Nor. Those articles, my lord, are in the king's haud: But, thus much, they are foul ones. So much fairer, Wol. When the king knows my truth. Sur. 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, Wol. 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. 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 Sur. Item, you sent a large commission Suf. That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the king's coin 27. 27This 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 privilege. See Snelling's View of the Silver Coin of England.'— Douce. |