Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"
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ALL IS TRUE
(HENRY VIII)
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND JOHN FLETCHER
ON 29 June 1613 the firing of cannon at the Globe Theatre ignited its thatch and burned it to the ground. According to a letter of 4 July the house was full of spectators who had come to see ‘a new play called All is True, which had been acted not passing two or three times before’. No one was hurt ‘except one man who was scalded with the fire by adventuring in to save a child which otherwise had been burnt’. This establishes the play’s date with unusual precision. Though two other accounts of the fire refer to a play ‘of’—which may mean simply ‘about’—Henry VIII, yet another two unequivocally call it All is True; and these words also end the refrain of a ballad about the fire. When the play came to be printed as the last of the English history plays—all named after kings—in the 1623 Folio it was as The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth. We restore the title by which it was known to its first audiences.
No surviving account of the fire says who wrote the play that caused it. In 1850, James Spedding (prompted by Tennyson) suggested that Shakespeare collaborated on it with John Fletcher (1579-1625). We have external evidence that the two dramatists worked together in or around 1613 on the lost Cardenio and on The Two Noble Kinsmen. For their collaboration in All is True the evidence is wholly internal, stemming from the initial perception of two distinct verse styles within the play; later, more rigorous examination of evidence provided by both the play’s language and its dramatic technique has convinced most scholars of Fletcher’s hand in it. The passages most confidently attributed to Shakespeare are Act 1, Scenes 1 and 2; Act 2, Scenes 3 and 4; Act 3, Scene 2 to line 204; and Act 5, Scene 1.
The historical material derives, often closely, from the chronicles of Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall, supplemented by John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1563, etc.) for the Cranmer episodes in Act 5. It covers only part of Henry’s reign, from the opening description of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, of 1520, to the christening of Princess Elizabeth, in 1533. It depicts the increasing abuse of power by Cardinal Wolsey; the execution, brought about by Wolsey’s machinations, of the Duke of Buckingham; the King’s abandonment of his Queen, Katherine of Aragon; the rise to the King’s favour of Anne Boleyn; Wolsey’s disgrace; and the birth to Henry and Anne of a daughter instead of the hoped-for son.
Sir Henry Wotton, writing of the fire, said that the play represented ‘some principal pieces of the reign of Henry 8, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty’. It has continued popular in performance for the opportunities that it affords for spectacle and for the dramatic power of certain episodes such as Buckingham’s speeches before execution (2.1), Queen Katherine’s defence of the validity of her marriage (2.4), Wolsey’s farewell to his greatness (3.2), and Katherine’s dying scene (4.2). Though the play depicts a series of falls from greatness, it works towards the birth of the future Elizabeth I, fulsomely celebrated in the last scene (not attributed to Shakespeare) along with her successor, the patron of the King’s Men.
THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY
All Is True
Prologue Enter Prologue
PROLOGUE
I come no more to make you laugh. Things now
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe—
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow
We now present. Those that can pity here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear.
The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth, too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree
The play may pass, if they be still, and willing,
I’ll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceived. For, gentle hearers, know
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring
To make that only true we now intend,
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness’ sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad as we would make ye. Think ye see
The very persons of our noble story
As they were living; think you see them great,
And followed with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery. 30
And if you can be merry then, I’ll say
A man may weep upon his wedding day.
Exit
1.1 ⌈A cloth of state throughout the play.⌉ Enter the Duke of Norfolk at one door; at the other door enter the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Abergavenny
BUCKINGHAM (to Norfolk)
Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done
Since last we saw in France?
NORFOLK
I thank your grace,
Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.
BUCKINGHAM
An untimely ague
Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when 5
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Ardres.
NORFOLK
’Twixt Guisnes and Ardres.
I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,
Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement as they grew together,
Which had they, what four throned ones could have
weighed
Such a compounded one?
BUCKINGHAM
All the whole time
I was my chamber’s prisoner.
NORFOLK
Then you lost
The view of earthly glory. Men might say
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day’s master, till the last
Made former wonders its. Today the French,
All clinquant all in gold, like heathen gods
Shone down the English; and tomorrow they
Made Britain India. Every man that stood
Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubim, all gilt; the mesdames, too,
Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting. Now this masque
Was cried incomparable, and th‘ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them. Him in eye
Still him in praise, and being present both,
’Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns—
For so they phrase ’em—by their heralds challenged
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
Beyond thought’s compass, that former fabulous story
Being now seen possible enough, got credit
That Bevis was believed.
BUCKINGHAM
O, you go far!
NORFOLK
As I belong to worship, and affect
In honour honesty, the tract of ev’rything
Would by a good discourser lose some life
Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal.
To the disposing of it naught rebelled.
Order gave each thing view. The office did
Distinctly his full function.
BUCKINGHAM
Who did guide—
I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?
NORFOLK
One, certes, that promises no element
In such a business.
BUCKINGHAM
I pray you who, my lord?
NORFOLK
All this was ordered by the good discretion
Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.
BUCKINGHAM
The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can, with his very bulk,
Take up the rays o’th’ beneficial sun,
And keep it from the earth.
NORFOLK
Surely, sir,
There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends.
For being not propped by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor called upon no
For high feats done to th’ crown, neither allied
To eminent assistants, but spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, a gives us note
The force of his own merit makes his way—
A gift that heaven gives for him which buys
A place next to the King.
ABERGAVENNY
I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him—let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?
If not from hell, the devil is a niggard
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.
BUCKINGHAM
Why the devil,
Upon this French going out, took he upon him
Without the privity o’th’ King t’appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the file
Of all the gentry, for the most part such
To whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,
Must fetch him in, he papers.
ABERGAVENNY
I do know
Kinsmen of mine—three at the least—that have
By this so sickened their estates that never
They shall abound as formerly.
BUCKINGHAM
O, many
Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em
For this great journey. What did this vanity
But minister communication of
A most poor issue?
NORFOLK
Grievingly I think
The peace between the French and us not values
The cost that did conclude it.
BUCKINGHAM
Every man,
After the hideous storm that followed, was
A thing inspired, and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy—that this tempest,
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on’t.
NORFOLK
Which is budded out—
For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached
Our merchants’ goods at Bordeaux.
ABERGAVENNY
Is it therefore
Th’ambassador is silenced?
NORFOLK
Marry is’t.
ABERGAVENNY
A proper title of a peace, and purchased
At a superfluous rate.
BUCKINGHAM
Why, all this business
Our reverend Cardinal carried.
NORFOLK
Like it your grace,
The state takes notice of the private difference
Betwixt you and the Cardinal. I advise you—
And take it from a heart that wishes towards you
Honour and plenteous safety—that you read
The Cardinal’s malice and his potency
Together; to consider further that
What his high hatred would effect wants not
A minister in his power. You know his nature,
That he’s revengeful; and I know his sword
Hath a sharp edge—it’s long, and’t may be said no
It reaches far; and where ’twill not extend
Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,
You’ll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock
That I advise your shunning.
Enter Cardinal Wolsey, the purse containing the great seal borne before him. Enter with him certain of the guard, and two secretaries with papers. The Cardinal in his passage fixeth his eye on Buckingham and Buckingham on him, both full of disdain
CARDINAL WOLSEY (to a secretary)
The Duke of Buckingham’s surveyor, ha?
Where’s his examination?
SECRETARY
Here, so please you.
CARDINAL WOLSEY
Is he in person ready?
SECRETARY
Ay, please your grace.
CARDINAL WOLSEY
Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham Shall lessen this big look.
Exeunt Wolsey and his train
BUCKINGHAM
This butcher’s cur is venom-mouthed, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar’s book
Outworths a noble’s blood.
NORFOLK
What, are you chafed?
Ask God for temp’rance; that’s th’appliance only
Which your disease requires.
BUCKINGHAM
I read in’s looks
Matter against me, and his eye reviled
Me as his abject object. At this instant
He bores me with some trick. He’s gone to th’ King—
I’ll follow, and outstare him.
NORFOLK
Stay, my lord,
And let your reason with your choler question
What ’tis you go about. To climb steep hills
Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like
A full hot horse who, being allowed his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you. Be to yourself
As you would to your friend.
BUCKINGHAM
I’ll to the King,
And from a mouth of honour quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow’s insolence, or proclaim
There’s difference in no persons.
NORFOLK
Be advised.
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself. We may outrun
By violent swiftness that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not
The fire that mounts the liquor till’t run o’er
In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised.
I say again there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench
Or but allay the fire of passion.
BUCKINGHAM
Sir,
I am thankful to you, and I’ll go along
By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow—
Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but
From sincere motions—by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in July when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.
NORFOLK
Say not ‘treasonous’.
BUCKINGHAM
To th’ King I’ll say’t, and make my vouch as strong
As shore of rock. Attend: this holy fox,
Or wolf, or both—for he is equal rav’nous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
As able to perform’t, his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocatly—
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the King our master
To this last costly treaty, th’interview
That swallowed so much treasure and, like a glass,
Did break i’th’ rinsing.
NORFOLK
Faith, and so it did.
BUCKINGHAM
Pray give me favour, sir. This cunning Cardinal,
The articles o‘th’ combination drew
As himself pleased, and they were ratified 170
As he cried ‘Thus let be’, to as much end
As give a crutch to th’ dead. But our count-Cardinal
Has done this, and ’tis well for worthy Wolsey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows—
Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
To th‘old dam, treason—Charles the Emperor,
Under pretence to see the Queen his aunt—
For ’twas indeed his colour, but he came
To whisper Wolsey—here makes visitation.
His fears were that the interview betwixt
England and France might through their amity
Breed him some prejudice, for from this league
Peeped harms that menaced him. Privily he
Deals with our Cardinal and, as I trow—
Which I do well, for I am sure the Emperor
Paid ere he promised, whereby his suit was granted
Ere it was asked—but when the way was made,
And paved with gold, the Emperor thus desired
That he would please to alter the King’s course
And break the foresaid peace. Let the King know,
As soon he shall by me, that thus the Cardinal
Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases,
And for his own advantage.
NORFOLK
I am sorry
To hear this of him, and could wish he were
Something mistaken in’t.
BUCKINGHAM
No, not a syllable.
I do pronounce him in that very shape
He shall appear in proof.
Enter Brandon, a serjeant-at-arms before him, and two or three of the guard
BRANDON
Your office, serjeant, execute it.
SERJEANT
Sir.
(To Buckingham) My lord the Duke of Buckingham and
Earl
Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I
Arrest thee of high treason in the name
Of our most sovereign King.
BUCKINGHAM to Norfolk
Lo you, my lord,
The net has fall’n upon me. I shall perish
Under device and practice.
BRANDON
I am sorry
To see you ta’en from liberty to look on
The business present. ’Tis his highness’ pleasure
You shall to th’ Tower.
BUCKINGHAM
It will help me nothing
To plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me
Which makes my whit’st part black. The will of
heav’n
Be done in this and all things. I obey.
O, my lord Abergavenny, fare you well.
BRANDON
Nay, he must bear you company.
(To Abergavenny)
The King
Is pleased you shall to th’ Tower till you know
How he determines further.
ABERGAVENNY
As the Duke said,
The will of heaven be done and the King’s pleasure
By me obeyed.
BRANDON
Here is a warrant from
The King t’attach Lord Montague and the bodies
Of the duke’s confessor, John de la Car,
One Gilbert Perk, his chancellor—
BUCKINGHAM
So, so;
These are the limbs o’th’ plot. No more, I hope.
BRANDON
A monk o’th’ Chartreux.
BUCKINGHAM
O, Nicholas Hopkins?
BRANDON He.
BUCKINGHAM
My surveyor is false. The o’er-great Cardinal
Hath showed him gold. My life is spanned already.
I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,
Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on
By dark’ning my clear sun. (To Norfolk) My lord,
farewell.
Exeunt ⌈Norfolk at one door, Buckingham and Abergavenny under guard at another⌉
1.2 Cornetts. Enter King Henry leaning on Cardinal Wolsey’s shoulder. Enter with them Wolsey’s two secretaries, the nobles, and Sir Thomas Lovell. The King ascends to his seat under the cloth of state; Wolsey places himself under the King’s feet on his right side
KING HENRY to Wolsey
My life itself and the best heart of it
Thanks you for this great care. I stood i’th’ level
Of a full-charged confederacy, and give thanks
To you that choked it. Let be called before us
That gentleman of Buckingham’s. In person
I’ll hear him his confessions justify,
And point by point the treasons of his master
He shall again relate.
⌈CRIER⌉ (within)
Room for the Queen, ushered by the Duke of Norfolk.
Enter Queen Katherine, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Duke of Suffolk. She kneels. King Henry riseth from his state, takes her up, and kisses her
QUEEN KATHERINE
Nay, we must longer kneel. I am a suitor.
KING HENRY
Arise, and take place by us.
He placeth her by him
Half your suit
Never name to us. You have half our power,
The other moiety ere you ask is given.
Repeat your will and take it.
QUEEN KATHERINE
Thank your majesty.
That you would love yourself, and in that love
Not unconsidered leave your honour nor
The dignity of your office, is the point
Of my petition.
KING HENRY
Lady mine, proceed.
QUEEN KATHERINE
I am solicited, not by a few,
And those of true condition, that your subjects
Are in great grievance. There have been commissions
Sent down among ’em which hath flawed the heart
Of all their loyalties; wherein, although,
My good lord Cardinal, they vent reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter-on
Of these exactions, yet the King our master—
Whose honour heaven shield from soil—even he
escapes not
Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
In loud rebellion.
NORFOLK
Not ‘almost appears’—
It doth appear; for upon these taxations
The clothiers all, not able to maintain
The many to them ‘longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
Unfit for other life, compelled by hunger
And lack of other means, in desperate manner
Daring th’event to th’ teeth, are all in uproar,
And danger serves among them.
KING HENRY
Taxation?
Wherein, and what taxation? My lord Cardinal,
You that are blamed for it alike with us,
Know you of this taxation?
CARDINAL WOLSEY
Please you, sir,
I know but of a single part in aught
Pertains to th’ state, and front but in that file
Where others tell steps with me.
QUEEN KATHERINE
No, my lord?
You know no more than others? But you frame
Things that are known alike, which are not wholesome
To those which would not know them, and yet must
Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to th’ hearing, and to bear ’em
The back is sacrifice to th’ load. They say
They are devised by you, or else you suffer
Too hard an exclamation.
KING HENRY
Still exaction!
The nature of it? In what kind, let’s know,
Is this exaction?
QUEEN KATHERINE I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience, but am boldened
Under your promised pardon. The subjects’ grief
Comes through commissions which compels from each
The sixth part of his substance to be levied
Without delay, and the pretence for this
Is named your wars in France. This makes bold mouths.
Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
Allegiance in them. Their curses now
Live where their prayers did, and it’s come to pass
This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will. I would your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.
KING HENRY
By my life,
This is against our pleasure.
CARDINAL WOLSEY
And for me,
I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice, and that not passed me but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person yet will be
The chronicles of my doing, let me say
‘Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions in the fear
To cope malicious censurers, which ever,
As rav’nous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimmed, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours or not allowed; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still,
In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at,
We should take root here where we sit,
Or sit state-statues only.
KING HENRY
Things done well,
And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
Things done without example, in their issue
Are to be feared. Have you a precedent
Of this commission? I believe not any.
We must not rend our subjects from our laws
And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each?
A trembling contribution! Why, we take
From every tree lop, bark, and part o‘th’ timber,
And though we leave it with a root, thus hacked
The air will drink the sap. To every county
Where this is questioned send our letters with
Free pardon to each man that has denied
The force of this commission. Pray look to’t—
I put it to your care.
CARDINAL WOLSEY (to a secretary) A word with you.
Let there be letters writ to every shire
Of the King’s grace and pardon.
(Aside to the secretary)
The grieved commons
Hardly conceive of me. Let it be noised
That through our intercession this revokement
And pardon comes. I shall anon advise you
Further in the proceeding.
Exit secretary
Enter Buckingham’s Surveyor
QUEEN KATHERINE (to the King)
I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
Is run in your displeasure.
KING HENRY
It grieves many.
The gentleman is learned, and a most rare speaker,
To nature none more bound; his training such
That he may furnish and instruct great teachers
And never seek for aid out of himself. Yet see,
When these so noble benefits shall prove
Not well disposed, the mind growing once corrupt,
They turn to vicious forms ten times more ugly
Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
Who was enrolled ’mongst wonders—and when we
Almost with ravished list’ning could not find
His hour of speech a minute—he, my lady,
Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
That once were his, and is become as black
As if besmeared in hell. Sit by us. You shall hear—
This was his gentleman in trust of him—
Things to strike honour sad.
(To Wolsey)
Bid him recount
The fore-recited practices whereof
We cannot feel too little, hear too much.
CARDINAL WOLSEY (to the Surveyor)
Stand forth, and with bold spirit relate what you
Most like a careful subject have collected
Out of the Duke of Buckingham.
KING HENRY (to the Surveyor)
Speak freely.
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
First, it was usual with him, every day
It would infect his speech, that if the King
Should without issue die, he’ll carry it so
To make the sceptre his. These very words
I’ve heard him utter to his son-in-law,
Lord Abergavenny, to whom by oath he menaced
Revenge upon the Cardinal.
CARDINAL WOLSEY (to the King)
Please your highness note
His dangerous conception in this point,
Not friended by his wish to your high person.
His will is most malignant, and it stretches
Beyond you to your friends.
QUEEN KATHERINE
My learned Lord Cardinal,
Deliver all with charity.
KING HENRY (to the surveyor) Speak on.
How grounded he his title to the crown
Upon our fail? To this point hast thou heard him
At any time speak aught?
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
He was brought to this
By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins.
KING HENRY
What was that Hopkins?
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
Sir, a Chartreux friar,
His confessor, who fed him every minute
With words of sovereignty.
KING HENRY
How know’st thou this?
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
Not long before your highness sped to France,
The Duke being at the Rose, within the parish
Saint Lawrence Poutney, did of me demand
What was the speech among the Londoners
Concerning the French journey. I replied
Men feared the French would prove perfidious,
To the King’s danger; presently the Duke
Said ‘twas the fear indeed, and that he doubted
’Twould prove the verity of certain words
Spoke by a holy monk that oft, says he,
‘Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour
To hear from him a matter of some moment;
Whom after under the confession’s seal
He solemnly had sworn, that what he spoke
My chaplain to no creature living but
To me should utter, with demure confidence
This pausingly ensued: “neither the King nor’s heirs”,
Tell you the Duke, “shall prosper. Bid him strive
To win the love o’th’ commonalty. The Duke
Shall govern England.” ’
QUEEN KATHERINE
If I know you well,
You were the Duke’s surveyor, and lost your office
On the complaint o’th’ tenants. Take good heed
You charge not in your spleen a noble person
And spoil your nobler soul. I say, take heed;
Yes, heartily beseech you.
KING HENRY
Let him on.
(To the Surveyor) Go forward.
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR On my soul I’ll speak but truth.
I told my lord the Duke, by th’ devil’s illusions
The monk might be deceived, and that ‘twas
dangerous
To ruminate on this so far until
It forged him some design which, being believed,
It was much like to do. He answered, ’Tush,
It can do me no damage’, adding further
That had the King in his last sickness failed,
The Cardinal’s and Sir Thomas Lovell’s heads
Should have gone off.
KING HENRY
Ha? What, so rank? Ah, ha!
There’s mischief in this man. Canst thou say further?
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
I can, my liege.
KING HENRY
Proceed.
BIJCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR Being at Greenwich,
After your highness had reproved the Duke
About Sir William Bulmer—
KING HENRY
I remember
Such a time, being my sworn servant,
The Duke retained him his. But on—what hence?
RIICKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
‘If’, quoth he, ‘I for this had been committed’—
As to the Tower, I thought—‘I would have played
The part my father meant to act upon
Th’usurper Richard who, being at Salisbury,
Made suit to come in’s presence; which if granted,
As he made semblance of his duty, would
Have put his knife into him.’
KING HENRY
A giant traitor!
CARDINAL WOLSEY (to the Queen)
Now, madam, may his highness live in freedom,
And this man out of prison?
QUEEN KATHERINE
God mend all.
KING HENRY (to the Surveyor)
There’s something more would out of thee—what
sayst?
BUCKINGHAM’S SURVEYOR
After ‘the Duke his father’, with ‘the knife’,
He stretched him, and with one hand on his dagger,
Another spread on’s breast, mounting his eyes,
He did discharge a horrible oath whose tenor
Was, were he evil used, he would outgo
His father by as much as a performance
Does an irresolute purpose.
KING HENRY
There’s his period—
To sheathe his knife in us. He is attached.
Call him to present trial. If he may
Find mercy in the law, ’tis his; if none,
Let him not seek’t of us. By day and night,
He’s traitor to th’ height.
Flourish. Exeunt