Manifestly borrowed from that fine passage in Isaiah, xiv. ver. 12: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"
Scene 2. Page 135.
Wol. And sleep in dull cold marble.
Mr. Gray seems to have remembered this line in his elegy,—
"Or flattery sooth the dull cold ear of death."
Scene 2. Page 137.
Wol. 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.
Dr. Johnson remarks, that "this sentence was really uttered by Wolsey." The substance of it certainly was. The words themselves have been preserved in the valuable Life of Wolsey by George Cavendish his gentleman usher, which Shakspeare might have used either in Stowe's chronicle or in manuscript; for several copies are still remaining that were transcribed in the reign of Elizabeth. Mr. Malone has already taken due notice of their very superior value, and of the omissions and interpolations in the printed editions. In the latter, the work has been abridged of many details of great curiosity with respect to the manners of the times. A new and correct edition would be well deserving of the patronage of an enlightened public. The real words uttered by Wolsey were these; "Yf I hadd served God as diligently as I have done the kinge, he wolde not have geven me over in my graye heares."