Cavendish, GEORGE

Cavendish, GEORGE, the biographer of Wolsey, was born about 1500, and became Wolsey's gentleman-usher at least as early as 1527. He remained in close attendance upon his great master till the end (November 28, 1530), after which he retired to his house at Glensford, in Suffolk, where he lived quietly with his wife, a niece of Sir Thomas More, till the close of his own life in 1561 or 1562. His affection for the great cardinal was most devoted—he had attached himself to his household, in Wolsey's own words, 'abandoning his own country, wife, and children, his own house and family, his rest and quietness, only to serve me.' He never laid aside his loyalty to his memory, but in the quiet meditation of after-years brooded over his fall, and from it learned for himself 'the blessedness of being little.' Thirty years after he wrote his Life of Cardinal Wolsey, one of the most interesting short biographies in the English language. Its pensive wisdom and simple sincerity reflect a pleasing picture of the gentle and refined nature of its author, and enable us to see intimately with our own eyes, but with singular clearness, the outlines of one of the grandest figures in our history. The book, written by a devout Catholic, full of regrets for the past, could not well be printed in Elizabeth's reign, but circulated pretty freely in manuscript copies, as many as twelve of which are still extant. It is almost certain that Shakespeare had read it before writing or collaborating in Henry VIII., as all the redeeming features in the picture of the great cardinal, and the lesson of his fall as a solemn homily upon human ambition, are directly due to the tender and loyal touch of Cavendish. The book was first printed imperfect, for party purposes, in 1641. The best edition is that of S. W. Singer (2 vols. 1815), the text of which was reprinted with a good introduction in Professor Henry Morley's 'Universal Library' (1886).