King John & Henry VIII (35 page)

    These news are everywhere, every tongue speaks ’em,

    And every true heart weeps for’t. All that dare

    Look into these affairs see this main
end
⁴²
:

    The
French king’s sister
⁴³
. Heaven will one day open

    The king’s eyes, that so long have
slept upon
⁴⁴

    This
bold
⁴⁵
bad man.

SUFFOLK
    And free us from his slavery.

NORFOLK
    We had need pray,

    And heartily, for our deliverance,

    Or this imperious man will work us all

    From princes into pages: all men’s honours

    Lie like one
lump
⁵¹
before him, to be fashioned

    Into what
pitch
⁵²
he please.

SUFFOLK
    
For
⁵³
me, my lords,

    I love him not, nor fear him: there’s my creed:

    As I am
made
without him, so I’ll
stand
⁵⁵
,

    If the king please: his curses and his blessings

    Touch me alike: they’re
breath
⁵⁷
I not believe in.

    I knew him, and I know him: so I leave him

    To him that made him proud: the Pope.

NORFOLK
    Let’s in,

    And with some other business put the king

    From these sad thoughts, that work too much upon him:

    My lord, you’ll bear us company?

CHAMBERLAIN
    Excuse me,

    The king has sent me
otherwhere
⁶⁵
: besides,

    You’ll find a most unfit time to disturb him:

    Health to your lordships.

NORFOLK
    Thanks, my good Lord Chamberlain.

SUFFOLK
    How sad he looks: sure, he is much afflicted.

KING HENRY VIII
    Who’s there? Ha?

NORFOLK
    Pray God he be not angry.

KING HENRY VIII
    Who’s there, I say? How dare you thrust yourselves

    Into my private meditations?

    Who am I? Ha?

NORFOLK
    A gracious king that pardons all offences

    Malice ne’er meant: our breach of duty
this way
⁷⁶

    Is business of
estate
⁷⁷
, in which we come

    To know your royal pleasure.

KING HENRY VIII
    Ye are too bold:

    
Go to
⁸⁰
: I’ll make ye know your times of business:

    Is this an hour for
temporal
⁸¹
affairs? Ha?

    Who’s there? My good lord cardinal? O my Wolsey,

    The
quiet
⁸³
of my wounded conscience:

    Thou art a
cure
⁸⁴
fit for a king.— You’re welcome,

    Most learnèd reverend sir, into our kingdom:

    Use us and it.— My good lord, have great care

    I be not found a
talker
⁸⁷
.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Sir, you cannot:

    I would your grace would give us but an hour

    Of private conference.

KING HENRY VIII
    We are busy: go.

NORFOLK
    This
priest
⁹²
has no pride in him?

SUFFOLK
    Not to speak of:

    I would not be so
sick
⁹⁴
though for his place:

    But this cannot continue.

NORFOLK
    If it do,

    I’ll venture one
have-at-him
⁹⁷
.

SUFFOLK
    I another.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Your grace has given a
precedent
⁹⁹
of wisdom

    Above all princes, in committing freely

    Your
scruple
to the
voice of Christendom
¹⁰¹
:

    Who can be angry now? What
envy
¹⁰²
reach you?

    The
Spaniard
, tied by blood and favour to
her
¹⁰³
,

    Must now
confess
¹⁰⁴
, if they have any goodness,

    The trial just and noble. All the
clerks
¹⁰⁵
,

    I mean the learnèd ones in Christian kingdoms,

    
Have their free voices
¹⁰⁷
. Rome, the nurse of judgement,

    Invited by your noble self, hath sent

    One
general tongue
¹⁰⁹
unto us: this good man,

    
This just and learnèd priest, Card’nal Campeius,

    Whom once more I present unto your highness.

KING HENRY VIII
    And once more in mine arms I bid him welcome,

    And thank the holy
conclave
¹¹³
for their loves:

    They have sent me such a man I would have wished for.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Your grace must needs deserve all
strangers
¹¹⁵
’ loves,

    You are so noble: to your highness’ hand

    I
tender
my commission, by whose
virtue
¹¹⁷
,

    The court of Rome commanding, you my lord

    Cardinal of York, are joined with me their servant

    In the
unpartial
¹²⁰
judging of this business.

KING HENRY VIII
    Two equal men: the queen shall be acquainted

    Forthwith for what you come. Where’s Gardiner?

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    I know your majesty has always loved her

    So dear in heart, not to deny her
that
¹²⁴

    A woman of less
place
¹²⁵
might ask by law:

    Scholars allowed freely to argue for her.

KING HENRY VIII
    Ay, and the best she shall have, and my favour

    To him that does best, God forbid else. Cardinal,

    Prithee call Gardiner to me, my new secretary.

    I find him a
fit
¹³⁰
fellow.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Give me your hand: much joy and favour to you;

    You are the king’s now.

GARDINER
    But to be commanded

    For ever by your grace, whose hand has raised me.

KING HENRY VIII
    Come hither, Gardiner.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    My lord of York, was not one Doctor Pace

    In this man’s place before him?

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Yes, he was.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Was he not held a learnèd man?

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Yes, surely.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    Believe me, there’s an ill opinion spread then,

    Even of yourself, lord cardinal.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    How? Of me?

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS
    They will not
stick
¹⁴⁴
to say you envied him,

    And fearing he would rise, he was so virtuous,

    
Kept him a foreign man still
¹⁴⁶
, which so grieved him,

    That he ran mad and died.

CARDINAL WOLSEY
    Heav’n’s peace be with him:

    That’s Christian care enough: for living
murmurers
¹⁴⁹

    There’s places of rebuke. He was a fool,

    For he would needs be virtuous. That good fellow,

    If I command him, follows my
appointment
¹⁵²
:

    I will have
none so near else
¹⁵³
. Learn this, brother,

    We live not to be
griped
by
meaner
¹⁵⁴
persons.

KING HENRY VIII
    
Deliver
this with
modesty
¹⁵⁵
to th’queen.

    The most convenient place that I can think of

    
For such receipt of learning
is
Blackfriars
¹⁵⁷
:

    There ye shall meet about this weighty business.

    My Wolsey, see it
furnished
¹⁵⁹
. O, my lord,

    Would it not grieve an
able
¹⁶⁰
man to leave

    So sweet a
bedfellow
? But,
conscience
¹⁶¹
, conscience:

    O, ’tis a tender place, and I must leave her.

ANNE
    
Not for that neither
: here’s the pang that
pinches
¹
:

    His highness having lived so long with her, and she

    So good a lady that no tongue could ever

    
Pronounce
⁴
dishonour of her — by my life,

    She never knew harm-doing — O, now, after

    So many
courses of the sun
⁶
enthroned,

    Still growing in a majesty and pomp, the which

    To leave a thousandfold more bitter than

    ’Tis sweet at first to acquire — after this
process
⁹
,

    To give her the
avaunt
, it is a
pity
¹⁰

    Would move a monster.

OLD LADY
    Hearts of most hard
temper
¹²

    Melt and lament for her.

ANNE
    O, God’s will! Much better

    She ne’er had known pomp: though’t be
temporal
¹⁵
,

    Yet, if that
quarrel
¹⁶
, fortune, do divorce

    It from the bearer, ’tis a
sufferance panging
¹⁷

    As soul and body’s severing.

OLD LADY
    Alas, poor lady,

    She’s a
stranger
²⁰
now again.

ANNE
    So much the more

    Must pity drop upon her: verily,

    I swear, ’tis better to be lowly born,

    And
range
with
humble livers
²⁴
in content,

    Than to be
perked up
in a
glist’ring
²⁵
grief,

    And wear a golden sorrow.

OLD LADY
    Our content

    Is our best
having
²⁸
.

ANNE
    By my
troth
and
maidenhead
²⁹
,

    I would not be a queen.

OLD LADY
    
Beshrew
³¹
me, I would,

    And venture maidenhead for’t, and so would you,

    For all this
spice
³³
of your hypocrisy:

    You, that have
so fair parts
³⁴
of woman on you,

    Have, too, a woman’s heart, which ever yet

    
Affected
³⁶
eminence, wealth, sovereignty:

    Which, to say
sooth
³⁷
, are blessings: and which gifts,

    
Saving
your
mincing
³⁸
, the capacity

    Of your soft
cheverel
³⁹
conscience would receive,

    If you might please to stretch it.

ANNE
    Nay, good
troth
⁴¹
.

OLD LADY
    Yes, troth and troth: you would not be a queen?

ANNE
    No, not for all the riches under heaven.

OLD LADY
    ’Tis strange: a three-pence
bowed
⁴⁴
would hire me,