Nor.
Hear the King's pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you
To render up the great seal presently
Into our hands, and to confine your self
To Asher-house, my lord of Winchester's,
'Till you hear further from his Highness.

Wol.
Stay:
Where's your commission, lords? words cannot carry
Authority so mighty.

Suf.
Who dare cross 'em,

Bearing the King's will from his mouth expresly?

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 molded—Envy:
How eagerly ye follow my disgrace
As if it fed ye, and how sleek and wanton
Y'appear in every thing may bring my ruin.
Follow your envious courses, men of malice;
You have a christian warrant for 'em, and
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;
Bad 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.

Wol.
It must be himself then.

Sur.
Thou'rt a proud traitor, priest.

Wol.
Proud lord, thou liest:
Within these forty hours Surrey durst better
Have burnt that tongue, than said so.

Sur.
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.

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 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.

Sur.
By my soul,
Your long coat, priest, protects you, thou should'st feel
My sword i'th' 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.

Wol.
All goodness
Is poison to thy stomach.

Sur.
Yes, that goodness
Of gleaning all the lands-wealth into one,
Into your own hands, Card'nal, 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're 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 scaring bell, when the brown wench
Lay kissing in your arms, lord Cardinal.

Wol.
How much methinks I could despise this man,
But that I'm bound in charity against it.

Nor.
Those articles, my lord, are in th' King's hand:
But thus much, they are foul ones.

Wol.
So much fairer
And spotless shall mine innocence arise,
When the King knows my truth.

Sur.
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 shew a little honesty.

Wol.
Speak on, Sir,
I dare your worst objections: if I blush,
It is to see a nobleman want manners.

Sur.
I'd rather want those than my head; have at you.
First, that without the King's assent or knowledge
You wrought to be a legat, by which power
You maim'd the jurisdiction of all bishops.

Nor.
Then, that in all you writ to Rome, or else
To foreign Princes, Ego & Rex meus
Was still inscrib'd; in which you brought the King
To be your servant.

Suf.
That without the knowledge
Either of King or council, when you went
Ambassador to th' Emperor, you made bold
To carry into Flanders the great seal.

Sur.
Item, You sent a large commission
To Gregory de Cassalis, to conclude,
Without the King's will or the State's allowance,

A league between his Highness and Ferrara.

Suf.
That out of meer ambition, you have made
Your holy-hat be stamp'd on the King's coin.

Sur.
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 th' meer undoing
Of all the kingdom. Many more there are,
Which since they are of you, and odious,
I will not taint my mouth with.

Cham.
O my lord,
Press not a falling man too far; 'tis virtue:
His faults lye open to the laws; let them,
Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to see him
So little of his great self.

Sur.
I forgive him.

Suf.
Lord Cardinal, the King's further pleasure is,
(Because all those things you have done of late,
By your pow'r legatine within this kingdom,
Fall in the compass of a præmunire)
That therefore such a writ be sued against you,
To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,
Castles, and whatsoever, and to be
Out of the King's protection. This is my charge.

Nor.
And so we'll leave you to your meditations
How to live better. For your stubborn answer
About the giving back the great seal to us,
The King shall know it, and no doubt shall thank you.
So fare you well, my little good lord Cardinal. [Exeunt all but Wolsey.

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