The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Israel Gollancz William Shakespeare [1948]
[Exeunt all except Randall.]
[Enter Surrey, Erasmus, and Attendants.]
SURREY.
Now, great Erasmus, you approach the presence
Of a most worthy learned gentleman:
This little isle holds not a truer friend
Unto the arts; nor doth his greatness add
A feigned flourish to his worthy parts;
He's great in study; that's the statist's grace,
That gains more reverence than the outward place.
ERASMUS.
Report, my lord, hath crossed the narrow seas,
And to the several parts of Christendom,
Hath borne the fame of your Lord Chancellor:
I long to see him, whom with loving thoughts
I in my study oft have visited.
Is that Sir Thomas More?
SURREY.
It is, Erasmus:
Now shall you view the honorablest scholar,
The most religious politician,
The worthiest counsellor that tends our state.
That study is the general watch of England;
In it the prince's safety, and the peace
That shines upon our commonwealth, are forged
By loyal industry.
ERASMUS.
I doubt him not
To be as near the life of excellence
As you proclaim him, when his meanest servants
Are of some weight: you saw, my lord, his porter
Give entertainment to us at the gate
In Latin good phrase; what's the master, then,
When such good parts shine in his meanest men?
SURREY.
His Lordship hath some weighty business;
For, see, yet he takes no notice of us.
ERASMUS.
I think twere best I did my duty to him
In a short Latin speech.—
Qui in celiberima patria natus est ett gloriosa, plus habet negotii ut
in lucem veniat quam qui—
RANDALL.
I prithee, good Erasmus, be covered. I have forsworn speaking of
Latin, else, as I am true counsellor, I'd tickle you with a speech.
Nay, sit, Erasmus;—sit, good my Lord of Surrey. I'll make my lady
come to you anon, if she will, and give you entertainment.
ERASMUS.
Is this Sir Thomas More?
SURREY.
Oh good Erasmus, you must conceive his vain:
He's ever furnished with these conceits.
RANDALL.
Yes, faith, my learned poet doth not lie for that matter: I am neither more nor less than merry Sir Thomas always. Wilt sup with me? by God, I love a parlous wise fellow that smells of a politician better than a long progress.
[Enter Sir Thomas More.]
SURREY.
We are deluded; this is not his lordship.
RANDALL.
I pray you, Erasmus, how long will the Holland cheese in your country keep without maggots?
MORE.
Fool, painted barbarism, retire thyself
Into thy first creation!
[Exit Randall.]
Thus you see,
My loving learned friends, how far respect
Waits often on the ceremonious train
Of base illiterate wealth, whilst men of schools,
Shrouded in poverty, are counted fools.
Pardon, thou reverent German, I have mixed
So slight a jest to the fair entertainment
Of thy most worthy self; for know, Erasmus,
Mirth wrinkles up my face, and I still crave,
When that forsakes me I may hug my grave.
ERASMUS.
Your honor's merry humor is best physic
Unto your able body; for we learn
Where melancholy chokes the passages
Of blood and breath, the erected spirit still
Lengthens our days with sportful exercise:
Study should be the saddest time of life.
The rest a sport exempt from thought of strife.
MORE.
Erasmus preacheth gospel against physic,
My noble poet.
SURREY.
Oh, my Lord, you tax me
In that word poet of much idleness:
It is a study that makes poor our fate;
Poets were ever thought unfit for state.
MORE.
O, give not up fair poesy, sweet lord,
To such contempt! That I may speak my heart,
It is the sweetest heraldry of art,
That sets a difference 'tween the tough sharp holly
And tender bay tree.
SURREY.
Yet, my lord,
It is become the very logic number
To all mechanic sciences.
MORE.
Why, I'll show the reason:
This is no age for poets; they should sing
To the loud canon heroica facta;
Qui faciunt reges heroica carmina laudant:
And, as great subjects of their pen decay,
Even so unphysicked they do melt away.
[Enter Master Morris.]
Come, will your lordship in?—My dear Erasmus—
I'll hear you, Master Morris, presently.—
My lord, I make you master of my house:
We'll banquet here with fresh and staid