(With thee, and all thy best parts bound together,)
Weigh'd not a hair of his. Plague of your policy!
You fent me deputy for Ireland;

Far from his fuccour, from the king, from all
That might have mercy on the fault thou gav'ft him;
Whilft your great goodness, out of holy pity,

Abfolv'd him with an axe.

Wol. This, and all else

This talking lord can lay upon my credit,

I answer, is moft falfe.

The duke by law

Found his deferts: how innocent I was

From any private malice in his end,

His noble jury and foul caufe can witness.
If I lov'd many words, lord, I fhould tell you,
You have as little honefty as honour;
That, in the way of loyalty and truth
Toward the king, my ever royal master,

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

Sur. By my foul,

Your long coat, prieft, protects you; thou should't feel My fword i'the life-blood of thee elfe.-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 fcarlet,
Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward,
And dare us with his cap, like larks 7.
Wol. All goodness

Is poifon to thy ftomach.

Sur. Yes, that goodness

Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one,

To be thus jaded—] To be abufed and ill treated, like a worthless horfe: or perhaps to be ridden by a prieft ;—to have him mounted above us. MALONE.

7 And dare us with his cap, like larks.] It is well known that the hat of a cardinal is fcarlet; and the method of daring larks was by fmall mirrors faftened on fcarlet cloth, which engaged the attention of thefe birds while the fowler drew his net over them.

The fame thought occurs in Skelton's Why come ye not to Court ? i. e. a fatire on Wolfey:

"The red hat with his lure

"Bringeth all things under cure." STEEVENS.

G 4

Into

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 refpect the common good, the state
Of our defpis'd nobility, our iffues,

Who, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen,-
Produce the grand fum of his fins, the articles
Collected from his life :-I'll ftartle you

Worfe than the facring bell, when the brown wench
Lay kiffing in your arms, lord cardinal.

Wol. How much, methinks, I could defpife this man, But that I am bound in charity against it!

Nor. Thofe articles, my lord, are in the king's hand; But, thus much, they are foul ones.

Wol. So much fairer,

And fpotlefs, fhall mine innocence arise,
When the king knows my truth.

Sur. This cannot fave you :

I thank my memory, I yet remember
Some of these articles; and out they fhall.
Now, if you can blufh, and cry guilty, cardinal,
You'll fhew a little honesty.

Wol. Speak on, fir;

I dare your worst objections: if I blush,

It is, to fee a nobleman want manners.

Sur. I'd rather want thofe, than my head. Have at you, First, that, without the king's affent, or knowledge, You wrought to be a legate; by which power

You maim'd the jurifdiction of all bithops.

Nor. Then, that, in all you writ to kome, or else

Who,-] Old Copy-Wbom. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE, Worse than the facring bell,-] The little bell, which is rung to give notice of the Hoft approaching when it is carried in proceffion, as alfo in other offices of the Romish church, is called the jacring or confecration bell; from the French word, facrer. THEOBALD.

So, in Reginald Scott's Difcovery of Witchcraft, 1584: "He heard a little facring bell ring to the elevation of a to-morrow mafs." The now obfolete verb to facre, is ufed by P. Holland in his tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. B. X. ch. vi. STEEVENS.

To

To foreign princes, Ego et Rex meus

Was ftill infcrib'd; in which you brought the king
To be your fervant.

Suf. Then, that, without the knowledge
Either of king or council, when you went
Ambaffador to the emperor, you made bold
To carry into Flanders the great feal.

Sur. Item, you sent a large commiffion
To Gregory de Caffalis, to conclude,

Without the king's will, or the ftate's allowance,
A league between his highness and Ferrara.

Suf. That, out of mere ambition, you have caus'd
Your holy hat to be ftamp'd on the king's coin.

Sur. Then, that you have fent innumerable fubftance, (By what means got, I leave to your own confcience,) 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, fince they are of you, and odious, I will not taint my mouth with.

Cham. O my lord,

Prefs 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 fee him
So little of his great felf.

Sur. I forgive him.

Suf. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is,-
Because all thofe things, you have done of late
By your power legatine within this kingdom,
Fall into the compafs of a pramunire',-
That therefore fuch a writ be fu'd against you;
To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements,
Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be

Out

9to the mere undoing-] Mere is abfolute. So, in the Honeft Man's Fortune, by B. and Fletcher:

15 - I am as happy

"In my friend's good, as if 'twere merely mine." STEEEV. See Vol. I. p. 7, n. 3. MALONE.

I-of a præmunire,] It is almost unneceffary to obferve that præmunire is a barbarous word ufed inftead of præmonere, STEEVENS.

Chattels, and whatsoever,] The old copy has Cafles. The e

mendation

Out of the king's protection :-This is my charge.
Nor. And fo we'll leave you to your meditations
How to live better. For your stubborn anfwer,
About the giving back the great feal to us,

The king hall know it, and, no doubt, fhall thank you.
So fare you well, my little good lord cardinal.
[Exeunt all but Wolfey.
Wol. So farewell to the little good you bear me.
Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatnefs!
This is the state of man; To-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope 3, to-morrow bloffoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day, comes a froft, a killing froft;
And,-when he thinks, good eafy man, full furely
His greatness is a ripening,-nips his root 4,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur'd,
Like little wanton boys that fwim on bladders,
This many fummers in a sea of glory;

mendation was made by Mr. Theobald, and is, I think, fully juftified by the pallage in Holinfhed's Chronicle on which this is founded; in which it is obfervable that the word chattels is fpelt cattels, which might have been easily confounded with caftles: "After this, in the kings bench his matter for the pramunire being called upon, two attornies which he had authorifed by his warrant figned with his own hand, confeiled the action, and fo had judgement to forfeit all his landes, tenements, goods, and cattels, and to be put out of the king's protection." CHRON. Vol. II. p. 909. MALONE.

3 This is the fate of man; To-day he puts forth

The tender leaves of bope, &c.] So, in our author's 25th Sonnet: "Great princes' favourites their fair leaves Spread,

4

But as the marigold in the fun's eye;

"And in themfelves their pride lies buried,
"For at a frown they in their glory die."

- nips his root,] "As fpring-frofts are not injurious to the roots of fruit-trees," Dr. Warburton reads-foot. Such capricious alterations I am fometimes obliged to mention, merely to introduce the notes of thole, who, while they have fhewn them to be unnecessary, have illuftrated our author. MALONE.

Vernal frofts indeed do not kill the root, but then to nip the boots does not kill the tree or make it fall. The metaphor will not in either reading correfpond exactly with nature. JOHNSON.

I adhere to the old reading, which is countenanced by the following paffage in A. W's Commendation of Gascoigne and bis Poefies:

And frofts fo nip the routes of vertuous-meaning minds."

See Gafcoigne's Works, 1587. STLEVENS.

Bu

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary, and old with fervice, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye;
I feel my heart new open'd: O, how wretched
Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favours!
There is, betwixt that fmile we would afpire to,
That sweet afpéct of princes, and their ruins,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer",
Never to hope again.-

Enter CROMWELL, amazedly.

Why, how now, Cromwell?

Crom. I have no power to speak, fir.

Wol. What, amaz'd

At my misfortunes? can thy fpirit wonder,

A great man fhould decline? Nay, an you weep,
I am fallen indeed.

Crom. How does your grace?

Wol. Why, well;

Never fo truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now; and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A till and quiet confcience. The king has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his grace; and from thefe fhoulders,
Thefe ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A load would fink a navy, too much honour:

and their ruin,] That is, their difpleasure, producing the downfall and ruin of him on whom it lights. So before:

"He parted frowning from me, as if ruin
"Leap'd from his eyes." MALONE.

6 And when be falls, be falls like Lucifer,] So, in Churchyard's Legend of Cardinal Wolfey, MIRROUR FOR MAGISTRATES, 1587:

"Your fault not hair fo great as was my pride,

"For which offence fell Lucifer from the fkies." MALONE. In the Life and Death of Thomas Wolfey, &c. a poem, by Tho. Storer, ftudent of Chrift-church, in Oxford, 1599, the cardinal exprefies him

felf in

a manner fomewhat fimilar:

"If once we fall, we fail Coloffus-like,

"We fall at once like pillars of the funne," &c. STEEVENS.

O, 'tis