WOLSEY.
So much fairer
And spotless shall mine innocence arise
When the King knows my truth.
SURREY.
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 show a little honesty.
WOLSEY.
Speak on, sir;
I dare your worst objections. If I blush,
It is to see a nobleman want manners.
SURREY.
I had 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 maimed the jurisdiction of all bishops.
NORFOLK.
Then, that in all you writ to Rome, or else
To foreign princes, “ego et rex meus”
Was still inscribed, in which you brought the King
To be your servant.
SUFFOLK.
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 seal.
SURREY.
Item, you sent a large commission
To Gregory de Cassado, to conclude,
Without the King’s will or the state’s allowance,
A league between his Highness and Ferrara.
SUFFOLK.
That out of mere ambition you have caused
Your holy hat to be stamped on the King’s coin.
SURREY.
Then, that you have sent innumerable substance—
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,
I will not taint my mouth with.
CHAMBERLAIN.
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.