Act 1, Scene 2

The same. The council-chamber.

[Cornets. Enter the King, leaning on the Cardinal's shoulder, the Nobles, and Sir Thomas Lovell; the Cardinal places himself under the King's feet on his right side.]
King Henry VIII
301 My life itself, and the best heart of it,
302 Thanks you for this great care. I stood i' the level
303 Of a full-charg'd confederacy, and give thanks
304 To you that chok'd it. Let be call'd before us
305 That gentleman of Buckingham's; in person
306 I'll hear his confessions justify;
307 And point by point the treasons of his master
308 He shall again relate.
[A noise within, crying "Room for the Queen!" Enter Queen Katherine, ushered by the Duke of Norfolk, and the Duke of Suffolk; she kneels. The King riseth from his state, takes her up, kisses and placeth her by him.]
Queen Katherine
309 Nay, we must longer kneel; I am a suitor.
King Henry VIII
310 Arise, and take place by us. Half your suit
311 Never name to us, you have half our power;
312 The other moiety, ere you ask, is given.
313 Repeat your will and take it.
Queen Katherine
314 Thank your Majesty.
315 That you would love yourself, and in that love
316 Not unconsidered leave your honour, nor
317 The dignity of your office, is the point
318 Of my petition.
King Henry VIII
319 Lady mine, proceed.
Queen Katherine
320 I am solicited, not by a few,
321 And those of true condition, that your subjects
322 Are in great grievance. There have been commissions
323 Sent down among 'em, which hath flaw'd the heart
324 Of all their loyalties; wherein, although,
325 My good Lord Cardinal, they vent reproaches
326 Most bitterly on you, as putter on
327 Of these exactions, yet the King our master—
328 Whose honour Heaven shield from soil!—even he escapes not
329 Language unmannerly, yea, such which breaks
330 The sides of loyalty, and almost appears
331 In loud rebellion.
Duke of Norfolk
332 Not "almost appears,"
333 It doth appear; for, upon these taxations,
334 The clothiers all, not able to maintain
335 The many to them longing, have put off
336 The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who,
337 Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger
338 And lack of other means, in desperate manner
339 Daring the event to the teeth, are all in uproar,
340 And danger serves among them.
King Henry VIII
341 Taxation!
342 Wherein? and what taxation? My Lord Cardinal,
343 You that are blam'd for it alike with us,
344 Know you of this taxation?
Cardinal Wolsey
345 Please you, sir,
346 I know but of a single part, in aught
347 Pertains to the state, and front but in that file
348 Where others tell steps with me.
Queen Katherine
349 No, my lord?
350 You know no more than others? But you frame
351 Things that are known alike, which are not wholesome
352 To those which would not know them, and yet must
353 Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions,
354 Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
355 Most pestilent to the hearing; and, to bear 'em,
356 The back is sacrifice to the load. They say
357 They are devis'd by you; or else you suffer
358 Too hard an exclamation.
King Henry VIII
359 Still exaction!
360 The nature of it? In what kind, let's know,
361 Is this exaction?
Queen Katherine
362 I am much too venturous
363 In tempting of your patience; but am bold'ned
364 Under your promis'd pardon. The subjects' grief
365 Comes through commissions, which compels from each
366 The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
367 Without delay; and the pretence for this
368 Is nam'd, your wars in France. This makes bold mouths;
369 Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
370 Allegiance in them; their curses now
371 Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass
372 This tractable obedience is a slave
373 To each incensed will. I would your Highness
374 Would give it quick consideration, for
375 There is no primer business.
King Henry VIII
376 By my life,
377 This is against our pleasure.
Cardinal Wolsey
378 And for me,
379 I have no further gone in this than by
380 A single voice; and that not pass'd me but
381 By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
382 Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know
383 My faculties nor person, yet will be
384 The chronicles of my doing, let me say
385 'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
386 That virtue must go through. We must not stint
387 Our necessary actions, in the fear
388 To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
389 As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
390 That is new-trimm'd, but benefit no further
391 Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
392 By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
393 Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,
394 Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
395 For our best act. If we shall stand still,
396 In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at,
397 We should take root here where we sit, or sit
398 State-statues only.
King Henry VIII
399 Things done well,
400 And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;
401 Things done without example, in their issue
402 Are to be fear'd. Have you a precedent
403 Of this commission? I believe, not any.
404 We must not rend our subjects from our laws,
405 And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each?
406 A trembling contribution! Why, we take
407 From every tree lop, bark, and part o' the timber;
408 And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd,
409 The air will drink the sap. To every county
410 Where this is question'd send our letters, with
411 Free pardon to each man that has deni'd
412 The force of this commission. Pray, look to't;
413 I put it to your care.
Cardinal Wolsey
414 A word with you.
[To the Secretary, aside.]
Cardinal Wolsey
415 Let there be letters writ to every shire,
416 Of the King's grace and pardon. The grieved commons
417 Hardly conceive of me; let it be nois'd
418 That through our intercession this revokement
419 And pardon comes. I shall anon advise you
420 Further in the proceeding.
[Exit Secretary.]
[Enter Surveyor.]
Queen Katherine
421 I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
422 Is run in your displeasure.
King Henry VIII
423 It grieves many.
424 The gentleman is learn'd, and a most rare speaker;
425 To nature none more bound; his training such
426 That he may furnish and instruct great teachers,
427 And never seek for aid out of himself. Yet see,
428 When these so noble benefits shall prove
429 Not well dispos'd, the mind growing once corrupt,
430 They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly
431 Than ever they were fair. This man so complete,
432 Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we,
433 Almost with ravish'd list'ning, could not find
434 His hour of speech a minute; he, my lady,
435 Hath into monstrous habits put the graces
436 That once were his, and is become as black
437 As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear—
438 This was his gentleman in trust—of him
439 Things to strike honour sad. Bid him recount
440 The fore-recited practices, whereof
441 We cannot feel too little, hear too much.
Cardinal Wolsey
442 Stand forth, and with bold spirit relate what you,
443 Most like a careful subject, have collected
444 Out of the Duke of Buckingham.
King Henry VIII
445 Speak freely.
Surveyor
446 First, it was usual with him, every day
447 It would infect his speech, that if the King
448 Should without issue die, he'll carry it so
449 To make the sceptre his. These very words
450 I've heard him utter to his son-in-law,
451 Lord Abergavenny; to whom by oath he menac'd
452 Revenge upon the Cardinal.
Cardinal Wolsey
453 Please your Highness, note
454 This dangerous conception in this point.
455 Not friended by his wish, to your high person
456 His will is most malignant; and it stretches
457 Beyond you, to your friends.
Queen Katherine
458 My learn'd Lord Cardinal,
459 Deliver all with charity.
King Henry VIII
460 Speak on.
461 How grounded he his title to the crown?
462 Upon our fail? To this point hast thou heard him
463 At any time speak aught?
Surveyor
464 He was brought to this
465 By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Henton.
King Henry VIII
466 What was that Henton?
Surveyor
467 Sir, a Chartreux friar,
468 His confessor; who fed him every minute
469 With words of sovereignty.
King Henry VIII
470 How know'st thou this?
Surveyor
471 Not long before your Highness sped to France,
472 The Duke being at the Rose, within the parish
473 Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand
474 What was the speech among the Londoners
475 Concerning the French journey. I repli'd,
476 Men fear the French would prove perfidious,
477 To the King's danger. Presently the Duke
478 Said, 'twas the fear, indeed; and that he doubted
479 'Twould prove the verity of certain words
480 Spoke by a holy monk, "that oft," says he,
481 "Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit
482 John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour
483 To hear from him a matter of some moment;
484 Whom after under the confession's seal
485 He solemnly had sworn, that what he spoke
486 My chaplain to no creature living but
487 To me should utter, with demure confidence
488 This pausingly ensu'd: 'Neither the King nor's heirs,
489 Tell you the Duke, shall prosper. Bid him strive
490 To gain the love o' the commonalty. The Duke
491 Shall govern England."'
Queen Katherine
492 If I know you well,
493 You were the Duke's surveyor, and lost your office
494 On the complaint o' the tenants. Take good heed
495 You charge not in your spleen a noble person
496 And spoil your nobler soul; I say, take heed;
497 Yes, heartily beseech you.
King Henry VIII
498 Let him on.
499 Go forward.
Surveyor
500 On my soul, I'll speak but truth.
501 I told my lord the Duke, by the devil's illusions
502 The monk might be deceiv'd; and that 'twas dangerous for him
503 To ruminate on this so far, until
504 It forg'd him some design; which, being believ'd,
505 It was much like to do. He answer'd, "Tush,
506 It can do me no damage;" adding further
507 That, had the King in his last sickness fail'd,
508 The Cardinal's and Sir Thomas Lovell's heads
509 Should have gone off.
King Henry VIII
510 Ha! what, so rank? Ah ha!
511 There's mischief in this man. Canst thou say further?
Surveyor
512 I can, my liege.
King Henry VIII
513 Proceed.
Surveyor
514 Being at Greenwich,
515 After your Highness had reprov'd the Duke
516 About Sir William Bulmer,—
King Henry VIII
517 I remember
518 Of such a time; being my sworn servant,
519 The Duke retain'd him his. But on; what hence?
Surveyor
520 "If," quoth he, "I for this had been committed,"
521 —As, to the Tower, I thought,—"I would have play'd
522 The part my father meant to act upon
523 The usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury,
524 Made suit to come in 's presence; which if granted,
525 As he made semblance of his duty, would
526 Have put his knife into him."
King Henry VIII
527 A giant traitor!
Cardinal Wolsey
528 Now, madam, may his Highness live in freedom,
529 And this man out of prison?
Queen Katherine
530 God mend all!
King Henry VIII
531 There's something more would out of thee; what say'st?
Surveyor
532 After "the Duke his father," with "the knife,"
533 He stretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger,
534 Another spread on 's breast, mounting his eyes,
535 He did discharge a horrible oath; whose tenour
536 Was, were he evil us'd, he would outgo
537 His father by as much as a performance
538 Does an irresolute purpose.
King Henry VIII
539 There's his period,
540 To sheathe his knife in us. He is attach'd.
541 Call him to present trial. If he may
542 Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none,
543 Let him not seek 't of us. By day and night,
544 He's traitor to th' height.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 302archaic vocab
“I stood i' the level Of a full-charg'd confederacy”
Henry says he stood 'in the level' — within the line of fire — of a 'full-charg'd confederacy,' a fully armed conspiracy aimed at him. 'Level' is a gunnery term: the direct line along which a cannon is aimed; 'full-charg'd' continues the image — a weapon loaded to its maximum. He is thanking Wolsey for exposing Buckingham's plot before it could discharge.
TLN 312archaic vocab
“The other moiety, ere you ask, is given”
'Moiety' means half. Henry tells Katherine she has already secured half her petition by her presence; the other half, he says, is granted before she even asks — an extravagant gesture of royal favor that also sets up everything she is about to request as pre-approved.
TLN 322historical topical
“There have been commissions Sent down among 'em, which hath flaw'd the heart Of all their loyalties”
'Commissions' here are royal writs authorizing the collection of a forced loan — a tax collected without parliamentary consent. Katherine is telling Henry that these writs, sent into the counties, have shattered ('flaw'd' = cracked, split) the people's loyalty. The episode reflects a real crisis: in 1525 Wolsey attempted to levy an extra-parliamentary 'Amicable Grant' of one-sixth of every subject's income to fund a war with France; it triggered near-rebellion in East Anglia and was quickly cancelled.
historical Holinshed's Chronicleshistorical Cardinal Wolsey
TLN 326archaic vocab
“you, as putter on Of these exactions”
'Putter on' means the instigator — the person who set something in motion. Katherine is saying the people blame Wolsey as the one who 'put on' (initiated, drove) these unlawful levies, and she is pointedly telling him so to his face in the king's presence.
TLN 336cultural context
“The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who, Unfit for other life”
Norfolk lists the stages of the woolen cloth trade, England's largest industry: spinsters spun raw wool into thread, carders combed the fibers before spinning, fullers cleansed and thickened woven cloth by pounding it in water, and weavers turned yarn into fabric. All of them are now thrown out of work because the 'clothiers' (merchant-employers) cannot pay them once their capital is seized by the forced levy. For the original audience, whose economy depended on cloth exports, this is not an abstract grievance but a vivid economic catastrophe.
TLN 346archaic vocab
“I know but of a single part, in aught Pertains to the state, and front but in that file Where others tell steps with me”
Wolsey is deflecting blame with evasive military language. 'Front but in that file' means he only stands in the front rank (plays his public role) when others march in step alongside him — he claims he acts only as one among equals, not as the sole initiator. 'Tell steps' means count or keep pace with steps; a 'file' is a column of soldiers. He is saying: I am not the mastermind, I merely march in line with everyone else.
TLN 356rhetorical device
“the back is sacrifice to the load”
Katherine's compressed metaphor: the back (the taxpayer's body) is made a sacrificial offering to the burden (the tax). 'Sacrifice' here has its literal religious sense — something given up and consumed — turning the levy into an act of destruction of the very people who sustain the realm. It is the most concentrated image in her speech and functions as the emotional climax of her argument about the tax's cruelty.
TLN 365historical topical
“compels from each The sixth part of his substance”
Katherine names the exact rate of Wolsey's forced levy: one-sixth of every subject's total assessed wealth ('substance' = all property, not just income), to be collected immediately and without parliamentary authorization. This was the 'Amicable Grant' of 1525. Because Parliament had not voted it, there was no legal basis for the demand, and subjects rightly saw it as an arbitrary seizure.
historical Cardinal Wolsey
TLN 370rhetorical device
“their curses now Live where their prayers did”
Katherine's sharpest antithesis: the prayers subjects once directed toward the king have been replaced, in the same mouths and hearts, by curses. The reversal is total — loyalty and devotion have not merely cooled but inverted into their exact opposite. The syntax ('live where') treats prayers and curses as tenants of the same dwelling (the subjects' hearts), and the verb 'live' gives them uncanny persistence.
TLN 382archaic vocab
“Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know My faculties nor person, yet will be The chronicles of my doing”
'Traduc'd' means slandered, defamed — from Latin 'traducere,' to drag through public disgrace. Wolsey is complaining that people who know nothing about him or his abilities ('faculties') set themselves up as the recorders ('chronicles') of his actions. His irritation is both genuine and self-serving: he is defending his record while quietly dismissing the people who are, in fact, accurately reporting what he has done.
TLN 385archaic vocab
“'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake That virtue must go through”
'The fate of place' means the inevitable price of holding high office. A 'brake' is a thicket of thorns or undergrowth — a dense, scratchy obstacle. Wolsey is saying that virtue in high office must push through a painful thicket of criticism, and this is simply the cost of power. The metaphor is honest at the surface but self-flattering in that he equates his own political decisions with 'virtue.'
TLN 389rhetorical device
“As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow That is new-trimm'd, but benefit no further Than vainly longing”
Wolsey compares malicious critics to scavenger fish that trail a freshly re-caulked ship hoping for barnacles and scraps, but get nothing. 'New-trimm'd' means freshly cleaned, sealed, and fitted out — a ship after careening. The fish follow uselessly ('vainly longing'). It is a contemptuous simile: his detractors circle him hoping to find something to feed on, but he offers them nothing.
TLN 397archaic vocab
“sit State-statues only”
'State-statues' are decorative sculptures in a great hall or chamber of state — impressive to look at, but motionless and useless. Wolsey is saying that if officials refuse to act for fear of criticism, they become nothing more than ornamental figures in a room — present in body but governing nothing. The coinage is sharp and contemptuous of timidity.
TLN 401historical topical
“Things done without example, in their issue Are to be fear'd”
Henry says actions without precedent ('without example' = without a prior case to justify them) are dangerous in their results ('issue'). He is rebuking Wolsey's unauthorized commission: because there is no legal precedent for the levy, subjects rightly fear its consequences and resist. This is also a statement of Tudor constitutional doctrine — the king should act through established legal forms, not arbitrary orders.
TLN 407rhetorical device
“From every tree lop, bark, and part o' the timber; And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd, The air will drink the sap”
Henry extends the forced-levy into a vivid image of destructive tree-pruning: if you strip the bark and outer wood from every tree yet leave the root, the exposed tree will still die — the air draws out the sap through the wounds. He is arguing that taking one-sixth of a subject's substance damages the whole organism of the kingdom, even if it does not kill it outright. The tree image implies that governance depends on not stripping the subjects who sustain it.
TLN 415historical topical
“Let there be letters writ to every shire, Of the King's grace and pardon. The grieved commons Hardly conceive of me; let it be nois'd That through our intercession this revokement And pardon comes”
In a whispered aside to his secretary while the king speaks publicly of free pardon, Wolsey quietly appropriates the credit for himself. He tells the secretary to circulate news ('let it be nois'd') that the revocation comes through Wolsey's own intercession, not the king's mercy. 'Hardly conceive of me' means the commons think badly of him; he is trying to repair his reputation by stealing the king's benevolence. The stage direction marks the aside as meant for the audience, not the king.
historical Cardinal Wolsey
TLN 431archaic vocab
“This man so complete, Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders”
'Complete' here means accomplished in every virtue — not merely finished but fully and perfectly formed in all admirable qualities. To be 'enroll'd 'mongst wonders' means to be listed or recorded among extraordinary people, counted among marvels. Henry is saying that Buckingham was once universally acknowledged as a paragon — which makes his corruption all the more terrible.
TLN 435rhetorical device
“Hath into monstrous habits put the graces That once were his, and is become as black As if besmear'd in hell”
Henry uses the image of clothing to describe moral corruption: Buckingham has dressed his former virtues ('graces') in 'monstrous habits' — habits means both 'garments' and 'practices/customs,' so the word carries both senses at once. A man who was once fair is now as black as if smeared with the pitch and soot of hell. The de casibus pattern is visible: a man exalted by gifts falls when those gifts serve corruption.
historical The fall of princes (de casibus tragedy)
TLN 465historical topical
“a vain prophecy of Nicholas Henton”
Nicholas Hopkins (called 'Henton' in this edition after his Charterhouse at Henton in Somerset) was a real Carthusian monk who, according to Holinshed, fed Buckingham a series of prophecies about his future greatness and about the king dying without male heirs. A 'Chartreux friar' (TLN 467) is a Carthusian — a monk of the Order of the Chartreuse, famous for strict silence and seclusion. That such a man would 'feed' a duke with royal prophecies made the testimony doubly damning at trial.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 484cultural context
“under the confession's seal He solemnly had sworn, that what he spoke My chaplain to no creature living but To me should utter”
In Catholic practice, the seal of confession ('sigillum confessionis') was an absolute and inviolable duty of secrecy: a priest who heard confession could never repeat what was told to him, under any circumstances. The monk bound Buckingham's chaplain to the same secrecy by having him swear an oath. What makes the Surveyor's report so legally explosive is that it was originally shared under this seal — the Surveyor is now violating the very privacy that made Buckingham feel safe to speak.
TLN 493historical topical
“You were the Duke's surveyor, and lost your office On the complaint o' the tenants”
Katherine delivers the scene's most penetrating moment of skepticism: she reminds the court that the Surveyor was Buckingham's estate-manager who was fired after his own tenants complained about him. A 'surveyor' was a manorial officer who assessed, managed, and collected rents from an estate — a position of considerable local power. This man has an obvious grudge against his former master, and his testimony is correspondingly unreliable. Katherine is warning everyone that a disgraced ex-employee testifying against his lord is exactly the kind of 'spleen' (personal spite) that distorts truth.
historical Cardinal Wolsey
TLN 521historical topical
“I would have play'd The part my father meant to act upon The usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury, Made suit to come in 's presence; which if granted, As he made semblance of his duty, would Have put his knife into him”
Buckingham is reported boasting that if he had been imprisoned he would have done what his father planned: kill Richard III. The 'usurper Richard' is Richard III; 'at Salisbury' refers to a moment when the historical Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham (father of this play's Duke), rebelled against Richard in 1483. The plan to request an audience and then assassinate Richard — the knife producing 'his duty' while really planning murder — is attested in Tudor chronicle as one of the plots against the usurper.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 539archaic vocab
“There's his period, To sheathe his knife in us. He is attach'd”
'Period' here means the end-point, the full stop — the final purpose of everything the Surveyor has described. Henry reads the boast about the knife as disclosing Buckingham's true 'period': to kill the king. 'Attach'd' means arrested, seized — the legal term for taking a person into custody. Henry passes from dramatic realization ('there's his period') to immediate legal action ('he is attach'd') in a single couplet.