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GEORGE CAVENDISH (1500-1562?)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 580 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEORGE See also:CAVENDISH (1500-1562?)  , See also:English writer, the biographer of ' See also:Cardinal W olsey, was the See also:elder son of See also:Thomas See also:Cavendish, clerk of the See also:pipe in the See also:exchequer, and his wife, Alice See also:Smith of Padbrook See also:Hall . He was probably See also:born at his See also:father's See also:manor of Cavendish, in See also:Suffolk . Later the See also:family resided in See also:London, in the See also:parish of St See also:Alban's, See also:Wood See also:Street, where Thomas Cavendish died in 1524 . Shortly after this event See also:George married Margery See also:Kemp, of Spains Hall, an heiress, and the niece of See also:Sir Thomas More . About 1527 he entered the service of Cardinal See also:Wolsey as See also:gentleman-See also:usher, and for the next three years he was divided from his wife, See also:children and estates, in the closest See also:personal attendance on the See also:great See also:man . Cavendish was wholly devoted to Wolsey's interests, and also he saw in this See also:appointment an opportunity to gratify his See also:master-See also:passion, a craving " to see and be acquainted with strangers, in especial with men in See also:honour and authority." He was faithful to his master in disgrace, and showed the courage of the " loyal servitor." It is See also:plain that he enjoyed Wolsey's closest confidence to the end, for after the cardinal's See also:death George Cavendish was called before the privy See also:council and closely examined as to Wolsey's latest acts and words . He gave his See also:evidence so clearly and with so much natural dignity, that he won the See also:applause of the hostile council, and the praise of being "a just and diligent servant." He was not allowed to suffer in See also:pocket by his fidelity to his master, but retired, as it would seem, a wealthy man to his See also:estate of Glemsford, in See also:West Suffolk, in 1530 . He was only See also:thirty years of See also:age, but his appetite for being acquainted with See also:strange acts and persons was apparently sated, for we do not hear of his engaging in any more adventures . It is not to be doubted that Cavendish had taken down notes of Wolsey's conversation and movements, for many years passed before his See also:biography was composed . At length, in 1557, he wrote it out in its final See also:form . It was not, however, possible to publish it in the author's lifetime, but it was widely circulated in MS . Evidently one of these See also:MSS. See also:fell into See also:Shakespeare's hands, for that poet made use of it in his See also:King See also:Henry VIII., although it is excessive to say, as See also:Singer has done, that Shakespeare " merely put Cavendish's See also:language into See also:verse." The See also:book was first printed in 1641, in a garbled See also:text, and under the See also:title of The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey .

The genuine text, from contemporary MSS., was given to the See also:

world in 1810, and more fully in 1815 . Until that See also:time it was believed that the book was the See also:composition of George Cavendish's younger See also:brother See also:William, the founder of See also:Chatsworth, who also was attached to Wolsey . See also:Joseph See also:Hunter proved this to be impossible, and definitely asserted the claim of George . The latter is believed to have died at Glemsford in or about 1562 . The See also:intrinsic value of Cavendish's See also:Life of Cardinal Wolsey has See also:long been perceived, for it is the See also:sole See also:authentic See also:record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting See also:section of the See also:history of See also:England . Its importance as a product of See also:biographical literature was first emphasized by See also:Bishop See also:Creighton, who insisted over and over again on the claim of Cavendish to be recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers and an individual writer of particular See also:charm and originality . He writes with simplicity and with a certain vivid picturesqueness, rarely yielding to the rhetorical impulses which governed the See also:ordinary See also:prose of his age . (E .

End of Article: GEORGE CAVENDISH (1500-1562?)
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