Though all the world should crack their duty to you,

And throw it from their soul, though perils did

Abound, as thick as thought could make ’em, and

Appear in forms more horrid—yet, my duty,

As doth a rock against the chiding flood,

Should the approach of this wild river break,

And stand unshaken yours.

KING HENRY

’Tis nobly spoken.

Take notice, lords, he has a loyal breast,

For you have seen him open’t. (To Wolsey) Read o’er this,

He gives him a paper

And after this (giving him another paper), and then to

breakfast with

What appetite you have.

Exit King Henry, frowning upon the

Cardinal. The nobles throng after

the King, smiling and whispering

CARDINAL WOLSEY What should this mean?

What sudden anger’s this? How have I reaped it?

He parted frowning from me, as if ruin

Leaped from his eyes. So looks the chafed lion

Upon the daring huntsman that has galled him,

Then makes him nothing. I must read this paper—

I fear, the story of his anger.

He reads one of the papers

’Tis so.

This paper has undone me. ’Tis th‘account

Of all that world of wealth I have drawn together

For mine own ends—indeed, to gain the popedom,

And fee my friends in Rome. O negligence,

Fit for a fool to fall by! What cross devil

Made me put this main secret in the packet

I sent the King? Is there no way to cure this?

No new device to beat this from his brains?

I know ’twill stir him strongly. Yet I know

A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune

Will bring me off again. What’s this?

He reads the other paper

‘To th’ Pope’?

The letter, as I live, with all the business

I writ to’s holiness. Nay then, farewell.

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness,

And from that full meridian of my glory

I haste now to my setting. I shall fall

Like a bright exhalation in the evening,

And no man see me more.

Enter to Cardinal Wolsey the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Earl of Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain

NORFOLK

Hear the King’s pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you

To render up the great seal presently

Into our hands, and to confine yourself

To Ashen House, my lord of Winchester’s,

Till you hear further from his highness.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Stay—

Where’s your commission, lords? Words cannot carry

Authority so weighty.

SUFFOLK

Who dare cross ’em

Bearing the King’s will from his mouth expressly?

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Till I find more than will or words to do it—

I mean your malice—know, officious lords,

I dare and must deny it. Now I feel

Of what coarse metal ye are moulded—envy.

How eagerly ye follow my disgraces

As if it fed ye, and how sleek and wanton

Ye appear in everything may bring my ruin!

Follow your envious courses, men of malice.

You have Christian warrant for ’em, and no doubt

In time will find their fit rewards. That seal

You ask with such a violence, the King,

Mine and your master, with his own hand gave me,

Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honours,

During my life; and, to confirm his goodness,

Tied it by letters patents. Now, who’ll take it?

SURREY

The King that gave it.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

It must be himself then.

SURREY

Thou art a proud traitor, priest.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

Proud lord, thou liest.

Within these forty hours Surrey durst better

Have burnt that tongue than said so.

SURREY

Thy ambition,

Thou scarlet sin, robbed this bewailing land

Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law.

The heads of all thy brother cardinals

With thee and all thy best parts bound together

Weighed 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,

Absolved him with an axe.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

This, and all else

This talking lord can lay upon my credit,

I answer is most false. The Duke by law

Found his deserts. How innocent I was

From any private malice in his end,

His noble jury and foul cause can witness.

If I loved many words, lord, I should tell you

You have as little honesty as honour,

That in the way of loyalty and truth

Toward the King, my ever royal master,

Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be,

And all that love his follies.

SURREY

By my soul,

Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou shouldst feel

My sword i’th’ life-blood of thee else. My lords,

Can ye endure to hear this arrogance,

And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely,

To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet,

Farewell nobility. Let his grace go forward

And dare us with his cap, like larks.

CARDINAL WOLSEY

All goodness

Is poison to thy stomach.

SURREY

Yes, that goodness