For you have seen him open 't.-Read o'er this;

[Giving him Papers.

And, after, this: and then to breakfast, with
What appetite you have.

[Exit King, frowning upon Cardinal WoL. the Nobles throng after him, smiling, and whispering. Wol. What should this mean? What sudden anger's this? how have I reap'd it? He parted frowning from me, as if ruin

Leap'd from his eyes: So looks the chafed lion
Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him;
Then makes him nothing. I must read this paper;
I fear, the story of his anger.-'Tis so;

This paper has undone me:- 'Tis the 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-To the Pope?
The letter, as I live, with all the business

I writ to his holiness. Nay then, farewel!

I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness;5
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.

Re-enter the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK, the Earl of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Nor. Hear the king's pleasure, cardinal: who commands you

5I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness;] So, in Marlowe's King Edward II:

"Base fortune, now I see that in thy wheel

"There is a point, to which when men aspire,

"They tumble headlong down. That point I touch'd; "And seeing there was no place to mount up higher, "Why should I grieve at my declining fall" Malone. 6 Re-enter the Dukes &c.] It may not be improper here to repeat,

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.
Wol.

8

Stay,

that the time of this play is from 1521, just before the Duke of Buckingham's commitment, to the year 1533, when Queen Elizabeth was born and christened. The Duke of Norfolk, therefore, who is introduced in the first scene of the first Act, or in 1522, is not the same person who here, or in 1529, demands the great seal from Wolsey; for Thomas Howard, who was created Duke of Norfolk, 1514, died, we are informed by Holinshed, p. 891, at Whitsuntide, 1525. As our author has here made two persons into one, so, on the contrary, he has made one person into two. The Earl of Surrey here is the same with him who married the Duke of Buckingham's daughter, as appears from his own mouth; "I am joyful

Again:

"To meet the least occasion that may give me
"Remembrance of my father-in-law, the duke."

"Thy ambition,

"Thou scarlet sin, robb'd this bewailing land
"Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law:-
"You sent me deputy for Ireland;

"Far from his succour,

But Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who married the Duke of Buckingham's daughter, was at this time the individual above mentioned Duke of Norfolk. The reason for adding the third or fourth person as interculators in this scene is not very apparent, for Holinshed, p. 909, mentions only the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk being sent to demand the great seal, and all that is spoken would proceed with sufficient propriety out of their mouths. The cause of the Duke of Norfolk's animosity to Wolsey is obvious, and Cavendish mentions that an open quarrel at this time subsisted between the Cardinal and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Reed.

7 To Asher-house,] Thus the old copy. Asher was the ancient name of Esher; as appears from Holinshed: "— and everie man took their horses and rode strait to Asher." Holinshed, Vol. II, p. 909.

8

Warner.

my lord of Winchester's,] Shakspeare forgot that Wolsey was himself Bishop of Winchester, unless he meant to say, you must confine yourself to that house which you possess as Bishop of Winchester. Asher, near Hampton-Court, was one of the houses belonging to that bishoprick. Malone.

Fox, Bishop of Winchester, died Sept. 14, 1528, and Wolsey held this see in commendam. Esher therefore was his own house. Reed.

Where's your commission, lords? words cannot carry Authority so weighty."

Suf.

Who dare cross them?

Bearing the king's will from his mouth expressly?

Wol. 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 them, 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,
Ty'd it by letters patents: Now, who 'll take it?
Sur. The king, that gave it.

IVol.

It must be himself then.

Sur. Thou art a proud traitor, priest.
Wol.

Proud lord, thou liest;

Within these forty hours2 Surrey durst better

9 so weighty.] The editor of the third folio changed weighty to mighty, and all the subsequent editors adopted his capricious alteration. Malone.

I believe the change pointed out, was rather accidental than capricious; as, in the proof sheets of this republication, the words -weighty and mighty have more than once been given instead of each other. Steevens.

1 Till I find more than will, or words, to do it,

(I mean, your malice,) know, &c.] Wolsey had said:
words cannot carry

66

"Authority so weighty."

To which they reply:

"Who dare cross them?" &c.

Wolsey, answering them, continues his own speech, Till I find more than will or words (I mean more than your malicious wili and words) to do it; that is, to carry authority so mighty; I will deny to return what the King has given me. Johnson.

2 Within these forty hours-] Why forty hours? But a few minutes have passed since Wolsey's disgrace. I suspect that Shakspeare wrote within these four hours,-and that the person who VOL. XI.

D d

Have burnt that tongue, than said so.

Thy ambition,

Sur.
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.

Wol.
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 I, in the way of loyalty and truth3
Toward the king, my ever royal master,

Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be,
And all that love his follies.

Sur.

By my soul,

revised and tampered with this play, not knowing that hours was used by our poet as a dissyllable, made this injudicious alteration. Malone.

I adhere to the old reading. Forty (I know not why) seems anciently to have been the familiar number on many occasions, where no very exact reckoning was necessary. In a former scene, the Old Lady offers to lay Anne Bullen a wager of "forty pence;" Slender, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, says "I had rather than forty shillings-;" and in The Taming of the Shrew, "the humour of forty fancies” is the ornament of Grumio's hat. Thus, also, in Coriolanus:

66

on fair ground

"I could beat forty of them." Steevens.

3 That I, in the way &c.] Old copy-That in the way. Steevens. Mr. Theobald reads:

That I in the way &c.

and this unnecessary emendation has been adopted by all the subsequent editors. Malone.

As this passage is to me obscure, if not unintelligible, without Mr. Theobald's correction, I have not discarded it.. Steevens.

Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou should'st 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,
Farewel nobility; let his grace go forward,
And dare us with his cap, like larks.5

Wol.

Is poison to thy stomach.

Sur.

All goodness

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 the 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,

Who, 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

4 To be thus jaded —] To be abused and ill treated, like a worthless horse or perhaps to be ridden by a priest;-to have him mounted above us. Malone.

The same verb (whatever its precise meaning may be) occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, sc. i:

"The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia
"We have jaded out o' the field."

Steevens.

5 And dare us with his cap, like larks.] So, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 656: “never Hobie so dared a lark."

It is well known that the hat of a cardinal is scarlet; and that one of the methods of daring larks was by small mirrors fastened on scarlet cloth, which engaged the attention of these birds while the fowler drew his net over them.

The same thought occurs in Skelton's Why come ye not to Court? i. e. a satire on Wolsey:

"The red hat with his lure,

"Bringeth al thinges under cure." Steevens.

6 Who,] Old copy-Whom. Corrected in the second folio.

Malone.

7 Worse than the sacring bell,] The little bell, which is rung to

give notice of the Host approaching when it is carried in proces