Henry VIII - William Shakespeare (big ebook reader txt) 📗

to;
You take a precipice for no leap of danger,
And woo your own destruction. Cranmer

God and your majesty
Protect mine innocence, or I fall into
The trap is laid for me!

King

Be of good cheer;
They shall no more prevail than we give way to.
Keep comfort to you; and this morning see
You do appear before them: if they shall chance,
In charging you with matters, to commit you,
The best persuasions to the contrary
Fail not to use, and with what vehemency
The occasion shall instruct you: if entreaties
Will render you no remedy, this ring
Deliver them, and your appeal to us
There make before them. Look, the good man weeps!
He’s honest, on mine honour. God’s blest mother!
I swear he is true⁠—hearted; and a soul
None better in my kingdom. Get you gone,
And do as I have bid you. Exit Cranmer. He has strangled
His language in his tears.

Enter Old Lady, Lovell following. Gentleman Within. Come back: what mean you? Old Lady

I’ll not come back; the tidings that I bring
Will make my boldness manners. Now, good angels
Fly o’er thy royal head, and shade thy person
Under their blessed wings!

King

Now, by thy looks
I guess thy message. Is the queen deliver’d?
Say, ay; and of a boy.

Old Lady

Ay, ay, my liege;
And of a lovely boy: the God of heaven
Both now and ever bless her! ’tis a girl,
Promises boys hereafter. Sir, your queen
Desires your visitation, and to be
Acquainted with this stranger: ’tis as like you
As cherry is to cherry.

King Lovell! Lovell Sir? King Give her an hundred marks. I’ll to the queen. Exit. Old Lady

An hundred marks! By this light, I’ll ha’ more.
An ordinary groom is for such payment.
I will have more, or scold it out of him.
Said I for this, the girl was like to him?
I will have more, or else unsay’t; and now,
While it is hot, I’ll put it to the issue. Exeunt.

Scene II

Before the council-chamber. Pursuivants, Pages, etc. attending.

Enter Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer

I hope I am not too late; and yet the gentleman,
That was sent to me from the council, pray’d me
To make great haste. All fast? what means this? Ho!
Who waits there? Sure, you know me?

Enter Keeper. Keeper

Yes, my lord;
But yet I cannot help you.

Cranmer Why? Enter Doctor Butts. Keeper Your grace must wait till you be call’d for. Cranmer So. Butts

Aside. This is a piece of malice. I am glad
I came this way so happily: the king
Shall understand it presently. Exit.

Cranmer

Aside. ’Tis Butts,
The king’s physician: as he pass’d along,
How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me!
Pray heaven, he sound not my disgrace! For certain,
This is of purpose laid by some that hate me⁠—
God turn their hearts! I never sought their malice⁠—
To quench mine honour: they would shame to make me
Wait else at door, a fellow-counsellor,
’Mong boys, grooms, and lackeys. But their pleasures
Must be fulfill’d, and I attend with patience.

Enter the King and Butts at a window above. Butts I’ll show your grace the strangest sight⁠— King What’s that, Butts? Butts I think your highness saw this many a day. King Body o’ me, where is it? Butts

There, my lord:
The high promotion of his grace of Canterbury;
Who holds his state at door, ’mongst pursuivants,
Pages, and footboys.

King

Ha! ’tis he, indeed:
Is this the honour they do one another?
’Tis well there’s one above ’em yet. I had thought
They had parted so much honesty among ’em
At least, good manners, as not thus to suffer
A man of his place, and so near our favour,
To dance attendance on their lordships’ pleasures,
And at the door too, like a post with packets.
By holy Mary, Butts, there’s knavery:
Let ’em alone, and draw the curtain close:
We shall hear more anon. Exeunt.

Scene III

The Council-Chamber.

Enter Lord Chancellor; places himself at the upper end of the table on the left hand; a seat being left void above him, as for Canterbury’s seat. Duke of Suffolk, Duke of Norfolk, Surrey, Lord Chamberlain, Gardiner, seat themselves in order on each side. Cromwell at lower end, as secretary. Keeper at the door. Chancellor

Speak to the business, master-secretary:
Why are we met in council?

Cromwell

Please your honours,
The chief cause concerns his grace of Canterbury.

Gardiner Has he had knowledge of it? Cromwell Yes. Norfolk Who waits there? Keeper Without, my noble lords? Gardiner Yes. Keeper

My lord archbishop;
And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures.

Chancellor Let him come in. Keeper Your grace may enter now. Cranmer enters and approaches the council-table. Chancellor

My good lord archbishop, I’m very sorry
To sit here at this present, and behold
That chair stand empty: but we all are men,
In our own natures frail, and capable
Of our flesh; few are angels: out of which frailty
And want of wisdom, you, that best should teach us,
Have misdemean’d yourself, and not a little,
Toward the king first, then his laws, in filling
The whole realm, by your teaching and your chaplains,
For so we are inform’d, with new opinions,
Divers and dangerous; which are heresies,
And, not reform’d, may prove pernicious.

Gardiner

Which reformation must be sudden too,
My noble lords; for those that tame wild horses
Pace ’em not in their hands to make ’em gentle,
But stop their mouths with stubborn bits, and spur ’em,
Till they obey the manage. If we suffer,
Out of our easiness and childish pity
To one man’s honour, this contagious sickness,
Farewell all physic: and what follows then?
Commotions, uproars, with a general taint
Of the whole state: as, of late days, our neighbours,
The upper Germany, can dearly witness,
Yet freshly pitied in our memories.

Cranmer

My good lords, hitherto, in all the progress
Both of my life and office, I have labour’d,
And with no little study, that my teaching
And the strong course of my authority
Might go one way, and safely; and the end
Was ever, to do well: nor is there living,
I speak it with a single heart, my lords,
A man that more detests, more stirs against,
Both in his private conscience and his place,
Defacers of a public peace, than I