Re-enter the Dukes of NORFOLK, and SUFFOLK, the Earl of SURREY, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Nor. Hear the king's pleasure, cardinal: who commands you

To render up the great seal presently
Into our hands; and to confine yourself

To Esher 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 ?

481

Bearing the king's will from his mouth expressly?
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 moulded-envy.

How eagerly ye follow my disgrace,

As if it fed yet and how sleek and wanton
Ye appear in every thing may bring my ruin ?

490

Follow your envious courses, men of malice;
You have christian warrant for 'em, and, no doubt,
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:
Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honours,
During my life; and, to confirm his goodness,
Ty'd it by letters patent: Now, who'll take it?
Sur. The king, that gave it.

Wol.

Wol. It must be himself then.

500

Sur. Thou art 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;

511

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,

520

You have as little honesty as honour;

That I, 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

Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou should'st

feel

My sword i' the life-blood of thee else. My lords, Can ye endure to hear this arrogance ?

531

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 land's wealth into one,

Into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion;

The goodness of your intercepted packets,

540

You writ to the pope, against the king: your good

ness,

Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious.-
My lord of Norfolk-as you are 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 sacring bell, when the brown wench
Lay kissing in your arms, lord cardinal.

551

Wol. How much, methinks, I could despise this

man,

But that I am bound in charity against it!

Nor. Those articles, my lord, are in the king's

hand:

But,

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.

560

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 legate; by which power

You maim'd the jurisdiction of all bishops.

570

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

Sur. Item, you sent a large commission

To Gregory de Cassalis, to conclude,
Without the king's will, or the state's allowance,

580

A league between his highness and Ferrara.

Suf.

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

Sur. Then, that you have sent innumerable sub

stance

(By what means got I leave to your own conscience), 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, since they are of you, and odious,

590

I will not taint my mouth with.

Cham. O my lord,

Press 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 see him
So little of his great self.

Sur. I forgive him.

600

Suf. Lord cardinal, the king's further pleasure is-
Because all those things, you have done of late
By your power legatine within this kingdom,
Fall into the compass of a Præmunire-
That therefore such a writ be su'd 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