第19章 ACT III(5)

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 Asher House,my Lord of Winchester's,Till you hear further from his Highness.WOLSEY.Stay:Where's your commission,lords?Words cannot carry Authority so weighty.SUFFOLK.Who dares cross 'em,Bearing the King's will from his mouth expressly?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 every thing 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.WOLSEY.It must be himself then.SURREY.Thou art a proud traitor,priest.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,robb'd 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,Weigh'd 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,Absolv'd him with an axe.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 lov'd 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'the 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.WOLSEY.All goodness Is poison to thy stomach.SURREY.Yes,that goodness Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one,Into your own hands,Cardinal,by extortion;The goodness of your intercepted packets You writ to th'Pope against the King;your goodness,Since you provoke me,shall be most notorious.My Lord of Norfolk,as you are truly noble,As you respect the common good,the state Of our despis'd nobility,our issues,Whom,if he live,will scarce be gentlemen--Produce the grand sum of his sins,the articles Collected from his life.I'll startle you Worse than the sacring bell,when the brown wench Lay kissing in your arms,Lord Cardinal.WOLSEY.How much,methinks,I could despise this man,But that I am bound in charity against it!NORFOLK.Those articles,my lord,are in the King's hand;But,thus much,they are foul ones.WOLSEY.So much fairer And spotless shall mine innocence arise,When the King knows my truth.SURREY.This cannot save you.I thank my memory I yet remember Some of these articles;and out they shall.Now,if you can blush and cry guilty,Cardinal,You'll show a little honesty.WOLSEY.Speak on,sir;I dare your worst objections.If I blush,It is to see a nobleman want manners.SURREY.I had rather want those than my head.Have at you!First,that without the King's assent or knowledge You wrought to be a legate;by which power You maim'd the jurisdiction of all bishops.NORFOLK.Then,that in all you writ to Rome,or else To foreign princes,'Ego et Rex meus'Was still inscrib'd;in which you brought the King To be your servant.SUFFOLK.Then,that without the knowledge Either of King or Council,when you went Ambassador to the Emperor,you made bold To carry into Flanders the great seal.SURREY.Item,you sent a large commission To Gregory de Cassado,to conclude,Without the King's will or the state's allowance,A league between his Highness and Ferrara.SUFFOLK.That out of mere ambition you have caus'd Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the King's coin.SURREY.Then,that you have sent innumerable substance,By what means got I leave to your own conscience,To furnish Rome and to prepare the ways You have for dignities,to the mere undoing Of all the kingdom.Many more there are,Which,since they are of you,and odious,I will not taint my mouth with.CHAMBERLAIN.O my lord,Press not a falling man too far!'Tis virtue.His faults lie open to the laws;let them,Not you,correct him.My heart weeps to see him So little of his great self.SURREY.I forgive him.SUFFOLK.Lord Cardinal,the King's further pleasure is--Because all those things you have done of late,By your power legatine within this kingdom,Fall into th'compass of a praemunire--That therefore such a writ be sued against you:To forfeit all your goods,lands,tenements,Chattels,and whatsoever,and to be Out of the King's protection.This is my charge.NORFOLK.