Act 5, Scene 3

The council-chamber.

[A council-table brought in with chairs and stools, and placed under the state. Enter Lord Chancellor; places himself at the upper end of the table on the left hand, a seat being left void above him, as for Canterbury's seat. Duke of Suffolk, Duke of Norfolk, Surrey, Lord Chamberlain, Gardiner, seat themselves in order on each side. Cromwell at lower end, as secretary. Keeper at the door.]
Lord Chancellor
2851 Speak to the business, master secretary.
2852 Why are we met in council?
Thomas Cromwell
2853 Please your honours,
2854 The chief cause concerns his Grace of Canterbury.
Bishop Gardiner
2855 Has he had knowledge of it?
Thomas Cromwell
2856 Yes.
Duke of Norfolk
2857 Who waits there?
Keeper
2858 Without, my noble lords?
Bishop Gardiner
2859 Yes.
Keeper
2860 My Lord Archbishop;
2861 And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures.
Lord Chancellor
2862 Let him come in.
Keeper
2863 Your Grace may enter now.
[Cranmer approaches the council-table.]
Lord Chancellor
2864 My good Lord Archbishop, I'm very sorry
2865 To sit here at this present, and behold
2866 That chair stand empty; but we all are men,
2867 In our own natures frail, and capable
2868 Of our flesh; few are angels: out of which frailty
2869 And want of wisdom, you, that best should teach us,
2870 Have misdemean'd yourself, and not a little,
2871 Toward the King first, then his laws, in filling
2872 The whole realm, by your teaching and your chaplains,
2873 For so we are inform'd, with new opinions
2874 Divers and dangerous, which are heresies
2875 And, not reform'd, may prove pernicious.
Bishop Gardiner
2876 Which reformation must be sudden too,
2877 My noble lords; for those that tame wild horses
2878 Pace 'em not in their hands to make 'em gentle,
2879 But stop their mouth with stubborn bits and spur 'em
2880 Till they obey the manage. If we suffer,
2881 Out of our easiness and childish pity
2882 To one man's honour, this contagious sickness,
2883 Farewell all physic! And what follows then?
2884 Commotions, uproars, with a general taint
2885 Of the whole state; as, of late days, our neighbours,
2886 The upper Germany, can dearly witness,
2887 Yet freshly pitied in our memories.
Archbishop Cranmer
2888 My good lords, hitherto in all the progress
2889 Both of my life and office, I have labour'd,
2890 And with no little study, that my teaching
2891 And the strong course of my authority
2892 Might go one way, and safely; and the end
2893 Was ever, to do well; nor is there living,
2894 I speak it with a single heart, my lords,
2895 A man that more detests, more stirs against,
2896 Both in his private conscience and his place,
2897 Defacers of a public peace, than I do.
2898 Pray Heaven, the King may never find a heart
2899 With less allegiance in it! Men that make
2900 Envy and crooked malice nourishment
2901 Dare bite the best. I do beseech your lordships,
2902 That, in this case of justice, my accusers,
2903 Be what they will, may stand forth face to face
2904 And freely urge against me.
Duke of Suffolk
2905 Nay, my lord,
2906 That cannot be. You are a counsellor,
2907 And, by that virtue, no man dare accuse you.
Bishop Gardiner
2908 My lord, because we have business of more moment,
2909 We will be short with you. 'Tis his Highness' pleasure
2910 And our consent, for better trial of you,
2911 From hence you be committed to the Tower;
2912 Where, being but a private man again,
2913 You shall know many dare accuse you boldly,
2914 More than, I fear, you are provided for.
Archbishop Cranmer
2915 Ah, my good Lord of Winchester, I thank you.
2916 You are always my good friend; if your will pass,
2917 I shall both find your lordship judge and juror,
2918 You are so merciful. I see your end;
2919 'Tis my undoing. Love and meekness, lord,
2920 Become a churchman better than ambition.
2921 Win straying souls with modesty again,
2922 Cast none away. That I shall clear myself,
2923 Lay all the weight ye can upon my patience,
2924 I make as little doubt as you do conscience
2925 In doing daily wrongs. I could say more,
2926 But reverence to your calling makes me modest.
Bishop Gardiner
2927 My lord, my lord, you are a sectary,
2928 That's the plain truth. Your painted gloss discovers,
2929 To men that understand you, words and weakness.
Thomas Cromwell
2930 My Lord of Winchester, you are a little,
2931 By your good favour, too sharp; men so noble,
2932 However faulty, yet should find respect
2933 For what they have been. 'Tis a cruelty
2934 To load a falling man.
Bishop Gardiner
2935 Good master secretary,
2936 I cry your honour mercy. You may, worst
2937 Of all this table, say so.
Thomas Cromwell
2938 Why, my lord?
Bishop Gardiner
2939 Do not I know you for a favourer
2940 Of this new sect? Ye are not sound.
Thomas Cromwell
2941 Not sound?
Bishop Gardiner
2942 Not sound, I say.
Thomas Cromwell
2943 Would you were half so honest!
2944 Men's prayers then would seek you, not their fears.
Bishop Gardiner
2945 I shall remember this bold language.
Thomas Cromwell
2946 Do.
2947 Remember your bold life too.
Lord Chancellor
2948 This is too much.
2949 Forbear, for shame, my lords.
Bishop Gardiner
2950 I have done.
Thomas Cromwell
2951 And I.
Lord Chancellor
2952 Then thus for you, my lord: it stands agreed,
2953 I take it, by all voices, that forthwith
2954 You be convey'd to the Tower a prisoner;
2955 There to remain till the King's further pleasure
2956 Be known unto us. Are you all agreed, lords?
All
2957 We are.
Archbishop Cranmer
2958 Is there no other way of mercy,
2959 But I must needs to the Tower, my lords?
Bishop Gardiner
2960 What other
2961 Would you expect? You are strangely troublesome.
2962 Let some o' the guard be ready there.
[Enter the guard.]
Archbishop Cranmer
2963 For me?
2964 Must I go like a traitor thither?
Bishop Gardiner
2965 Receive him,
2966 And see him safe i' the Tower.
Archbishop Cranmer
2967 Stay, good my lords,
2968 I have a little yet to say. Look there, my lords;
2969 By virtue of that ring, I take my cause
2970 Out of the gripes of cruel men, and give it
2971 To a most noble judge, the King my master.
Lord Chamberlain
2972 This is the King's ring.
Earl of Surrey
2973 'Tis no counterfeit.
Duke of Suffolk
2974 'Tis the right ring, by heaven! I told ye all,
2975 When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling,
2976 'Twould fall upon ourselves.
Duke of Norfolk
2977 Do you think, my lords,
2978 The King will suffer but the little finger
2979 Of this man to be vex'd?
Lord Chamberlain
2980 'Tis now too certain.
2981 How much more is his life in value with him?
2982 Would I were fairly out on't!
Thomas Cromwell
2983 My mind gave me,
2984 In seeking tales and informations
2985 Against this man, whose honesty the devil
2986 And his disciples only envy at,
2987 Ye blew the fire that burns ye. Now have at ye!
[Enter King, frowning on them; takes his seat.]
Bishop Gardiner
2988 Dread sovereign, how much are we bound to Heaven
2989 In daily thanks, that gave us such a prince;
2990 Not only good and wise, but most religious;
2991 One that, in all obedience, makes the Church
2992 The chief aim of his honour; and, to strengthen
2993 That holy duty, out of dear respect,
2994 His royal self in judgement comes to hear
2995 The cause betwixt her and this great offender.
King Henry VIII
2996 You were ever good at sudden commendations,
2997 Bishop of Winchester. But know, I come not
2998 To hear such flattery now, and in my presence;
2999 They are too thin and bare to hide offences.
3000 To me you cannot reach you play the spaniel,
3001 And think with wagging of your tongue to win me;
3002 But, whatsoe'er thou tak'st me for, I'm sure
3003 Thou hast a cruel nature and a bloody.
[To Cranmer.]
King Henry VIII
3004 Good man, sit down. Now let me see the proudest
3005 He, that dares most, but wag his finger at thee:
3006 By all that's holy, he had better starve
3007 Than but once think this place becomes thee not.
Earl of Surrey
3008 May it please your Grace,—
King Henry VIII
3009 No, sir, it does not please me.
3010 I had thought I had had men of some understanding
3011 And wisdom of my council; but I find none.
3012 Was it discretion, lords, to let this man,
3013 This good man,—few of you deserve that title,—
3014 This honest man, wait like a lousy footboy
3015 At chamber-door? and one as great as you are?
3016 Why, what a shame was this! Did my commission
3017 Bid ye so far forget yourselves? I gave ye
3018 Power as he was a councillor to try him,—
3019 Not as a groom. There's some of ye, I see,
3020 More out of malice than integrity,
3021 Would try him to the utmost, had ye mean;
3022 Which ye shall never have while I live.
Lord Chancellor
3023 Thus far,
3024 My most dread sovereign, may it like your Grace
3025 To let my tongue excuse all. What was purpos'd
3026 Concerning his imprisonment was rather,
3027 If there be faith in men, meant for his trial
3028 And fair purgation to the world, than malice,
3029 I'm sure, in me.
King Henry VIII
3030 Well, well, my lords, respect him;
3031 Take him, and use him well, he's worthy of it.
3032 I will say thus much for him, if a prince
3033 May be beholding to a subject, I
3034 Am, for his love and service, so to him.
3035 Make me no more ado, but all embrace him.
3036 Be friends, for shame, my lords! My Lord of Canterbury,
3037 I have a suit which you must not deny me;
3038 That is, a fair young maid that yet wants baptism,
3039 You must be godfather, and answer for her.
Archbishop Cranmer
3040 The greatest monarch now alive may glory
3041 In such an honour; how may I deserve it,
3042 That am a poor and humble subject to you?
King Henry VIII
3043 Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons.
3044 You shall have two noble partners with you, the old Duchess
3045 of Norfolk and Lady Marquess Dorset. Will these please you?
3046 Once more, my Lord of Winchester, I charge you, embrace and
3047 love this man.
Bishop Gardiner
3048 With a true heart
3049 And brother-love I do it.
Archbishop Cranmer
3050 And let Heaven
3051 Witness how dear I hold this confirmation.
King Henry VIII
3052 Good man, those joyful tears show thy true heart.
3053 The common voice, I see, is verified
3054 Of thee, which says thus, "Do my Lord of Canterbury
3055 A shrewd turn, and he is your friend for ever."
3056 Come, lords, we trifle time away; I long
3057 To have this young one made a Christian.
3058 As I have made ye one, lords, one remain;
3059 So I grow stronger, you more honour gain.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2867archaic vocab
“In our own natures frail, and capable / Of our flesh”
'Capable of our flesh' means 'subject to our fleshly (human, fallen) nature' — susceptible to weakness and sin. The Lord Chancellor is offering a diplomatic preamble before the attack on Cranmer: we are all fallible, so it is no surprise that even you have erred.
TLN 2873historical topical
“new opinions / Divers and dangerous, which are heresies”
'New opinions' and 'heresies' are the standard conservative charges against Protestant reform. Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury, had advanced reformed (Protestant) doctrine in doctrine, liturgy, and preaching; Bishop Gardiner and the conservative faction saw this as dangerously close to Lutheran heresy. In the world of the play, teaching doctrine outside the authorized Catholic-leaning orthodoxy was a criminal offence that could lead to execution.
historical The break with Rome and the English Reformationhistorical Foxe's Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs)
TLN 2877rhetorical device
“for those that tame wild horses / Pace 'em not in their hands to make 'em gentle, / But stop their mouth with stubborn bits and spur 'em / Till they obey the manage”
Gardiner builds an extended metaphor (a classical 'simile') from horse-breaking to argue for harsh treatment of Cranmer. 'Pace 'em not in their hands' means you do not lead horses gently by the halter to train them; instead you 'stop their mouth with stubborn bits' (force the bit hard into the mouth) and spur them until they 'obey the manage' — the technical term for a horse's trained, collected paces. The metaphor reduces Cranmer to an unbroken horse requiring brutal discipline.
TLN 2884historical topical
“Commotions, uproars, with a general taint / Of the whole state; as, of late days, our neighbours, / The upper Germany, can dearly witness”
Gardiner is invoking the German Peasants' War of 1524-25, in which the Protestant Reformation sparked a massive and bloody peasant uprising across German-speaking lands. Roughly 100,000 people died before the revolt was crushed. Gardiner's argument is that allowing 'new opinions' in religion leads directly to social revolution — heresy in church produces 'commotions and uproars' in the state.
historical The break with Rome and the English Reformation
TLN 2900archaic vocab
“Envy and crooked malice nourishment / Dare bite the best”
'Crooked' here means twisted, devious, morally deformed — not physically bent. Cranmer is saying that those who feed on envy and twisted malice will attack even the best men; he turns the council's accusation back on itself without naming his accusers. 'Nourishment' is the object — they make envy and malice their food.
TLN 2906historical topical
“You are a counsellor, / And, by that virtue, no man dare accuse you”
Suffolk's point is a real legal one: as a member of the Privy Council, Cranmer enjoyed a form of quasi-privilege — his peers on the council could not formally accuse him of heresy while he remained a councillor. Sending him to the Tower as a 'private man' (TLN 2912-13) strips that protection, exposing him to accusers who would not dare face him as an equal at the table.
historical Foxe's Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs)
TLN 2915rhetorical device
“my good Lord of Winchester, I thank you. / You are always my good friend”
Cranmer speaks in heavy irony: Gardiner (the Bishop of Winchester) has just threatened to send him to prison, yet Cranmer thanks him and calls him 'always my good friend.' This is controlled sarcasm dressed as Christian courtesy — Cranmer is exposing the gap between Gardiner's claimed goodwill and his actual cruelty without losing his own dignity.
TLN 2919biblical allusion
“Love and meekness, lord, / Become a churchman better than ambition”
Cranmer's rebuke of Gardiner is shaped by the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ teaches that the meek are blessed (Matthew 5:5) and that those who seek power and status in this world have their reward already. A churchman who uses his office to destroy enemies is the opposite of what a bishop should be. Cranmer is Gardiner's mirror: where Cranmer endures accusation with patience, Gardiner's 'ambition' (the very sin Wolsey repented) drives the attack.
TLN 2927archaic vocab
“you are a sectary, / That's the plain truth. Your painted gloss discovers, / To men that understand you, words and weakness”
A 'sectary' (also 'sectarian') was a member of a heretical splinter group — a schismatic who has broken from the true Church. Gardiner uses it as an insult equivalent to 'Protestant heretic.' 'Painted gloss' means a deceptive surface sheen — Gardiner is calling Cranmer a hypocrite whose fine words are a cover for doctrinal error and intellectual feebleness ('words and weakness'). 'Discovers' means 'reveals.'
TLN 2933cultural context
“'Tis a cruelty / To load a falling man”
Cromwell's appeal to the council echoes a theme running through the whole play: the injustice of kicking the vulnerable. The same idea shaped the audience's sympathy for the fallen Buckingham and the ruined Wolsey. Here Cromwell uses it to defend Cranmer, but the proverbial ring of the phrase also recalls Wolsey — Cromwell's own former master — who fell precisely because no one defended him when the lords piled on. The irony is that Cromwell himself will eventually fall under Henry VIII (historically, in 1540).
TLN 2939historical topical
“Do not I know you for a favourer / Of this new sect? Ye are not sound”
Gardiner accuses Cromwell of being 'not sound' — not orthodox in religion, a closet Protestant sympathizer. 'Sound' in religious controversy meant doctrinally correct, free of heresy. Historically, Cromwell (Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister) did support the English Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries; he was eventually executed in 1540 partly on the charge of religious radicalism. Gardiner is therefore not entirely wrong about where Cromwell's sympathies lay.
TLN 2969historical topical
“By virtue of that ring, I take my cause / Out of the gripes of cruel men, and give it / To a most noble judge, the King my master”
The ring is the King's own ring, given to Cranmer in the previous scene (5.1) as a token: Henry told him that if the council sent him to the Tower, he should produce it and the case would be referred directly to the King. 'Gripes' means 'grips' or 'claws' — the clutch of his enemies. The ring-device comes directly from Foxe's Acts and Monuments, where it is Henry VIII's personal intervention to save his Archbishop from the faction plotting against him.
historical Foxe's Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs)
TLN 2975rhetorical device
“When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling, / 'Twould fall upon ourselves”
Suffolk uses a proverbial image — the stone set rolling that crushes the one who started it — to acknowledge that the council's plot against Cranmer has backfired. The metaphor is close to the proverb 'He who digs a pit for another falls into it himself.' Now that the King's ring has appeared and Henry is about to enter furious, the lords realize they have harmed themselves by targeting the Archbishop.
TLN 2985biblical allusion
“whose honesty the devil / And his disciples only envy at, / Ye blew the fire that burns ye”
Cromwell frames the conservative councillors as satanic agents: those who envy Cranmer's honesty are doing the devil's work. 'Ye blew the fire that burns ye' continues the thought — the council has kindled a flame now consuming them. The image of the devil as the envious enemy of the righteous draws on the New Testament picture of Satan as 'adversary' (1 Peter 5:8), and the fire-blowing line on the proverb that one who blows the fire is scorched by its sparks.
TLN 2996rhetorical device
“You were ever good at sudden commendations, / Bishop of Winchester. But know, I come not / To hear such flattery now, and in my presence; / They are too thin and bare to hide offences”
Henry enters frowning and immediately cuts through Gardiner's sycophantic praise (TLN 2988-95) with a biting remark: Gardiner is practiced at 'sudden commendations' (praise produced on the spot, on demand) — but the King is not fooled. The image of flattery 'too thin and bare to hide offences' figures false praise as a cloth so transparent that the crimes underneath show straight through it. Henry is telling the council he saw the whole trap they set.
TLN 3000rhetorical device
“To me you cannot reach you play the spaniel, / And think with wagging of your tongue to win me”
Henry piles a second animal image on Gardiner: 'playing the spaniel' means fawning and cringing — spaniels were proverbially the type of servile flattery, crouching and wagging to please their masters. Henry is telling Gardiner that he sees through flattery designed to manipulate him, and that it will not work.
TLN 3014archaic vocab
“This honest man, wait like a lousy footboy / At chamber-door”
A 'footboy' was the lowest rank of household servant — a page or errand-boy who ran on foot to carry messages, a step below the stable-boys in social standing. 'Lousy' means infested with lice, hence contemptible, verminous. Making the Archbishop of Canterbury cool his heels outside the council chamber door like a scabby errand-boy is the precise social humiliation the scene is built around — Henry is furious that men of the council degraded the highest churchman in England in this way.
TLN 3037historical topical
“I have a suit which you must not deny me; / That is, a fair young maid that yet wants baptism, / You must be godfather, and answer for her”
Henry asks Cranmer to stand as godfather at the christening of his and Anne's newborn daughter — the infant who will become Queen Elizabeth I. 'Wants' means 'lacks.' To be godfather was a formal spiritual role at a baptism: the godparent stood at the font, renounced the devil on the child's behalf, and took responsibility for the child's Christian upbringing. Henry's request is both an honour and a sign of royal favour conspicuously displayed to the hostile council.
historical Cranmer's prophecy over the infant Elizabeth
TLN 3043cultural context
“Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons”
Cranmer demurs at the honour of standing godfather, pleading his poverty and unworthiness. Henry jokes that Cranmer is only worried about the expense: it was the custom for a godparent to give the new child a set of 'apostle spoons' — silver spoons with the figure of an apostle on the handle, one for each of the twelve apostles. A full set was a costly gift. Henry laughs off Cranmer's false modesty: you can afford it, you just want to keep your spoons.