(_i_) _His Prodigal Splendour_

Like a wise minister, Wolsey did not neglect to entertain the King and
keep his mind on trivial things. Hampton Court had become the scene of
unrestrained gaiety. Music was always played on these occasions, and the
King frequently took part in the revels, dancing, masquerading and
singing, accompanying himself on the harpsichord or lute.

The description in Cavendish's "Life of Wolsey" of the famous feast given
by the Cardinal to the French ambassadors gives a graphic account of his
prodigal splendour. As to the delicacies which were furnished at the
supper, Cavendish writes:--

"Anon came up the second course with so many dishes, subtleties and
curious devices, which were above a hundred in number, of so goodly
proportion and costly, that I suppose the Frenchmen never saw the like.
The wonder was no less than it was worthy, indeed. There were castles with
images in the same; Paul's Church and steeple, in proportion for the
quantity as well counterfeited as the painter should have painted it upon
a cloth or wall. There were beasts, birds, fowls of divers kinds, and
personages, most lively made and counterfeit in dishes; some fighting, as
it were, with swords, some with guns and crossbows; some vaulting and
leaping; some dancing with ladies, some in complete harness, justing with
spears, and with many more devices than I am able with my wit to
describe."

Giustinian, speaking of one of these banquets, writes: "The like of it was
never given either by Cleopatra or Caligula." We must remember that Wolsey
surrounded himself with such worldly vanities less from any vulgarity in
his nature than from a desire to work upon the common mind, ever ready to
be impressed by pomp and circumstance.

_The Mind of Wolsey_

If the outer man was thus caparisoned, what of Wolsey's mind? Its
furniture, too, beggared all description. Amiable as Wolsey could be, he
could also on occasions be as brusque as his royal master. A contemporary
writer says: "I had rather be commanded to Rome than deliver letters to
him and wait an answer. When he walks in the Park, he will suffer no
suitor to come nigh unto him, but commands him away as far as a man will
shoot an arrow."

Yet to others he could be of sweet and gentle disposition and ready to
listen and to help with advice.

"Lofty and sour to them that loved him not,
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer."

To those who regard characters as