KING HENRY the Eighth.

Cardinal WOLSEY.

CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Duke of NORFOLK.

Duke of BUCKINGHAM.

Duke of SUFFOLX.

Earl of SURREY.

Lord Chamberlain..

Cardinal CAMPEIUS, the Pope's Legate.

CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles the

Sir THOMAS AUDLEY, Lord Keeper.

GARDINER, Bishop of Winchester.

Bishop of Lincoln.

Lord ABERGAVENNY.

Lord SANDS.

Sir HENRY GUILDFORD.

Sir THOMAS LOVEL.

Sir ANTHONY DENNY.

Sir NICHOLAS VAUX.

Sir WILLIAM SANDS,

CROMWELL, fervant to Wolfey.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman-usher to Queen Catharine.

Three Gentlemen..

Doctor BUTTS, Phyfician to the King.

GARTER, King at Arms.

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.

BRANDON,

Serjeant at Arms.

Door-keeper to the Council-chamber.

Porter and his Man.

Queen CATHARINE.

ANNE BULLEN.

An old Lady, friend to Anne Bullen.

PATIENCE, woman to Queen Catharine.

:

Several Lords and Ladies in the dumb shows. Women attending upon the Queen; Spirits, which appear to her. Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other attendants.

The SCENE lyes mostly in London and Westminster; once at Kimbolton.

PROLOGUE

I Come no more to make you you laugh; things ; things now
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to low,
We shall present. Those that can pity, here
Miy, if they think it well, Lit fall a tear;
The fabject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree

The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
I'lt undertake may see away their hilting
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That That come to hear a merry baudy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow*
In a long moatly coat, guarded with yellow,
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show t,
As fool and fight is, besides forfeiting
Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring

• Alluding to the fools and buffoons introduced for the generality in the plays a little before our author's time, and of whom he has left us a imall taste in his own.

Theobald.

+ This is not the only passage in which Shakespeare has discovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or fix men with swords give a very unfatisfactory idea of an army; and therefore, without much care to excuse his former practice, he allows, that a theatrical fight would destroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an under Standing friend. Magnisingenüs et multa nihilominus habituris fimplex convenit erroris confeffio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shewn in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle. Johnson.

To make that only true we now intend*,
Will leave us ne'er an understanding friend.
Therefore, for Goodness fake, as you are known.
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be fad, as we would make ye. Think ye see
The very persons of our noble story

then, in

a

As they were living; think you see them great,
And follow'd with the gen'ral throng and fweat
Of thousand friends;
moment, fee
How foon this mightiness meets misery!
And if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

These lines I do not understand, and suspect them of corruption. I believe we may better read, thus: the opinion which we bring

Or make; that only truth we now intend. Johnfon.

KING HENRY VIII.

ACT I. SCENE Ι.

An Antechamber in the Palace.

Enter the Duke of Norfolk, at one door; at the other the Duke of Buckingham, and the Lord Abergavenny.

Buckingham.

YOOD morrow, and well met. How have

G

you done,

Since last we faw in France?

Nor. I thank your Grace,
Healthful, and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

Buck. An untimely ague

Staid me a prisoner in my chamber when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Arde.

Nor. Twixt Guynes and Arde:
I was then present, faw'em falute on horfe-back,
Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement, as they grew together;
Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have

weigh'd

Such a compounded one?

Buck. All the whole time

I was my chamber's prifoner.
Nor. Then you loft

The view of earthly glory. Men might say,

Till this time Pomp was single, but now marry'd

To one above itself. Each following day.

Became the next day's master, 'till the last *
Made former wonders it's. To-day the French,
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and to-morrow they
Made Britain, India, every man that stood,
Shew'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins all gilt. The Madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them; that their very labour
Was to them as a painting. Now this mask
Was cry'd incomparable; and th' ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two Kings,
Equal in luftre, were now beft, now worst,
As prefence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praife; and being present both,
Twas faid they saw but one; and no difcerner..
Durst wag his tongue in cenfure †. When these

funs,

For fo they phrafe 'em, by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
Beyond Thought's compass; that old fabulous story,
Being now seen poffible enough, got credit,
That Bevis & was believ'd.

Buck. Oh, you go far.

Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honesty, the tract of every thing Would by a good discourser lose some life, Which Action's felf was tongue to. All was royal, To the difpofing of it; nought rebell'd, Order gave each thing view: the office || did Distinctly his full function.

Buck. Who did guide,

I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?

Became the last day's master, till the next, &c.

Canons of Criticifm.

+ Cenfure for determination, of which had the noblest appearance. Warburton.

# The old romantic legend of Bevis of Southampton.

Each office. Canons of Criticism,

Pope.