To the last penny; 'tis the king's; my robe,
And my integrity to Heaven, are all

I dare now call mine own.

O Cromwell, Cromwell! 115

Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies!

Crom. Good sir, have patience.

Wol.

So I have. Farewell

The hopes of court! my hopes in heaven do dwell.

120

[Exeunt.

XXIV.

KING HENRY VIII.

ACT iv. SCENE 2.-CHARACTER OF WOLSEY.

[King Henry succeeded in obtaining the divorce spoken of in § XXIII., and the unhappy queen, Katharine of Arragon, was obliged to retire to Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. Shakespeare pictures her, in this scene, as receiving, during her last illness, the news of Wolsey's death. This news is announced to her by her attendant, or "gentleman-usher," Griffith. The only other person present during this scene is Patience, Queen Katharine's maid.]

SCENE: Kimbolton.

Grif. How does your grace?

Kath.

O Griffith, sick to death!
My legs, like loaden branches, bow to the earth,
Willing to leave their burthen. Reach a chair;
So; now, methinks, I feel a little ease.

Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me,

5

114. My integrity to Heaven.-Integrity is literally wholeness. Its usual meaning, as here, is uprightness, honesty.

3. Like loaden branches.-The verb to load is an instance of a verb which was once irregular or strong, forming its perfect participle in en, having become regular or weak, forming the participle in ed; we should now say loaded.

5. So. An exclamation equivalent to "there, that will do."

5. Methinks.-See § VIII. note 15.

Grif.

That the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey,
Was dead?

Yes, madam; but I think your grace,
Out of the pain you suffer'd, gave no ear to it.
Kath. Prithee, good Griffith, tell me how he died;
If well, he stepp'd before me, happily

For my example.

10

Grif.

Well, the voice goes, madam;
For after the stout Earl Northumberland

15

Arrested him at York, and brought him forward,
As a man sorely tainted, to his answer,

He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill
He could not sit his mule.

Alas, poor man!

Kath.
Grif. At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester,
Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot,
With all his convent, honourably received him;
To whom he gave these words, “O father abbot,
An old man, broken with the storms of state,
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity!"

So went to bed; where eagerly his sickness
Pursued him still; and, three nights after this,
About the hour of eight, which he himself

7. Cardinal Wolsey.--See § VII. note 36; and introduction to § XXIII. 11. Prithee.-See § III. note 59.

14. Well.-In answer to Katharine's request, "Tell me how he died." 14. The voice goes.—It is the general opinion.

17. Sorely tainted.-Charged with serious crimes.

17. To his answer.-To his public trial.

21. With easy roads.-By short journeys.

22. Abbey.-A place where men shut themselves up from the world, to practise what is called "the religious life;" such men are called monks.

22. Abbot. The head of an abbey.

23. Convent.-Another name for abbey; used also as the name of a place where females, called nuns, retire from the world. Here, however, it means the inmates of the abbey,-the monks.

27. A little earth.-A grave.

Foretold should be his last, full of repentance,
Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows,

He gave his honours to the world again,

His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace.
Kath. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him!
Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him,
And yet with charity. He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes; one that, by suggestion,
Tied all the kingdom; simony was fair play;
His own opinion was his law; i' the presence
He would say untruths; and be ever double
Both in his words and meaning; he was never,
But where he meant to ruin, pitiful;

His promises were, as he then was, mighty;

45

But his performances, as he is now, nothing;

Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.

Grif.

Noble madam,

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water. May it please your highness
To hear me speak his good now?

50

Kath.

Yes, good Griffith;

34. His blessed part.-His soul.

36. To speak him.-To speak of him; to describe him.

38. An unbounded stomach.-Unbounded ambition; an appetite for greatness.

40. Simony. The practice of buying and selling offices in the church. The sin obtained its name from Simon the sorcerer; see Acts viii. 18, 19.

41. I the presence.-In the king's presence.

47. Of his own body he was ill.—As we say a man may be "ill of a fever," so Wolsey was "ill of his own body," that is, "he suffered from selfishness."

50. Men's evil manners live in brass.--As an inscription on brass lasts a long time, so the evil deeds of men are long remembered.

30. Their virtues we write in water.-The good deeds of men are remcmbered no longer than a word written on the surface of water would remain.

40

335

Grif.

I were malicious else.

This cardinal,

Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;

55

60

But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.

And though he were unsatisfied in getting,
Which was a sin, yet in bestowing, madam,

He was most princely; ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,

65

Ipswich and Oxford! one of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinished, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little;
And, to add greater honours to his age

Than man could give him, he died fearing God.

Kath. After my death I wish no other herald,

No other speaker of my living actions,
To keep mine honour from corruption,
But such an honest chronicler as Griffith.

70

75

54. I were malicious else.-The verb were is Subjunctive singular. 65. Those twins of learning that he raised in you.-The you here is not addressed to the queen, but to "Ipswich and Oxford," in the next line.

66. Ipswich and Oxford.-Wolsey founded Christ Church College, Oxford, and a grammar-school at Ipswich; these were the "twins of learning." The grammar-school did not continue after his death; while Christ Church is now the most famous college in England.

70. Christendom. The whole Christian world.

76. No other herald.—At the funeral of noble persons, it is usual for a person called a herald to recite all the titles of the deceased, and to speak of all his honourable deeds.

79. Chronicler.-One who chronicles or relates a history.

Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me,
With thy religious truth and modesty,
Now in his ashes honour; peace be with him!
Patience, be near me still; and set me lower;
I have not long to trouble thee. Good Griffith,
Cause the musicians play me that sad note
I named my knell, whilst I sit meditating
On that celestial harmony I go to.

[Sad and solemn music; queen sleeps.

80

85

XXV.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

ACT iii. SCENE 3.- ULYSSES ON PERSEVERANCE.

[The scene of this play is the city of Troy, in Asia Minor, a place famous in Grecian history. The date of the "Siege of Troy" (about the time of Jephthah and Samson, judges of the Israelites) is, however, so remote, that it may be better to consider it as belonging rather to Mythology than to History. This siege of Troy by the Greeks is stated to have lasted ten years; during its continuance, we are to imagine the following scene as taking place in the Grecian camp. It is a dialogue between Achilles and Ulysses, two Grecian commanders; the former had been treated somewhat disdainfully by some of his fellow-officers, among others by the "lubber Ajax;" Ulysses thereupon offers some excellent advice to Achilles, who having fallen in love with Polyxena, a daughter of the King of Troy, had become careless and indifferent as to the progress of the siege; Ulysses urges him to "persevere," or he might see the honours of the war won by Ajax, whom Achilles held in such contempt.]

SCENE: The Grecian camp.

Ulyss. To see these Grecian lords!—why, even already
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder.

80. Whom I most hated.-Whom has for its antecedent he understood. This omission of the antecedent to a relative pronoun is still permissible.

85. Cause the musicians play.-Play is infinitive, with the to omitted. We should not now omit the to after cause; we still, however, write such sentences as

"Make the men sit down."

"Hear the boys read."

87. Celestial harmony.-The music of heaven.

2. Lubber.-A man dull of understanding.