SIR THOMAS MORE
Page: 52

Master Lieutenant, is the warrant come?
If it be so, a God's name, let us know it.

LIEUTENANT.
My lord, it is.

MORE.
Tis welcome, sir, to me with all my heart;
His blessed will be done!

LIEUTENANT.
Your wisdom, sir, hath been so well approved,
And your fair patience in imprisonment
Hath ever shewn such constancy of mind
And Christian resolution in all troubles,
As warrant us you are not unprepared.

MORE.
No, Master Lieutenant;
I thank my God, I have peace of conscience,
Though the world and I are at a little odds:
But we'll be even now, I hope, ere long.
When is the execution of your warrant?

LIEUTENANT.
Tomorrow morning.

MORE.
So, sir, I thank ye;
I have not lived so ill, I fear to die.
Master Lieutenant, I have had a sore fit of the stone tonight; but the
king hath sent me such a rare receipt, I thank him, as I shall not
need to fear it much.

LIEUTENANT.
In life and death still merry Sir Thomas More.

MORE.
Sirrah fellow, reach me the urinal:

[He gives it him.]

Ha! let me see (there's) gravel in the water;
(And yet I see no grave danger in that)
The man were likely to live long enough,
So pleased the king.--Here, fellow, take it.

SERVANT.
Shall I go with it to the doctor, sir?

MORE.
No, save thy labour; we'll cossen him of a fee:
Thou shalt see me take a dram tomorrow morning,
Shall cure the stone, I warrant; doubt it not.--
Master Lieutenant, what news of my Lord of Rochester?

LIEUTENANT.
Yesterday morning was he put to death.

MORE.
The peace of soul sleep with him!
He was a learned and a reverend prelate,
And a rich man, believe me.

LIEUTENANT.
If he were rich, what is Sir Thomas More,
That all this while hath been Lord Chancellor?

MORE.
Say ye so, Master Lieutenant? what do ye think
A man, that with my time had held my place,
Might purchase?

LIEUTENANT.
Perhaps, my lord, two thousand pound a year.

MORE.
Master Lieutenant, I protest to you,
I never had the means in all my life
To purchase one poor hundred pound a year:
I think I am the poorest Chancellor
That ever was in England, though I could wish,