King Henry The Eighth

1 Enter the Duke of Norfolk at one door; at the other, the Duke of
2 Buckingham and the Lord Abergavenny.
3 BUCKINGHAM.
4 Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done
5 Since last we saw in France?
6 NORFOLK.
7 I thank your Grace,
8 Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer
9 Of what I saw there.
10 BUCKINGHAM.
11 An untimely ague
12 Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when
13 Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
14 Met in the vale of Andren.
15 NORFOLK.
16 ’Twixt Guynes and Arde.
17 I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,
18 Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung
19 In their embracement, as they grew together—
20 Which had they, what four throned ones could have weighed
21 Such a compounded one?
22 BUCKINGHAM.
23 All the whole time
24 I was my chamber’s prisoner.
25 NORFOLK.
26 Then you lost
27 The view of earthly glory. Men might say,
28 Till this time pomp was single, but now married
29 To one above itself. Each following day
30 Became the next day’s master, till the last
31 Made former wonders its. Today the French,
32 All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
33 Shone down the English; and tomorrow, they
34 Made Britain India: every man that stood
35 Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
36 As cherubins, all gilt. The madams too,
37 Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
38 The pride upon them, that their very labour
39 Was to them as a painting. Now this masque
40 Was cried incomparable; and th’ ensuing night
41 Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
42 Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
43 As presence did present them: him in eye,
44 Still him in praise; and being present both,
45 ’Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner
46 Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns—
47 For so they phrase ’em—by their heralds challenged
48 The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
49 Beyond thought’s compass, that former fabulous story,
50 Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
51 That Bevis was believed.
52 BUCKINGHAM.
53 O, you go far.
54 NORFOLK.
55 As I belong to worship and affect
56 In honour honesty, the tract of everything
57 Would by a good discourser lose some life,
58 Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal;
59 To the disposing of it nought rebelled;
60 Order gave each thing view; the office did
61 Distinctly his full function.
62 BUCKINGHAM.
63 Who did guide,
64 I mean, who set the body and the limbs
65 Of this great sport together, as you guess?
66 NORFOLK.
67 One, certes, that promises no element
68 In such a business.
69 BUCKINGHAM.
70 I pray you who, my lord?
71 NORFOLK.
72 All this was ordered by the good discretion
73 Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.
74 BUCKINGHAM.
75 The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed
76 From his ambitious finger. What had he
77 To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
78 That such a keech can with his very bulk
79 Take up the rays o’ th’ beneficial sun
80 And keep it from the earth.
81 NORFOLK.
82 Surely, sir,
83 There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
84 For, being not propped by ancestry, whose grace
85 Chalks successors their way, nor called upon
86 For high feats done to th’ crown; neither allied
87 To eminent assistants, but spider-like,
88 Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note
89 The force of his own merit makes his way
90 A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
91 A place next to the King.
92 ABERGAVENNY.
93 I cannot tell
94 What heaven hath given him—let some graver eye
95 Pierce into that—but I can see his pride
96 Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?
97 If not from hell, the devil is a niggard,
98 Or has given all before, and he begins
99 A new hell in himself.
100 BUCKINGHAM.
101 Why the devil,
102 Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
103 Without the privity o’ th’ King, t’ appoint
104 Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
105 Of all the gentry, for the most part such
106 To whom as great a charge as little honour
107 He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,
108 The honourable board of council out,
109 Must fetch him in he papers.
110 ABERGAVENNY.
111 I do know
112 Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
113 By this so sickened their estates that never
114 They shall abound as formerly.
115 BUCKINGHAM.
116 O, many
117 Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em
118 For this great journey. What did this vanity
119 But minister communication of
120 A most poor issue?
121 NORFOLK.
122 Grievingly I think
123 The peace between the French and us not values
124 The cost that did conclude it.
125 BUCKINGHAM.
126 Every man,
127 After the hideous storm that followed, was
128 A thing inspired and, not consulting, broke
129 Into a general prophecy, that this tempest,
130 Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
131 The sudden breach on’t.
132 NORFOLK.
133 Which is budded out,
134 For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached
135 Our merchants’ goods at Bordeaux.
136 ABERGAVENNY.
137 Is it therefore
138 Th’ ambassador is silenced?
139 NORFOLK.
140 Marry, is’t.
141 ABERGAVENNY.
142 A proper title of a peace, and purchased
143 At a superfluous rate!
144 BUCKINGHAM.
145 Why, all this business
146 Our reverend Cardinal carried.
147 NORFOLK.
148 Like it your Grace,
149 The state takes notice of the private difference
150 Betwixt you and the Cardinal. I advise you—
151 And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
152 Honour and plenteous safety—that you read
153 The Cardinal’s malice and his potency
154 Together; to consider further that
155 What his high hatred would effect wants not
156 A minister in his power. You know his nature,
157 That he’s revengeful, and I know his sword
158 Hath a sharp edge; it’s long, and ’t may be said
159 It reaches far, and where ’twill not extend,
160 Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel;
161 You’ll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock
162 That I advise your shunning.
163 Enter Cardinal Wolsey, the purse borne before him, certain of the Guard
164 and two Secretaries with papers. The Cardinal in his passage fixeth his
165 eye on Buckingham, and Buckingham on him, both full of disdain.
166 WOLSEY.
167 The Duke of Buckingham’s surveyor, ha?
168 Where’s his examination?
169 SECRETARY.
170 Here, so please you.
171 WOLSEY.
172 Is he in person ready?
173 SECRETARY.
174 Ay, please your Grace.
175 WOLSEY.
176 Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham
177 Shall lessen this big look.
178 [_Exeunt Cardinal Wolsey and his train._]
179 BUCKINGHAM.
180 This butcher’s cur is venom-mouthed, and I
181 Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
182 Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar’s book
183 Outworths a noble’s blood.
184 NORFOLK.
185 What, are you chafed?
186 Ask God for temp’rance. That’s the appliance only
187 Which your disease requires.
188 BUCKINGHAM.
189 I read in ’s looks
190 Matter against me, and his eye reviled
191 Me as his abject object. At this instant
192 He bores me with some trick. He’s gone to th’ King.
193 I’ll follow, and outstare him.
194 NORFOLK.
195 Stay, my lord,
196 And let your reason with your choler question
197 What ’tis you go about. To climb steep hills
198 Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like
199 A full hot horse, who being allowed his way,
200 Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
201 Can advise me like you; be to yourself
202 As you would to your friend.
203 BUCKINGHAM.
204 I’ll to the King,
205 And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
206 This Ipswich fellow’s insolence, or proclaim
207 There’s difference in no persons.
208 NORFOLK.
209 Be advised.
210 Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
211 That it do singe yourself. We may outrun
212 By violent swiftness that which we run at,
213 And lose by over-running. Know you not,
214 The fire that mounts the liquor till ’t run o’er,
215 In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised.
216 I say again, there is no English soul
217 More stronger to direct you than yourself,
218 If with the sap of reason you would quench,
219 Or but allay the fire of passion.
220 BUCKINGHAM.
221 Sir,
222 I am thankful to you, and I’ll go along
223 By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow—
224 Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
225 From sincere motions—by intelligence,
226 And proofs as clear as founts in July when
227 We see each grain of gravel, I do know
228 To be corrupt and treasonous.
229 NORFOLK.
230 Say not “treasonous.”
231 BUCKINGHAM.
232 To th’ King I’ll say’t, and make my vouch as strong
233 As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
234 Or wolf, or both—for he is equal ravenous
235 As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
236 As able to perform’t, his mind and place
237 Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally—
238 Only to show his pomp as well in France
239 As here at home, suggests the King our master
240 To this last costly treaty, th’ interview,
241 That swallowed so much treasure, and like a glass
242 Did break i’ th’ rinsing.
243 NORFOLK.
244 Faith, and so it did.
245 BUCKINGHAM.
246 Pray give me favour, sir. This cunning Cardinal
247 The articles o’ th’ combination drew
248 As himself pleased; and they were ratified
249 As he cried “Thus let be,” to as much end
250 As give a crutch to the dead. But our Count-Cardinal
251 Has done this, and ’tis well, for worthy Wolsey,
252 Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows—
253 Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
254 To the old dam treason—Charles the Emperor,
255 Under pretence to see the Queen his aunt—
256 For ’twas indeed his colour, but he came
257 To whisper Wolsey—here makes visitation.
258 His fears were that the interview betwixt
259 England and France might through their amity
260 Breed him some prejudice, for from this league
261 Peeped harms that menaced him. He privily
262 Deals with our Cardinal, and, as I trow—
263 Which I do well, for I am sure the Emperor
264 Paid ere he promised, whereby his suit was granted
265 Ere it was asked. But when the way was made
266 And paved with gold, the Emperor thus desired
267 That he would please to alter the King’s course
268 And break the foresaid peace. Let the King know,
269 As soon he shall by me, that thus the Cardinal
270 Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases
271 And for his own advantage.
272 NORFOLK.
273 I am sorry
274 To hear this of him, and could wish he were
275 Something mistaken in’t.
276 BUCKINGHAM.
277 No, not a syllable.
278 I do pronounce him in that very shape
279 He shall appear in proof.
280 Enter Brandon, a Sergeant-at-arms before him, and two or three of the
281 Guard.
282 BRANDON.
283 Your office, sergeant: execute it.
284 SERGEANT.
285 Sir,
286 My lord the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl
287 Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I
288 Arrest thee of high treason, in the name
289 Of our most sovereign King.
290 BUCKINGHAM.
291 Lo you, my lord,
292 The net has fall’n upon me. I shall perish
293 Under device and practice.
294 BRANDON.
295 I am sorry
296 To see you ta’en from liberty, to look on
297 The business present. ’Tis his Highness’ pleasure
298 You shall to th’ Tower.
299 BUCKINGHAM.
300 It will help nothing
301 To plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me
302 Which makes my whit’st part black. The will of heaven
303 Be done in this and all things. I obey.
304 O my Lord Abergavenny, fare you well.
305 BRANDON.
306 Nay, he must bear you company.
307 [_To Abergavenny_.] The King
308 Is pleased you shall to th’ Tower, till you know
309 How he determines further.
310 ABERGAVENNY.
311 As the Duke said,
312 The will of heaven be done, and the King’s pleasure
313 By me obeyed.
314 BRANDON.
315 Here is warrant from
316 The King t’ attach Lord Montague, and the bodies
317 Of the Duke’s confessor, John de la Car,
318 One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor—
319 BUCKINGHAM.
320 So, so;
321 These are the limbs o’ th’ plot. No more, I hope?
322 BRANDON.
323 A monk o’ th’ Chartreux.
324 BUCKINGHAM.
325 O, Nicholas Hopkins?
326 BRANDON.
327 He.
328 BUCKINGHAM.
329 My surveyor is false. The o’er-great Cardinal
330 Hath showed him gold. My life is spanned already.
331 I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,
332 Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on
333 By dark’ning my clear sun. My lord, farewell.
334 [_Exeunt._]