King Henry The Eighth

1 Cornets. Enter King Henry, leaning on the Cardinal’s shoulder, the
2 Nobles, and Sir Thomas Lovell; the Cardinal places himself under the
3 King’s feet on his right side.
4 KING.
5 My life itself, and the best heart of it,
6 Thanks you for this great care. I stood i’ th’ level
7 Of a full-charged confederacy, and give thanks
8 To you that choked it. Let be called before us
9 That gentleman of Buckingham’s; in person
10 I’ll hear his confessions justify,
11 And point by point the treasons of his master
12 He shall again relate.
13 A noise within crying “Room for the Queen!” Enter Queen Katherine,
14 ushered by the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk. She kneels. The
15 King riseth from his state, takes her up and kisses her.
16 QUEEN KATHERINE.
17 Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a suitor.
18 KING.
19 Arise, and take place by us.
20 [_He placeth her by him._]
21 Half your suit
22 Never name to us; you have half our power;
23 The other moiety ere you ask is given.
24 Repeat your will and take it.
25 QUEEN KATHERINE.
26 Thank your Majesty.
27 That you would love yourself, and in that love
28 Not unconsidered leave your honour nor
29 The dignity of your office, is the point
30 Of my petition.
31 KING.
32 Lady mine, proceed.
33 QUEEN KATHERINE.
34 I am solicited, not by a few,
35 And those of true condition, that your subjects
36 Are in great grievance. There have been commissions
37 Sent down among ’em which hath flawed the heart
38 Of all their loyalties; wherein, although,
39 My good Lord Cardinal, they vent reproaches
40 Most bitterly on you as putter-on
41 Of these exactions, yet the King our master,
42 Whose honour heaven shield from soil, even he escapes not
43 Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
44 The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
45 In loud rebellion.
46 NORFOLK.
47 Not “almost appears,”
48 It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
49 The clothiers all, not able to maintain
50 The many to them longing, have put off
51 The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
52 Unfit for other life, compelled by hunger
53 And lack of other means, in desperate manner
54 Daring the event to th’ teeth, are all in uproar,
55 And danger serves among them.
56 KING.
57 Taxation?
58 Wherein? And what taxation? My Lord Cardinal,
59 You that are blamed for it alike with us,
60 Know you of this taxation?
61 WOLSEY.
62 Please you, sir,
63 I know but of a single part in aught
64 Pertains to th’ state, and front but in that file
65 Where others tell steps with me.
66 QUEEN KATHERINE.
67 No, my lord?
68 You know no more than others? But you frame
69 Things that are known alike, which are not wholesome
70 To those which would not know them, and yet must
71 Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions
72 Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
73 Most pestilent to the hearing, and to bear ’em,
74 The back is sacrifice to the load. They say
75 They are devised by you, or else you suffer
76 Too hard an exclamation.
77 KING.
78 Still exaction!
79 The nature of it? In what kind, let’s know,
80 Is this exaction?
81 QUEEN KATHERINE.
82 I am much too venturous
83 In tempting of your patience, but am boldened
84 Under your promised pardon. The subjects’ grief
85 Comes through commissions, which compels from each
86 The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
87 Without delay; and the pretence for this
88 Is named your wars in France. This makes bold mouths.
89 Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
90 Allegiance in them. Their curses now
91 Live where their prayers did; and it’s come to pass
92 This tractable obedience is a slave
93 To each incensed will. I would your Highness
94 Would give it quick consideration, for
95 There is no primer business.
96 KING.
97 By my life,
98 This is against our pleasure.
99 WOLSEY.
100 And for me,
101 I have no further gone in this than by
102 A single voice, and that not passed me but
103 By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
104 Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
105 My faculties nor person, yet will be
106 The chronicles of my doing, let me say
107 ’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
108 That virtue must go through. We must not stint
109 Our necessary actions in the fear
110 To cope malicious censurers, which ever,
111 As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
112 That is new-trimmed, but benefit no further
113 Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
114 By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
115 Not ours or not allowed; what worst, as oft,
116 Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
117 For our best act. If we shall stand still
118 In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at,
119 We should take root here where we sit,
120 Or sit state-statues only.
121 KING.
122 Things done well,
123 And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
124 Things done without example, in their issue
125 Are to be feared. Have you a precedent
126 Of this commission? I believe, not any.
127 We must not rend our subjects from our laws
128 And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each?
129 A trembling contribution! Why, we take
130 From every tree lop, bark, and part o’ t’ timber,
131 And though we leave it with a root, thus hacked,
132 The air will drink the sap. To every county
133 Where this is questioned send our letters with
134 Free pardon to each man that has denied
135 The force of this commission. Pray, look to’t;
136 I put it to your care.
137 WOLSEY.
138 [_Aside to his Secretary_.] A word with you.
139 Let there be letters writ to every shire
140 Of the King’s grace and pardon. The grieved commons
141 Hardly conceive of me. Let it be noised
142 That through our intercession this revokement
143 And pardon comes. I shall anon advise you
144 Further in the proceeding.
145 [_Exit Secretary._]
146 Enter Surveyor.
147 QUEEN KATHERINE.
148 I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
149 Is run in your displeasure.
150 KING.
151 It grieves many.
152 The gentleman is learned and a most rare speaker;
153 To nature none more bound; his training such
154 That he may furnish and instruct great teachers
155 And never seek for aid out of himself. Yet see,
156 When these so noble benefits shall prove
157 Not well disposed, the mind growing once corrupt,
158 They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
159 Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
160 Who was enrolled ’mongst wonders, and when we,
161 Almost with ravished list’ning, could not find
162 His hour of speech a minute—he, my lady,
163 Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
164 That once were his, and is become as black
165 As if besmeared in hell. Sit by us. You shall hear—
166 This was his gentleman in trust—of him
167 Things to strike honour sad. Bid him recount
168 The fore-recited practices, whereof
169 We cannot feel too little, hear too much.
170 WOLSEY.
171 Stand forth, and with bold spirit relate what you,
172 Most like a careful subject, have collected
173 Out of the Duke of Buckingham.
174 KING.
175 Speak freely.
176 SURVEYOR.
177 First, it was usual with him—every day
178 It would infect his speech—that if the King
179 Should without issue die, he’ll carry it so
180 To make the sceptre his. These very words
181 I’ve heard him utter to his son-in-law,
182 Lord Abergavenny; to whom by oath he menaced
183 Revenge upon the Cardinal.
184 WOLSEY.
185 Please your Highness, note
186 This dangerous conception in this point,
187 Not friended by his wish to your high person
188 His will is most malignant, and it stretches
189 Beyond you to your friends.
190 QUEEN KATHERINE.
191 My learned Lord Cardinal,
192 Deliver all with charity.
193 KING.
194 Speak on.
195 How grounded he his title to the crown?
196 Upon our fail? To this point hast thou heard him
197 At any time speak aught?
198 SURVEYOR.
199 He was brought to this
200 By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Henton.
201 KING.
202 What was that Henton?
203 SURVEYOR.
204 Sir, a Chartreux friar,
205 His confessor, who fed him every minute
206 With words of sovereignty.
207 KING.
208 How know’st thou this?
209 SURVEYOR.
210 Not long before your Highness sped to France,
211 The Duke being at the Rose, within the parish
212 Saint Laurence Poultney, did of me demand
213 What was the speech among the Londoners
214 Concerning the French journey. I replied,
215 Men fear the French would prove perfidious,
216 To the King’s danger. Presently the Duke
217 Said ’twas the fear indeed, and that he doubted
218 ’Twould prove the verity of certain words
219 Spoke by a holy monk, “that oft,” says he,
220 “Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
221 John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour
222 To hear from him a matter of some moment;
223 Whom after under the confession’s seal
224 He solemnly had sworn that what he spoke
225 My chaplain to no creature living but
226 To me should utter, with demure confidence
227 This pausingly ensued: ‘Neither the King nor’s heirs,
228 Tell you the Duke—shall prosper. Bid him strive
229 To gain the love o’ th’ commonalty. The Duke
230 Shall govern England.’”
231 QUEEN KATHERINE.
232 If I know you well,
233 You were the Duke’s surveyor, and lost your office
234 On the complaint o’ th’ tenants. Take good heed
235 You charge not in your spleen a noble person
236 And spoil your nobler soul. I say, take heed—
237 Yes, heartily beseech you.
238 KING.
239 Let him on.
240 Go forward.
241 SURVEYOR.
242 On my soul, I’ll speak but truth.
243 I told my lord the Duke, by th’ devil’s illusions
244 The monk might be deceived, and that ’twas dangerous
245 For him to ruminate on this so far until
246 It forged him some design, which, being believed,
247 It was much like to do. He answered, “Tush,
248 It can do me no damage,” adding further
249 That had the King in his last sickness failed,
250 The Cardinal’s and Sir Thomas Lovell’s heads
251 Should have gone off.
252 KING.
253 Ha! What, so rank? Ah ha!
254 There’s mischief in this man. Canst thou say further?
255 SURVEYOR.
256 I can, my liege.
257 KING.
258 Proceed.
259 SURVEYOR.
260 Being at Greenwich,
261 After your Highness had reproved the Duke
262 About Sir William Bulmer—
263 KING.
264 I remember
265 Of such a time, being my sworn servant,
266 The Duke retained him his. But on. What hence?
267 SURVEYOR.
268 “If,” quoth he, “I for this had been committed,”
269 As to the Tower, I thought, “I would have played
270 The part my father meant to act upon
271 Th’ usurper Richard who, being at Salisbury,
272 Made suit to come in ’s presence; which if granted,
273 As he made semblance of his duty, would
274 Have put his knife into him.”
275 KING.
276 A giant traitor!
277 WOLSEY.
278 Now, madam, may his Highness live in freedom,
279 And this man out of prison?
280 QUEEN KATHERINE.
281 God mend all.
282 KING.
283 There’s something more would out of thee. What sayst?
284 SURVEYOR.
285 After “the Duke his father,” with “the knife,”
286 He stretched him, and with one hand on his dagger,
287 Another spread on ’s breast, mounting his eyes,
288 He did discharge a horrible oath, whose tenour
289 Was, were he evil used, he would outgo
290 His father by as much as a performance
291 Does an irresolute purpose.
292 KING.
293 There’s his period,
294 To sheathe his knife in us. He is attached.
295 Call him to present trial. If he may
296 Find mercy in the law, ’tis his; if none,
297 Let him not seek ’t of us. By day and night,
298 He’s traitor to th’ height!
299 [_Exeunt._]