ACT I
SCENE I London. An ante-chamber in the palace.


 [Enter NORFOLK at one door; at the other, BUCKINGHAM
 and ABERGAVENNY]

BUCKINGHAM 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
 Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber when
 Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
 Met in the vale of Andren.

NORFOLK 'Twixt Guynes and Arde:
 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 weigh'd
 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. To-day the French,
 All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
 Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they
 Made Britain India: every man that stood
 Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
 As cherubins, all guilt: the madams 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 the 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 every thing
 Would by a good discourser lose some life,
 Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal;
 To the disposing of it nought rebell'd.
 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 order'd 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' the 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 propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
 Chalks successors their way, nor call'd upon
 For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
 For eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
 Out of his self-drawing web, he 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' the king, to 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 the 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 follow'd, 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 flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd
 Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.

ABERGAVENNY Is it therefore
 The 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,
 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 borne before him,
 certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with
 papers. CARDINAL WOLSEY in his passage fixeth his
 eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full
 of disdain]

CARDINAL WOLSEY The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, ha?
 Where's his examination?

First Secretary Here, so please you.

CARDINAL WOLSEY Is he in person ready?

First Secretary Ay, please your grace.

CARDINAL WOLSEY Well, we shall then know more; and Buckingham
 Shall lessen this big look.

 [Exeunt CARDINAL WOLSEY and his Train]

BUCKINGHAM This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, 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 temperance; that's the 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 the 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 allow'd 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 til 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 the 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 ravenous
 As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
 As able to perform't; his mind and place
 Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally--
 Only to show his pomp as well in France
 As here at home, suggests the king our master
 To this last costly treaty, the interview,
 That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass
 Did break i' the rinsing.

NORFOLK Faith, and so it did.

BUCKINGHAM Pray, give me favour, sir. This cunning cardinal
 The articles o' the combination drew
 As himself pleased; and they were ratified
 As he cried 'Thus let be': to as much end
 As give a crutch to the 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 the 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
 Peep'd harms that menaced him: he privily
 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 ask'd; 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 Sergeant-at-arms before him, and
 two or three of the Guard]

BRANDON Your office, sergeant; execute it.

Sergeant Sir,
 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 Lo, you, my lord,
 The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish
 Under device and practise.

BRANDON I am sorry
 To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on
 The business present: 'tis his highness' pleasure
 You shall to the Tower.

BUCKINGHAM It will help me nothing
 To plead mine innocence; for that dye is on me
 Which makes my whitest part black. The will of heaven
 Be done in this and all things! I obey.
 O my Lord Abergavenny, fare you well!

BRANDON Nay, he must bear you company. The king

 [To ABERGAVENNY]

 Is pleased you shall to the 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 obey'd!

BRANDON                   Here is a warrant from
 The king to attach Lord Montacute; and the bodies
 Of the duke's confessor, John de la Car,
 One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor--

BUCKINGHAM So, so;
 These are the limbs o' the plot: no more, I hope.

BRANDON A monk o' the Chartreux.

BUCKINGHAM O, Nicholas Hopkins?

BRANDON He.

BUCKINGHAM My surveyor is false; the o'er-great cardinal
 Hath show'd him gold; my life is spann'd already:
 I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,
 Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,
 By darkening my clear sun. My lord, farewell.

 [Exeunt]




 KING HENRY VIII


ACT I