Pray, tell him this.
BEDFORD. Be patient, good my Lord, in these extremes.
CROMWELL. My kind and honorable Lord of Bedford, I know your honor always loved me well; But, pardon me, this still shall be my theme; Gardiner is the cause makes Cromwell so extreme. Sir Ralph Sadler, pray, a word with you: You were my man, and all that you possess Came by my means; to requite all this, Will you take this letter here of me, And give it with your own hands to the king?
SADLER. I kiss your hand, and never will I rest, Ere to the king this will be delivered.
[Exit Sadler.]
CROMWELL. Why yet Cromwell hath one friend in store.
GARDINER. But all the haste he makes shall be but vain.-- Here's a discharge for your prisoner, To see him executed presently.-- My Lord, you hear the tenor of your life.
CROMWELL. I do embrace it, welcome my last date, And of this glistering world I take last leave: And, noble Lords, I take my leave of you.-- As willingly I go to meet with death, As Gardiner did pronounce it with his breath: From treason is my heart as white as snow, My death only procured by my foe. I pray, commend me to my Sovereign king, And tell him in what sort his Cromwell died, To lose his head before his cause were tried: But let his Grace, when he shall hear my name, Say only this: Gardiner procured the same.
[Enter young Cromwell.]
LIEUTENANT. Here is your son, come to take his leave.
CROMWELL. To take his leave! Come hither, Harry Cromwell. Mark, boy, the last words that I speak to thee. Flatter not Fortune, neither fawn upon her; Gape not for state, yet lose no spark of honor; Ambition, like the plague see thou eschew it; I die for treason, boy, and never knew it. Yet let thy faith as spotless be as mine, And Cromwell's virtues in thy face shall shine. Come, go along and see me leave my breath, And I'll leave thee upon the flower of death.
SON. O, father, I shall die to see that wound; Your blood being spilt will make my heart to sound.
CROMWELL. How, boy, not look upon the Axe! How shall I do then to have my head stroke off? Come on, my child, and see the end of all, And after say that Gardiner was my fall.
GARDINER. My Lord, you speak it of an envious heart; I have done no more than law and equity.
BEDFORD. O, good my Lord of Winchester, forbear; It would a better seemed you to been absent, Than with your words disturb a dying man.
CROMWELL. Who me, my Lord? no, he disturbs not me. My mind he stirs not, though his mighty shock Hath brought mo' peers' heads down to the block. Farewell, my boy! all Cromwell can bequeath, My hearty blessing; so I take my leave.
HANGMAN. I am your death's man; pray, my Lord, forgive me.
CROMWELL. Even with my soul. Why, man, thou art my Doctor, And brings me precious Physic for my soul.-- My Lord of Bedford, I desire of you, Before my death, a corporal embrace.
[Bedford comes to him, Cromwell embraces him.]
Farewell, great Lord; my love I do commend, My heart to you; my soul to heaven I send. This is my joy that, ere my body fleet, Your honoured arms is my true winding sheet. Farewell, dear Bedford; my peace is made in heaven. Thus falls great Cromwell a poor ell in length, To rise to unmeasured height, winged with new strength, The land of Worms, which dying men discover, My soul is shrined with heaven's celestial cover.
[Exit Cromwell and the officers, and others.]
BEDFORD. Well, farewell, Cromwell, the truest friend, That ever Bedford shall possess again.-- Well, Lords, I fear, when this man is dead, You'll wish in vain that Cromwell had a head.
[Enter one with Cromwell's head.]
OFFICER. Here is the head of the deceased Cromwell.
BEDFORD. Pray thee, go hence, and bear his head away Unto his body; inter them both in clay.
[Enter Sir Ralph Sadler.]
SADLER. Ho now, my Lords: what, is Lord Cromwell dead?
BEDFORD. Lord Cromwell's body now doth want a head.
SADLER. O God! a little speed had saved his life. Here is a kind reprieve come from the king, To bring him straight unto his majesty.