Norfolk (Henry VIII)

Play

Henry VIII

Summary

Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, is a leading nobleman and one of the chief opponents of Wolsey's overreaching power. He serves as an important exposition figure in the play's early scenes and as a leader of the aristocratic faction that seeks Wolsey's downfall. He is loyal to Henry but represents the old nobility's resentment of a low-born minister's dominance over English affairs.

Notable Quotations

"No man's pie is freed / From his ambitious finger. What had he / To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder / That such a keech can with his very bulk / Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun / And keep it from the earth." *(1.1)*

"If I know you well, / You were the duke's surveyor, and lost your office / On the complaint o' the tenants: take good heed / You charge not in your spleen a noble person / And spoil your nobler soul." *(1.2)*

Cross-references