Dost thou not see, that we are round beset?
How then is't possible we should escape?

Crom. By force we cannot, but by policy.
Put on the apparel here that Hodge doth wear,
And give him yours: The states, they know you not,
(For, as I think, they never saw your face;)
And at a watch-word must I call them in,
And will desire that we two safe may pass
To Mantua, where I'll say my business lies.
How doth your honour like of this device?
Bed. O, wond'rous good. But wilt thou ven-
ture, Hodge?
Hodge. Will I?

O noble lord,

I do accord,

In any thing I can :

And do agree,

To set thee free,

Do Fortune what she can.

Bed. Come then, let us change our apparel straight.

Crom. Go, Hodge; make haste, lest they should chance to call.

Hodge. I warrant you I'll fit him with a suit. [Exeunt BEDFORD and HODGE. Crom. Heavens grant this policy doth take suc

cess,

And that the earl may safely 'scape away!
And yet it grieves me for this simple wretch,
For fear lest they should offer him violence:
But of two evils, 'tis best to shun the greatest;
And better is it that he live in thrall,
Than such a noble earl as he should fall.
Their stubborn hearts, it may be, will relent,
Since he is gone, to whom their hate is bent.

Re-enter BEDFORD and HODGE.

My lord, have you dispatched?

Bed. How dost thou like us, Cromwell? is it well?

Crom. O, my good lord, excellent. Hodge, how dost feel thyself?

Hodge. How do I feel myself? why, as a nobleman should do. O how I feel honour come creeping on! My nobility is wonderful melancholy Is it not most gentleinan-like to be melancholy?

Bed. Yes, Hodge: now go sit down in the study, and take state upon thee.

Hodge. I warrant you, my lord; let me alone to take state upon me: But hark, my lord, do you feel nothing bite about you?

Bed. No, trust me, Hodge.

Hodge. Ay, they know they want their old pasTis a strange thing of this vermin, they dare not meddle with nobility.

ture.

Crom. Go take thy place, Hodge; I will call them in.

Now all is done:-Enter an if you please. Enter the Governor and other States and Citizens of Bononia, and Officers with halberts. Gov. What, have you won him? will he yield himself?

Crom. I have, an't please you; and the quiet earl

Doth yield himself to be disposed by you.
Gov. Give him the money that we promised him;
So let him go, whither it please himself.

Crom. My business, sir, lies unto Mantua; Please you to give me a safe conduct thither. Gov. Go, and conduct him to the Mantua port, And see him safe delivered presently.

[Exeunt CROMWELL, BEDFORD, and an Officer. Go draw the curtains, let us see the earl :

[An Attendant opens the curtains.

O, he is writing; stand apart a while.

Hodge. [reads.] "Fellow William, I am not as I have been; I went from you a smith, I write to you as a lord. I am at this present writing, among the Polonian sausages. I do commend my lordship to Ralph and to Roger, to Bridget and to Dorothy, and so to all the youth of Putney."

Gov. Sure these are the names of English no

blemen,

Some of his special friends, to whom he writes [HODGE sounds a note.

But stay, he doth address himself to sing.

[HODGE sings a Song. My lord, I am glad you are so frolic and so blithe: Believe me, noble lord, if you knew all, You'd change your merry vein to sudden sorrow. Hodge. I change my merry vein? No, thou Bononian, no;

I am a lord, and therefore let me go.
I do defy thee and thy sausages;

Therefore stand off, and come not near my honour.
Gov. My lord, this jesting cannot serve your

turn.

Hodge. Dost think, thou black Bouonian beast, That I do flout, do gibe, or jest? No, no, thou beer-pot, know that I, A noble earl, a lord par-dy

[A Trumpet sounds. Gov. What means this trumpet's sound? Enter a Messenger.

Cit. One is come from the states of Mantua. Gov. What would you with us? speak, thou man of Mantua.

Mes. Men of Bononia, this my message is; To let you know, the noble earl of Bedford Is safe within the town of Mantua, And wills you send the peasant that you have, Who hath deceived your expectation: Or else the states of Mantua have vowed, They will recal the truce that they have made; And not a man shall stir from forth your town, That shall return, unless you send him back.

Gov. O this misfortune, how it mads my heart! The Neapolitan hath beguiled us all. Hence with this fool. What shall we do with him, The earl being gone? A plague upon it all!

Hodge. No, I'll assure you, I am no earl, but a smith, sir, one Hodge, a smith at Putney, sir; one that hath gulled you, that hath bored you, sir. Gov. Away with him; take hence the fool you came for.

If we come often, thou may'st shut thy door. Wol. Sir Christopher, hadst thou given me half thy lands,

Thou could'st not have pleased me so much as with

This man of thine. My infant thoughts do spell, Shortly his fortune shall be lifted higher;

| True industry doth kindle honour's fire: And so, kind master of the rolls, farewell. Hales. Cromwell, farewell.

Crom. Cromwell takes his leave of you, That ne'er will leave to love and honour you. [Exeunt. The Music plays as they go out.

Cho. Now Cromwell's highest fortunes do begin.

Wolsey, that loved him as he did his life,
Committed all his treasure to his hands:
Wolsey is dead; and Gardiner, his man,
Is now created bishop of Winchester.
Pardon if we omit all Wolsey's life,
Because our play depends on Cromwell's death.
Now sit, and see his highest state of all,
His height of rising, and his sudden fall.
Pardon the errors are already past,
And live in hope, the best doth come at last.
My hope upon your favour doth depend,
And looks to have your liking ere the end. [Exit.

SCENE I.--The same. A Public Walk. Enter GARDINER Bishop of Winchester, the Dukes of NORFOLK and of SUFFOLK, Sir THOMAS MORE, Sir CHRISTOPHER HALES, and CROMWELL.

Nor. Master Cromwell, since cardinal Wolsey's death,

His Majesty is given to understand,

There's certain bills and writings in your hand,
That much concern the state of England.
My lord of Winchester, is it not so?

Gar. My lord of Norfolk, we two were whilom fellows :

And, master Cromwell, though our master's love
Did bind us, while his love was to the king,
It is no boot now to deny those things,

VOL. I.

Which may be prejudicial to the state:
And though that God hath raised my fortune
higher

Than any way I looked for, or deserved,
Yet may my life no longer with me dwell,
Than I prove true unto my sovereign!

What say you, master Cromwell? have you those
Writings, ay, or no?

Crom. Here are the writings :
And on my knees I give them up unto
The worthy dukes of Suffolk, and of Norfolk.
He was my master, and each virtuous part
That lived in him, I tendered with my heart;
But what his head complotted 'gainst the state,
His sudden death I grieve for, not his fal!,
My country's love commands me that to hate.
Because he sought to work my country's thrall.
Suf. Cromwell, the king shall hear of this thy
duty;

Who, I assure myself, will well reward thee.
My lord, let's go unto his majesty,
And show those writings which he longs to see.
[Exeunt NORFOLK and SUFFOLK.
Enter BEDFORD hastily.

Bed. How now, who is this? Cromwell? By my soul,

Welcome to England: thou once didst save my life;

Didst not, Cromwell?

Crom. If I did so, 'tis greater glory for me That you remember it, than for myself Vainly to report it.

2 Z

Seely. Well, Joan, he'll come this way; and by God's dickers I'll tell him roundly of it, an if he were ten lords: 'a shall know that I had not my cheese and my bacon for nothing.

Joan. Do you remember, husband, how he would mouch up my cheese-cakes? He hath forgot this now; but now we'll remember him.

8

Seely. Ay, we shall have now three flaps with a fox tail : but i'faith I'll jibber a joint, but I'll tell him his own.-Stay, who comes here? O, stand up, here he comes; stand up.

Enter HODGE, with a tip-staff; CROMWELL, with the mace carried before him; the Dukes of NORFOLK and SUFFOLK, and Attendants. Hodge. Come; away with these beggars here. Rise up, sirrah; come out, good people; run afore there, ho.

[FRESCOBALD rises, and stands at a distance. Seely. Ay, we are kicked away, now we come for our own; the time hath been, he would ha' looked more friendly upon us: And you, Hodge, we know you well enough, though you are so fine. Crom. Čome hither, sirrah :-Stay, what men are these?

My honest host of Hounslow, and his wife?
I owe thee money, father, do I not?

Seely. Ay, by the body of me, dost thou. Would thou would'st pay me: good four pound it is; I hav't o' the post at home.

Crom. I know 'tis true. Sirrah, give him ten angels :

And look your wife and you do stay to dinner; 9. And while you live, I freely give to you

Four pound a year, for the four pound I ought

Crom. Good morrow to my lord of Winchester:
I know

You bear me hard about the abbey lands.
Gard. Have I not reason, when religion's

wronged?

You had no colour for what you have done.
Crom. Yes, the abolishing of antichrist,
And of his popish order from our realm.
I am no enemy to religion;
But what-is done, it is for England's good.
What did they serve for, but to feed a sort
Of lazy abbots, and of full-fed friars?
They neither plow nor sow, and yet they reap
The fat of all the land, and suck the poor.
Look, what was theirs is in king Henry's hands;
His wealth before lay in the abbey lands.

Gard. Indeed these things you have alleged, my lord;

When, God doth know, the infant yet unborn
Will curse the time the abbeys were pulled down.
I pray now where is hospitality?
Where now may poor distressed people go,
For to relieve their need, or rest their bones,
When weary travel doth oppress their limbs?
And where religious men should take them in,
Shall now be kept back with a mastiff dog;
And thousand, thousand-

Nor. O, my lord, no more:

Things past redress 'tis bootless to complain. Crom. What, shall we to the convocation-house? Nor. We'll follow you, my lord; pray lead the

way.

Enter Old CROMWELL, in the dress of a Farmer.

Old Crom. How! one Cromwell made lord keeper, since I left Putney, and dwelt in Yorkshire? I never heard better news: I'll see that Cromwell, or it shall go hard.

Crom. My aged father! State then set aside, Father, upon my knee I crave your blessing. One of my servants, go, and have him in; At better leisure will we talk with him.

Old Crom. Now if I die, how happy were the day!

To see this comfort, rains forth showers of joy. [Exeunt Old CROMWELL and Servant. Nor. This duty in him shows a kind of grace. [Aside. Crom. Go on before, for time draws on apace. [Exeunt all but FRESCOBALD. Fres. I wonder what this lord would have with

8 Jeopard a joint, i. e. run a risque.