King John & Henry VIII Read online

  Though he be grown so desperate93 to be honest,

  And live a subject? Nay forsooth94, my friends,

  They that must weigh out95 my afflictions,

  They that my trust must grow to, live not here:

  They are, as all my other comforts, far hence

  In mine own country, lords.

  CARDINAL CAMPEIUS I would your grace

  Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel.

  QUEEN KATHERINE How, sir?

  CARDINAL CAMPEIUS Put your main cause into the king’s protection:

  He’s loving and most gracious. ’Twill be much

  Both for your honour better and your cause:

  For if the trial of the law o’ertake ye,

  You’ll part away106 disgraced.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY He tells you rightly.

  QUEEN KATHERINE Ye tell me what ye wish for both — my ruin:

  Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon ye109.

  Heaven is above all yet: there sits a judge

  That no king can corrupt.

  CARDINAL CAMPEIUS Your rage mistakes112 us.

  QUEEN KATHERINE The more shame for ye: holy men I thought ye,

  Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues114:

  But cardinal sins115 and hollow hearts I fear ye:

  Mend ’em for shame, my lords. Is this your comfort?

  The cordial117 that ye bring a wretched lady?

  A woman lost among ye, laughed at, scorned?

  I will not wish ye half my miseries:

  I have more charity. But say I warned ye:

  Take heed, for heaven’s sake, take heed, lest at once121

  The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Madam, this is a mere distraction123:

  You turn the good we offer into envy124.

  QUEEN KATHERINE Ye turn me into nothing. Woe upon ye

  And all such false professors126. Would you have me —

  If you have any justice, any pity,

  If ye be anything but churchmen’s habits128 —

  Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me?

  Alas, he’s banished me his130 bed already,

  His love, too long ago. I am old, my lords,

  And all the fellowship132 I hold now with him

  Is only my obedience. What can happen

  To me above this wretchedness? All your studies134

  Make me a curse like this.

  CARDINAL CAMPEIUS Your fears are worse.

  QUEEN KATHERINE Have I lived thus long — let me speak137 myself,

  Since virtue finds no friends — a wife, a true one?

  A woman, I dare say without vainglory139,

  Never yet branded with suspicion?

  Have I with all my full affections141

  Still met the king? Loved him next142 heaven? Obeyed him?

  Been, out of fondness, superstitious143 to him?

  Almost forgot my prayers to content him?

  And am I thus rewarded? ’Tis not well, lords.

  Bring me a constant woman to her husband,

  One that ne’er dreamed a joy beyond his pleasure,

  And to that woman, when she has done most,

  Yet will I add an honour, a great patience.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Madam, you wander from150 the good we aim at.

  QUEEN KATHERINE My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty,

  To give up willingly that noble title

  Your master wed me to: nothing but death

  Shall e’er divorce my dignities154.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Pray, hear me.

  QUEEN KATHERINE Would156 I had never trod this English earth,

  Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it:

  Ye have angels’ faces, but heaven knows your hearts.

  What will become of me now, wretched lady?

  I am the most unhappy woman living.

  Alas, poor wenches, where are now your fortunes?

  Shipwrecked upon a kingdom, where no pity,

  No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me?

  Almost no grave allowed me? Like the lily

  That once was mistress of the field and flourished,

  I’ll hang my head and perish.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY If your grace

  Could but be brought to know our ends168 are honest,

  You’d feel more comfort. Why should we, good lady,

  Upon what cause, wrong you? Alas, our places170,

  The way of our profession is against it:

  We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow ’em.

  For goodness’ sake, consider what you do,

  How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly

  Grow from the king’s acquaintance, by this carriage175.

  The hearts of princes kiss obedience,

  So much they love it, but to stubborn spirits

  They swell and grow as terrible as storms.

  I know you have a gentle, noble temper179,

  A soul as even as a calm180: pray think us

  Those we profess: peacemakers, friends and servants.

  CARDINAL CAMPEIUS Madam, you’ll find it so: you wrong your virtues

  With these weak women’s fears. A noble spirit,

  As yours was put into you, ever casts184

  Such doubts as false coin from it. The king loves you:

  Beware you lose it not: for us, if you please

  To trust us in your business, we are ready

  To use our utmost studies188 in your service.

  QUEEN KATHERINE Do what ye will, my lords: and pray forgive me

  If I have used190 myself unmannerly.

  You know I am a woman, lacking wit

  To make a seemly answer to such persons.

  Pray do my service193 to his majesty:

  He has my heart yet, and shall have my prayers

  While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers,

  Bestow your counsels on me. She now begs,

  That little thought, when she set footing here197,

  She should have bought her dignities so dear.

  Exeunt

  Act 3 Scene 2

  running scene 9

  Enter the Duke of Norfolk, Duke of Suffolk, Lord Surrey and Lord Chamberlain

  NORFOLK If you will now unite in your complaints,

  And force them with a constancy2, the cardinal

  Cannot stand under them. If you omit3

  The offer of this time, I cannot promise

  But that you shall sustain more new disgraces,

  With these you bear already.

  SURREY I am joyful

  To meet the least occasion that may give me

  Remembrance of my father-in-law the duke9,

  To be revenged on him10.

  SUFFOLK Which of the peers

  Have uncontemned12 gone by him, or at least

  Strangely neglected13? When did he regard

  The stamp of nobleness in any person

  Out of15 himself?

  CHAMBERLAIN My lords, you speak your pleasures:

  What he deserves of you and me I know:

  What we can do to him, though now the time

  Gives way to us, I much fear19. If you cannot

  Bar his access to th’king, never attempt

  Anything on him: for he hath a witchcraft

  Over the king in’s22 tongue.

  NORFOLK O, fear him not:

  His spell in that is out24: the king hath found

  Matter against him that forever mars

  The honey of his language. No, he’s26 settled,

  Not to come off, in his27 displeasure.

  SURREY Sir,

  I should be glad to hear such news as this

  Once every hour.

  NORFOLK Believe it, this is true.

  In the divorce his contrary32 proceedings

  Are all unfolded33, wherein he appears

  As I would wish mine enemy.

  SURREY How came

 
; His practices36 to light?

  SUFFOLK Most strangely.

  SURREY O, how, how?

  SUFFOLK The cardinal’s letters to the Pope miscarried39,

  And came to th’eye o’th’king, wherein was read

  How that the cardinal did entreat his holiness

  To stay42 the judgment o’th’divorce, for if

  It did take place, ‘I do’, quoth he, ‘perceive

  My king is tangled in affection to

  A creature45 of the queen’s, Lady Anne Bullen.’

  SURREY Has the king this?

  SUFFOLK Believe it.

  SURREY Will this work?

  CHAMBERLAIN The king in this perceives him how he coasts49

  And hedges his own way. But in this point

  All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic51

  After his patient’s death: the king already

  Hath married the fair lady.

  SURREY Would he had.

  SUFFOLK May you be happy in your wish, my lord,

  For I profess you have it.

  SURREY Now, all my joy

  Trace the conjunction58.

  SUFFOLK My amen to’t.

  NORFOLK All men’s60.

  SUFFOLK There’s order given for her coronation:

  Marry, this is yet but young, and may be left62

  To some ears unrecounted. But, my lords,

  She is a gallant creature, and complete64

  In mind and feature. I persuade me65, from her

  Will fall66 some blessing to this land, which shall

  In it be memorized67.

  SURREY But will the king

  Digest69 this letter of the cardinal’s?

  The Lord forbid!

  NORFOLK Marry, amen.

  SUFFOLK No, no:

  There be more wasps that buzz about his nose

  Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius

  Is stol’n away to Rome: hath ta’en no leave:

  Has left the cause o’th’king unhandled76, and

  Is posted77 as the agent of our cardinal

  To second all his plot. I do assure you

  The king cried ‘Ha!’ at this.

  CHAMBERLAIN Now, God incense him,

  And let him cry ‘Ha!’ louder.

  NORFOLK But, my lord,

  When returns Cranmer?

  SUFFOLK He is returned in his opinions84, which

  Have satisfied the king for his divorce,

  Together with all famous colleges

  Almost in Christendom: shortly, I believe,

  His second marriage shall be published88, and

  Her coronation. Katherine no more

  Shall be called ‘Queen’, but ‘Princess Dowager’

  And ‘widow to Prince Arthur’.

  NORFOLK This same Cranmer’s

  A worthy fellow, and hath ta’en much pain

  In the king’s business.

  SUFFOLK He has, and we shall see him

  For it an archbishop.

  NORFOLK So I hear.

  SUFFOLK ’Tis so.

  Enter [Cardinal] Wolsey and Cromwell

  The cardinal.

  NORFOLK Observe, observe, he’s moody100.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY The packet101, Cromwell: gave’t you the king?

  CROMWELL To his own hand, in’s bedchamber.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Looked he103

  O’th’inside of the paper?

  CROMWELL Presently105

  He did unseal them, and the first he viewed,

  He did it with a serious mind: a heed107

  Was in his countenance. You he bade

  Attend him here this morning.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Is he ready

  To come abroad111?

  CROMWELL I think by this112 he is.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Leave me awhile.—

  Exit Cromwell

  Aside

  It shall be to the Duchess of Alençon,

  The French king’s sister: he shall marry her.

  Anne Bullen? No, I’ll no Anne Bullens for him:

  There’s more in’t than fair visage117. Bullen?

  No, we’ll no Bullens. Speedily I wish

  To hear from Rome. The Marchioness of Pembroke?

  NORFOLK He’s discontented.

  SUFFOLK Maybe he hears the king

  Does whet his anger to him.

  SURREY Sharp enough,

  Lord, for thy justice.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY The late125 queen’s gentlewoman? A knight’s daughter,

  Aside

  To be her mistress’ mistress? The queen’s queen?

  This candle burns not clear: ’tis I must snuff it127,

  Then out it goes. What though I know her virtuous

  And well deserving? Yet I know her for

  A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome130 to

  Our cause, that she should lie i’th’bosom of131

  Our hard-ruled132 king. Again, there is sprung up

  An heretic, an arch-one133: Cranmer, one

  Hath134 crawled into the favour of the king,

  And is his oracle.

  NORFOLK He is vexed at something.

  Enter King [Henry], reading of a schedule [and Lovell]

  SURREY I would ’twere something that would fret137 the string,

  The master-cord on’s138 heart!

  SUFFOLK The king, the king!

  Aside

  KING HENRY VIII What piles of wealth hath he accumulated

  To his own portion141? And what expense by th’hour

  Seems to flow from him? How i’th’name of thrift

  Aloud

  Does he rake this together?— Now, my lords,

  Saw you the cardinal?

  NORFOLK My lord, we have

  Stood here observing him. Some strange commotion146

  Is in his brain: he bites his lip, and starts,

  Stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground,

  Then lays his finger on his temple, straight149

  Springs out into fast gait, then stops again,

  Strikes his breast hard, and anon he casts

  His eye against152 the moon: in most strange postures

  We have seen him set himself.

  KING HENRY VIII It may well be,

  There is a mutiny in’s mind. This morning

  Papers of state he sent me to peruse,

  As I required: and wot157 you what I found

  There, on my conscience put unwittingly?

  Forsooth, an inventory, thus importing159

  The several parcels of his plate160, his treasure,

  Rich stuffs and ornaments of household161, which

  I find at such proud rate, that it outspeaks162

  Possession of a subject.

  NORFOLK It’s heaven’s will:

  Some spirit put this paper in the packet,

  To bless your eye withal166.

  KING HENRY VIII If we did think

  His contemplation168 were above the earth,

  And fixed on spiritual object, he should169 still

  Dwell in his musings: but I am afraid

  His thinkings are below the moon171, not worth

  His serious considering.

  King takes his seat; [and] whispers [with] Lovell, who goes to the Cardinal

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Heaven forgive me!—

  To the king

  Ever God bless your highness.

  KING HENRY VIII Good, my lord,

  You are full of heavenly stuff176, and bear the inventory

  Of your best graces177 in your mind, the which

  You were now running o’er: you have scarce time

  To steal from spiritual leisure179 a brief span

  To keep your earthly audit180: sure, in that

  I deem you an ill husband, and am glad181

  To have you therein my companion.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY Sir,

  For holy offices I have a time: a time

  To think upon the part of business wh
ich

  I bear i’th’state: and nature does require

  Her times of preservation, which perforce187

  I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal,

  Must give my tendance189 to.

  KING HENRY VIII You have said well.

  CARDINAL WOLSEY And ever may your highness yoke together,

  As I will lend you cause, my doing well

  With my well saying.

  KING HENRY VIII ’Tis well said again,

  And ’tis a kind of good deed to say well:

  And yet words are no deeds. My father loved you:

  He said he did, and with his deed did crown197

  His word upon you. Since I had my office,

  I have kept you next my heart, have not alone199

  Employed you where high profits might come home,

  But pared my present havings201, to bestow

  My bounties upon you.

  Aside

  CARDINAL WOLSEY What should this mean?

  Aside

  SURREY The Lord increase this business!

  KING HENRY VIII Have I not made you,

  The prime206 man of the state? I pray you tell me

  If what I now pronounce207 you have found true:

  And if you may confess it, say withal208

  If you are bound to us or no. What say you?