On food, there is also a theme of sugar and sweetness: Thurston imaging the pope stuffing himself with sugar, while the English subsist on salted fish ('Salt water gets in the brain'). Cromwell's marzipan cake for the king at Easter, the sweet honey and sweet air of Launde, far from salt water. The sour smiles of the Venetians in the paintings of Antonello da Messina.
The emphasis on meat also brings to mind that "these are carnivorous times," one of my favorite throwaway phrases in the whole trilogy (and I think it's in a passage about More)
"Her voice runs on, rehearsing her gratitude. But she won’t look at him, he notices. her eyes are everywhere, but never on him."
"He thinks, Mary looks at me as if she doesn't know who I am."
What's going on here? I think Cromwell has tried to remind Mary she owes him, but then... princes do not like to be reminded that they owe anything to common men. And she will have spoken with the Poles and Courtenays. They have stiffened her heart against him. He has lost her, if he ever had her. And if he survives Henry, he won't survive Queen Mary Tudor.
I've been wondering what would have happened in her reign had Cromwell lived. He needed a better prince. Maybe Elizabeth would have worked out for him.
Remember when Anne is pregnant with Elizabeth, Cromwell fantasises about the prince he is going to raise. This is the irony: Elizabeth is his prince but he does not live long to see her reign. And a couple of chapters ago he arranged for her tutor – a woman who will have a profound impact on Elizabeth's humanist education.
Jane Rochford: 'He will be in a humour to hand our favours. He might give you ... whatever it is you lack. Though that's not much, is it, my lord Privy Seal?'
Cromwell: 'I am thinking about Laude for myself.' ... 'It's time I had something I want.'
Listened to this while looking out over Loch Ness. Always nice to sit down and take in the last chapter, but particularly so this week in this setting. I enjoy comparing how things look in my mind against the actual reality, and this slow read is perfect for that. Launde Abbey was not quite how I imagined it. Am I right in saying Gregory went on to live there?
Oh lovely! I'm sure there are better pictures out there of Launde – and of course we only have what remains. Yes, the Cromwells built a manor house there and I think Gregory was buried there.
Oh I didn't know he was buried there. I feel one day I have to do a wee Cromwell holiday to see all these places. It has been Jacobites and Grants on this holiday history wise.
This is one of those sections that is absolutely crammed with quotable passages! You've already mentioned the memorable description of Henry’s portrait that closes the chapter, and the dreamlike image of Cromwell and Henry blurring into one as they sit up late, but I can't resist adding a few more...
As always, I adored Jane's mix of literal interpretations and plain speaking:
"I shall hardly be a happy mother, if I have a girl. I should think I will be sent back to Wolf Hall in a basket, like a fowl unsold on market day." & "Because once the king has hope of a son, what will there be, to make him say his prayers?"
I smirked along with Chapuys' cheeky comment on Mary's status:
"‘Ordinarily,’ Chapuys advises, ‘Lord Cremuel would kick your shin if you spoke her proper title. They call her by her plain name, Mary. But behold – when they are offering her in marriage, we call her “princess” and suddenly,’ he smirks, ‘Cremuel does not mind at all.’"
Sorry for the length, but I can't resist quoting this next one in full. (It caught my eye because the idea of being "unstrung from the calendar" reminded me of the statement way back at the start of Wolf Hall that in the time of the giants, "There were no priests, no churches and no laws. There was also no way of telling the time.")
"The Cornish people petition to have their saints back – those downgraded in recent rulings. Without their regular feasts, the faithful are unstrung from the calendar, awash in a sea of days that are all the same. He thinks it might be permitted; they are ancient saints of small worship. They are scraps of paint-flaked wood, or stumps of weathered stone, who say and do nothing against the king. They are not like your Beckets, whose shrines are swollen with rubies, garnets and carbuncles, as if their blood were bubbling up through the ground."
Thank you for your notes, as always, and for the great images - I loved seeing that "sceptical raised eyebrow" in the Messina painting.
Great quotes, Nikki. I don't think I noticed the last one. "Unstrung from the calendar" is a wonderful phrase - and makes me think of how we tell time now. Thanks for sharing.
That Arcimbolodo is excellent! Yes, it's all very fishy. The wateriness of the oysters and the melting ink- as you rightly note, Simon, Cromwell wishes himself inland- in Launde- far from the sea.
And Hans's cartoon- I LOVE Holbein's drawings, it's where you can really see his mastery, as he treads the line between accuracy and flattery. (It's a lot to do with angles, as Mantel has Cromwell demonstrate in this chapter.)
I was trying to imagine, reading, what if I didn't know the history- what if I didn't know whether the Queen's baby was a boy or a girl? Everything seems a foreshadowing because we are looking backwards.
Oh, and of course this quote: "Without the king's peace, my lady, we would be in the wilderness with the wild beasts. Or in the oceans with Leviathan." The biggest salty carnivore of them all!
Leaving a note here for next year: Jane is reading a Herbal, 'with a device of a wild man and a wild woman, hairy creatures holding a shield with the printer's initials." I think this may be worthy of a footnote.
I visited the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House earlier this year and it was such a fascinating building, took me a while to figure out what exactly it was. History is so present in London architecture!
Cromwell’s game and method is to see how little physical pain he can inflict to get what he wants out of prisoners. To his credit, inflicting pain costs him.
On food, there is also a theme of sugar and sweetness: Thurston imaging the pope stuffing himself with sugar, while the English subsist on salted fish ('Salt water gets in the brain'). Cromwell's marzipan cake for the king at Easter, the sweet honey and sweet air of Launde, far from salt water. The sour smiles of the Venetians in the paintings of Antonello da Messina.
"His leg is sore, and Thurston is right: the more miserable he is,. the more sugar he requires."
The emphasis on meat also brings to mind that "these are carnivorous times," one of my favorite throwaway phrases in the whole trilogy (and I think it's in a passage about More)
I wrote "carnivores" in the margin! Carnivores is also a chapter title of A Place of Greater Safety.
"Her voice runs on, rehearsing her gratitude. But she won’t look at him, he notices. her eyes are everywhere, but never on him."
"He thinks, Mary looks at me as if she doesn't know who I am."
What's going on here? I think Cromwell has tried to remind Mary she owes him, but then... princes do not like to be reminded that they owe anything to common men. And she will have spoken with the Poles and Courtenays. They have stiffened her heart against him. He has lost her, if he ever had her. And if he survives Henry, he won't survive Queen Mary Tudor.
I've been wondering what would have happened in her reign had Cromwell lived. He needed a better prince. Maybe Elizabeth would have worked out for him.
Remember when Anne is pregnant with Elizabeth, Cromwell fantasises about the prince he is going to raise. This is the irony: Elizabeth is his prince but he does not live long to see her reign. And a couple of chapters ago he arranged for her tutor – a woman who will have a profound impact on Elizabeth's humanist education.
Two view of what Cromwell lacks:
Jane Rochford: 'He will be in a humour to hand our favours. He might give you ... whatever it is you lack. Though that's not much, is it, my lord Privy Seal?'
Cromwell: 'I am thinking about Laude for myself.' ... 'It's time I had something I want.'
Listened to this while looking out over Loch Ness. Always nice to sit down and take in the last chapter, but particularly so this week in this setting. I enjoy comparing how things look in my mind against the actual reality, and this slow read is perfect for that. Launde Abbey was not quite how I imagined it. Am I right in saying Gregory went on to live there?
Oh lovely! I'm sure there are better pictures out there of Launde – and of course we only have what remains. Yes, the Cromwells built a manor house there and I think Gregory was buried there.
Oh I didn't know he was buried there. I feel one day I have to do a wee Cromwell holiday to see all these places. It has been Jacobites and Grants on this holiday history wise.
This is one of those sections that is absolutely crammed with quotable passages! You've already mentioned the memorable description of Henry’s portrait that closes the chapter, and the dreamlike image of Cromwell and Henry blurring into one as they sit up late, but I can't resist adding a few more...
As always, I adored Jane's mix of literal interpretations and plain speaking:
"I shall hardly be a happy mother, if I have a girl. I should think I will be sent back to Wolf Hall in a basket, like a fowl unsold on market day." & "Because once the king has hope of a son, what will there be, to make him say his prayers?"
I smirked along with Chapuys' cheeky comment on Mary's status:
"‘Ordinarily,’ Chapuys advises, ‘Lord Cremuel would kick your shin if you spoke her proper title. They call her by her plain name, Mary. But behold – when they are offering her in marriage, we call her “princess” and suddenly,’ he smirks, ‘Cremuel does not mind at all.’"
Sorry for the length, but I can't resist quoting this next one in full. (It caught my eye because the idea of being "unstrung from the calendar" reminded me of the statement way back at the start of Wolf Hall that in the time of the giants, "There were no priests, no churches and no laws. There was also no way of telling the time.")
"The Cornish people petition to have their saints back – those downgraded in recent rulings. Without their regular feasts, the faithful are unstrung from the calendar, awash in a sea of days that are all the same. He thinks it might be permitted; they are ancient saints of small worship. They are scraps of paint-flaked wood, or stumps of weathered stone, who say and do nothing against the king. They are not like your Beckets, whose shrines are swollen with rubies, garnets and carbuncles, as if their blood were bubbling up through the ground."
Thank you for your notes, as always, and for the great images - I loved seeing that "sceptical raised eyebrow" in the Messina painting.
Thank you for your notes! And yes, so many great quotes in this week's reading.
Great quotes, Nikki. I don't think I noticed the last one. "Unstrung from the calendar" is a wonderful phrase - and makes me think of how we tell time now. Thanks for sharing.
That Arcimbolodo is excellent! Yes, it's all very fishy. The wateriness of the oysters and the melting ink- as you rightly note, Simon, Cromwell wishes himself inland- in Launde- far from the sea.
And Hans's cartoon- I LOVE Holbein's drawings, it's where you can really see his mastery, as he treads the line between accuracy and flattery. (It's a lot to do with angles, as Mantel has Cromwell demonstrate in this chapter.)
I was trying to imagine, reading, what if I didn't know the history- what if I didn't know whether the Queen's baby was a boy or a girl? Everything seems a foreshadowing because we are looking backwards.
Oh, and of course this quote: "Without the king's peace, my lady, we would be in the wilderness with the wild beasts. Or in the oceans with Leviathan." The biggest salty carnivore of them all!
Leaving a note here for next year: Jane is reading a Herbal, 'with a device of a wild man and a wild woman, hairy creatures holding a shield with the printer's initials." I think this may be worthy of a footnote.
I visited the Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House earlier this year and it was such a fascinating building, took me a while to figure out what exactly it was. History is so present in London architecture!
It was one of the best things about living in London!
Cromwell on torture: "No, none of us can take anything. Scrape our skin and beneath it there is an infant howling."
Said to Call-Me, so quick with the thumbscrews. He and Richard Riche will be guilty of atrocious acts of torture after Cromwell's death.
Cromwell’s game and method is to see how little physical pain he can inflict to get what he wants out of prisoners. To his credit, inflicting pain costs him.