biographers affirm that he was the son of a butcher.

[2] "Northern Tour." The same author observes, that "the death of
Wolsey would make a fine moral picture, if the hand of any master
could give the pallid features of the dying statesman, that
chagrin, that remorse, those pangs of anguish, which, in the last
bitter moments of his life, possessed him. The point might be
taken when the monks are administering the comforts of religion,
which the despairing prelate cannot feel. The subject requires a
gloomy apartment, which a ray through a Gothic window might just
enlighten, throwing its force chiefly on the principal figure,
and dying away on the rest. The appendages of the piece need only
be few and simple; little more than the crozier and red hat to
mark the cardinal and tell the story."

[3] Stow's "Annals," p. 557, edit. 1615.

[4] Shakspeare introduces this memorable saying of the cardinal into
his play of "Henry the Eighth:"--

--"O Cromwell, Cromwell,
Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
I serv'd my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."

[5] Stow's "Annals."

[6] Holinshed's "Chronicle," vol. iii. p. 765, edit. 1808.

[7] "Collectanea," vol i. p. 70.