Page 1734 - Shakespeare - Vol. 4

Without, my noble lords?

GARDINER
Yes.

KEEPER
My lord Archbishop,
And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures. [40]

CHANCELLOR
Let him come in.

KEEPER
Your grace may enter now.

Cranmer approaches the council-table

CHANCELLOR
My good lord Archbishop, I’m very sorry
To sit here at this present and behold
That chair stand empty, but we all are men

In our own natures frail, and capable [45]
Of our flesh; few are angels; out of which frailty
And want of wisdom, you, that best should teach us,
Have misdemeaned yourself, and not a little,
Toward the King first, then his laws, in filling

The whole realm, by your teaching and your chaplains’, [50]
For so we are informed, with new opinions,
Diverse and dangerous, which are heresies,

And, not reformed, may prove pernicious.

GARDINER

Which reformation must be sudden too,
My noble lords; for those that tame wild horses [55]
Pace ’em not in their hands to make ’em gentle,
But stop their mouths with stubborn bits and spur ’em

Till they obey the manage. If we suffer,
Out of our easiness and childish pity