Wolsey

Queen Katherine
Lord Cardinal,
To you I speak.
Wolsey
Your pleasure, madam.

You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility, but your heart
Is crammed with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.

Queen Katherine
Sir,
I am about to weep; but thinking that
We are a queen,
… continue reading this quote

Gentleman
An ’t please your Grace, the two great cardinals
Wait in the presence.
Queen Katherine
Would they speak with me?
Gentleman
They willed me say so, madam.

I do not like their coming, now I think on ’t.
They should be good men, their affairs as righteous.
But all hoods make not monks.
… continue reading this quote

Campeius
Most honored madam,
My Lord of York, out of his noble nature,
Zeal, and obedience he still bore your Grace,
Forgetting, like a good man, your late censure
Both of his truth and him—which was too far—
Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace,
His service and his counsel.

Alas, I am a woman friendless,
… continue reading this quote

Campeius
Put your main cause into the King’s protection.
He’s loving and most gracious. ’Twill be much
Both for your honor better and your cause,
For if the trial of the law o’ertake you,
You’ll part away disgraced.
Wolsey
He tells you rightly.
Queen Katherine
You tell me what you wish for both: my ruin.
… continue reading this quote

Wolsey
Ever God bless your Highness.
King
Good my lord,
You are full of heavenly stuff and bear the inventory
Of your best graces in your mind, the which
You were now running o’er. You have scarce time
To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span
To keep your earthly audit. Sure, in that
I deem you an ill husband,
… continue reading this quote

King
Have I not made you
The prime man of the state? I pray you tell me
If what I now pronounce you have found true;
And, if you may confess it, say withal
If you are bound to us or no. What say you?

I have touched the highest point of all my greatness,
And from that full meridian of my glory
I haste now to my setting.
… continue reading this quote

Norfolk 
Hear the King’s pleasure, cardinal, who commands you
To render up the great seal presently
Into our hands, and to confine yourself
To Asher House, my Lord of Winchester’s,
Till you hear further from his Highness.
Wolsey
Stay.
Where’s your commission, lords? Words cannot carry
Authority so weighty.

All goodness
Is poison to thy stomach.
… continue reading this quote

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.
… continue reading this quote

Norfolk
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, fare you well, my little good Lord Cardinal.

I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
… continue reading this quote

Cromwell
How does your Grace?
Wolsey
Why, well.
Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now, and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. The King has cured me—
I humbly thank his Grace—and from these shoulders,
These ruined pillars, out of pity,
… continue reading this quote