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THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF

KING HENRY THE EIGHTH

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

KING HENRY the Eighth.

CARDINAL WOLSEY.

CARDINAL CAMPEIUS.

CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V.

CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

DUKE OF NORFOLK.

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DUKE OF SUFFOLK.

EARL OF SURREY.

Lord Chamberlain.

Lord Chancellor.

GARDINER, Bishop of Winchester.

Bishop of Lincoln.

LORD ABERGAVENNY.
LORD SANDS.

SIR HENRY GUILDFORD.

SIR THOMAS LOVELL.

SIR ANTHONY DENNY.
SIR NICHOLAS VAUX.
Secretaries to Wolsey.

CROMWELL, Servant to Wolsey.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman-usher to Queen Katharine.
Three Gentlemen.

DOCTOR BUTTS, Physician to the King.

Garter King-at-Arms.

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.

BRANDON, and a Sergeant-at-Arms.

Door-keeper of the Council-chamber.

Page to Gardiner.

A Crier.

Porter, and his Man.

QUEEN KATHARINE, wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced. ANNE BULLEN, her Maid of Honour, afterwards Queen.

An old Lady, friend to Anne Bullen.

PATIENCE, woman to Queen Katharine.

Several Lords and Ladies in the Dumb Shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants.

Spirits.

SCENE: London; Westminster; Kimbolton.

VOL. VII

145

L

DURATION OF TIME

I. Dramatic Time.-Seven days represented on the stage, with indeterminable intervals.

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II. Historic Time. --From June 1520 to September 1533 (the christening of Elizabeth). But two later events are included, the death of Katharine, January 1536, and the summons of Cranmer before the Council, in 1544. The following table (from Daniel's Time Analysis, p. 346) gives the historic dates, arranged in the order of the play : -

1520, June.-Field of the Cloth of Gold

1522, Mar. War declared with France

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May-July. Visit of the Emperor to the English Court. 1521, April 16.-Buckingham brought to the Tower. 1527.-Henry becomes acquainted with Ann Bullen 1521, May. Arraignment and execution (May 17) of

Buckingham.

1527, Aug.-Commencement of proceedings for divorce. 1528, Oct.-Campeius arrives in London.

1532, Sept.-Ann Bullen created Marchioness of Pembroke. 1529, May.-Assembly of Court at Blackfriars. 1529-33.-Cranmer abroad working for the divorce. 1533, Jan.-Marriage of Henry with Ann Bullen. 1529, Oct.-Wolsey deprived of the Great Seal. Oct. 25.-More chosen Lord Chancellor.

1533, Mar. 30.-Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. May 23.-Marriage with Katharine declared null.

1530, Nov. 29.-Death of Wolsey.

1533, June 1.-Coronation of Ann.

1536, June. -Death of Katharine.

1533, Sept. 7.—Birth of Elizabeth.

1544.-Cranmer called before the Council.

1533, Sept.-Christening of Elizabeth.

INTRODUCTION

Literary

THE Famous History of the Life of Henry VIII. Early was first published in the Folio of 1623. The text History. is unusually accurate, and was printed from a MS. prepared with equally unusual care for the press. As became a drama in which ceremony plays so large a part, the stage directions are full and accurate. In two of them (the coronation-scene, iv. 1., and the baptism, v. 5.) the elaborate and precise historical realism of the modern stage seems to be more nearly anticipated than in any other play of Shakespeare's time. The costly and magnificent masques of Whitehall had stimulated kindred tendencies in the regular drama; and the Globe Company now controlled stage-resources very different from the 'four or five most vile and ragged foils' that had done duty for Agincourt in its early days. The spectacular elaboration of Henry VIII. was, however, evidently extraordinary and unprecedented. It involved, incidentally, the destruction of the first Globe Theatre.

position.

On June 29, 1613, the Globe was burnt down Date of Comduring the performance of a play which a series of contemporary descriptions enable us with practical certainty to identify as Henry VIII. The most salient of these are as follows:

(i) A MS. letter from Thomas Lorkin, dated 'this

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