The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare (moboreader .TXT) 📕

O, ‘tis a burden, Cromwell, ‘tis a burden Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven!

CROMWELL. I am glad your Grace has made that right use of it.

WOLSEY. I hope I have. I am able now, methinks, Out of a fortitude of soul I feel,

To endure more miseries and greater far Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer.

What news abroad?

CROMWELL. The heaviest and the worst

Is your displeasure with the King.

WOLSEY. God bless him!

CROMWELL. The next is that Sir Thomas More is chosen Lord Chancellor in your place.

WOLSEY. That’s somewhat sudden.

But he’s a learned man. May he continue Long in his Highness’ favour, and do justice For truth’s sake and his conscience; that his bones When he has run his course and sleeps in blessings, May have a tomb of orphans’ tears wept on him!

What more?

CROMWELL. That Cranmer is return’d with welcome, Install’d Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

WOLSEY. That’s news indeed.

CROMWELL. Last, that the Lady Anne,

Whom the King hath in secrecy long married, This day was view’d in open as his queen, Going to chapel; and the voice is now Only about her coronation.

WOLSEY. There was the weight that pull’d me down.

O Cromwell,

The King has gone beyond me. All my glories In that one woman I have lost for ever.

No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours, Or gild again the noble troops that waited Upon my smiles. Go get thee from me, Cromwell; I am a poor fall’n man, unworthy now

To be thy lord and master. Seek the King; That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him What and how true thou art. He will advance thee; Some little memory of me will stir him-I know his noble nature-not to let

Thy hopeful service perish too. Good Cromwell, Neglect him not; make use now, and provide For thine own future safety.

CROMWELL. O my lord,

Must I then leave you? Must I needs forgo So good, so noble, and so true a master?

Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord.

The King shall have my service; but my prayers For ever and for ever shall be yours.

WOLSEY. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear In all my miseries; but thou hast forc’d me, Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman.

Let’s dry our eyes; and thus far hear me, Cromwell, And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention Of me more must be heard of, say I taught thee-Say Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour, Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in-A sure and safe one, though thy master miss’d it.

Mark but my fall and that that ruin’d me.

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: By that sin fell the angels. How can man then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?

Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty.

Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s; then, if thou fall’st, O Cromwell, Thou fall’st a blessed martyr!

Serve the King, and-prithee lead me in.

There take an inventory of all I have To the last penny; ‘tis the King’s. My robe, And my integrity to heaven, is all

I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell!

Had I but serv’d my God with half the zeal I serv’d my King, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.

CROMWELL. Good sir, have patience.

WOLSEY. So I have. Farewell

The hopes of court! My hopes in heaven do dwell. Exeunt

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ACT IV. SCENE 1.

A street in Westminster

Enter two GENTLEMEN, meeting one another

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Y’are well met once again.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. So are you.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. You come to take your stand here, and behold

The Lady Anne pass from her coronation?

SECOND GENTLEMAN. ‘Tis all my business. At our last encounter The Duke of Buckingham came from his trial.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. ‘Tis very true. But that time offer’d sorrow;

This, general joy.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. ‘Tis well. The citizens, I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds-As, let ‘em have their rights, they are ever forwardIn celebration of this day with shows, Pageants, and sights of honour.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Never greater,

Nor, I’ll assure you, better taken, sir.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. May I be bold to ask what that contains, That paper in your hand?

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes; ‘tis the list

Of those that claim their offices this day, By custom of the coronation.

The Duke of Suffolk is the first, and claims To be High Steward; next, the Duke of Norfolk, He to be Earl Marshal. You may read the rest.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. I thank you, sir; had I not known those customs,

I should have been beholding to your paper.

But, I beseech you, what’s become of Katharine, The Princess Dowager? How goes her business?

FIRST GENTLEMAN. That I can tell you too. The Archbishop Of Canterbury, accompanied with other Learned and reverend fathers of his order, Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles of From Ampthill, where the Princess lay; to which She was often cited by them, but appear’d not.

And, to be short, for not appearance and The King’s late scruple, by the main assent Of all these learned men, she was divorc’d, And the late marriage made of none effect; Since which she was removed to Kimbolton, Where she remains now sick.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. Alas, good lady! [Trumpets]

The trumpets sound. Stand close, the Queen is coming.

[Hautboys]

THE ORDER OF THE CORONATION.

1. A lively flourish of trumpets.

2. Then two JUDGES.

3. LORD CHANCELLOR, with purse and mace before him.

4. CHORISTERS singing. [Music]

5. MAYOR OF LONDON, bearing the mace. Then GARTER, in his coat of arms, and on his head he wore a gilt copper crown.

6. MARQUIS DORSET, bearing a sceptre of gold, on his head a demi-coronal of gold. With him, the EARL OF SURREY, bearing the rod of silver with the dove, crowned with an earl’s coronet. Collars of Esses.

7. DUKE OF SUFFOLK, in his robe of estate, his coronet on his head, bearing a long white wand, as High Steward.

With him, the DUKE OF NORFOLK, with the rod of marshalship, a coronet on his head. Collars of Esses.

8. A canopy borne by four of the CINQUE-PORTS; under it the QUEEN in her robe; in her hair richly adorned with pearl, crowned. On each side her, the BISHOPS OF LONDON

and WINCHESTER.

9. The old DUCHESS OF NORFOLK, in a coronal of gold wrought with flowers, bearing the QUEEN’S train.

10. Certain LADIES or COUNTESSES, with plain circlets of gold without flowers.

Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, and then a great flourish of trumpets SECOND GENTLEMAN. A royal train, believe me. These know.

Who’s that that bears the sceptre?

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Marquis Dorset;

And that the Earl of Surrey, with the rod.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. A bold brave gentleman. That should be The Duke of Suffolk?

FIRST GENTLEMAN. ‘Tis the same-High Steward.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. And that my Lord of Norfolk?

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. [Looking on the QUEEN] Heaven bless thee!

Thou hast the sweetest face I ever look’d on.

Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel; Our king has all the Indies in his arms, And more and richer, when he strains that lady; I cannot blame his conscience.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. They that bear

The cloth of honour over her are four barons Of the Cinque-ports.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. Those men are happy; and so are all are near her.

I take it she that carries up the train Is that old noble lady, Duchess of Norfolk.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. It is; and all the rest are countesses.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. Their coronets say so. These are stars indeed, And sometimes falling ones.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. No more of that.

Exit Procession, with a great flourish of trumpets Enter a third GENTLEMAN

God save you, sir! Where have you been broiling?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. Among the crowds i’ th’ Abbey, where a finger Could not be wedg’d in more; I am stifled With the mere rankness of their joy.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. You saw

The ceremony?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. That I did.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. How was it?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. Well worth the seeing.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. Good sir, speak it to us.

THIRD GENTLEMAN. As well as I am able. The rich stream Of lords and ladies, having brought the Queen To a prepar’d place in the choir, fell of A distance from her, while her Grace sat down To rest awhile, some half an hour or so, In a rich chair of state, opposing freely The beauty of her person to the people.

Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman That ever lay by man; which when the people Had the full view of, such a noise arose As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest, As loud, and to as many tunes; hats, cloaks-Doublets, I think-flew up, and had their faces Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy I never saw before. Great-bellied women, That had not half a week to go, like rams In the old time of war, would shake the press, And make ‘em reel before ‘em. No man living Could say ‘This is my wife’ there, all were woven So strangely in one piece.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. But what follow’d?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces

Came to the altar, where she kneel’d, and saintlike Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray’d devoutly.

Then rose again, and bow’d her to the people; When by the Archbishop of Canterbury

She had all the royal makings of a queen: As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown, The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems Laid nobly on her; which perform’d, the choir, With all the choicest music of the kingdom, Together sung ‘Te Deum.’ So she parted, And with the same full state pac’d back again To York Place, where the feast is held.

FIRST GENTLEMAN. Sir,

You must no more call it York Place: that’s past: For since the Cardinal fell that title’s lost.

‘Tis now the King’s, and called Whitehall.

THIRD GENTLEMAN. I know it;

But ‘tis so lately alter’d that the old name Is fresh about me.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. What two reverend bishops Were those that went on each side of the Queen?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. Stokesly and Gardiner: the one of Winchester, Newly preferr’d from the King’s secretary; The other, London.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. He of Winchester

Is held no great good lover of the Archbishop’s, The virtuous Cranmer.

THIRD GENTLEMAN. All the land knows that; However, yet there is no great breach. When it comes, Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him.

SECOND GENTLEMAN. Who may that be, I pray you?

THIRD GENTLEMAN. Thomas Cromwell,

A man in much esteem with th’ King, and truly A worthy friend. The King has made him Master O’ th’