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KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.

"THE Famous History of The Life of King Henry the Eight" was first printed, it is believed, in the folio of 1623. The date of its production is uncertain. Some editors, including Theobald and Malone, contend that it was written before the death of Elizabeth, and that the complimentary address to her successor

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was interpolated on the play being revived for presentation before King James. Messrs. Dyce, Collier, and others, on the contrary, conjecture it was produced after the accession of James, and in confirmation of this opinion adduce the following Memorandum from the Registers of the Stationers' Company :

"12 Feb 1604 [1605].

"Nath. Butter] Yf he get good allowance for the Enterlude of K. Henry 8th before he begyn to print it, and then procure the wardens hands to yt for the entrance of yt, he is to have the same for his copy."

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This insertion, supposed by many to refer to Rowley's piece, "When you see me you know me," which was published in the same year, and is founded on events and characters in the reign of Henry the Eighth, they think pertains to the present play. Although both parties maintain their theory with confidence, the evidence, external or intrinsic, in favour of either appears too slight and speculative to warrant a decision. One fact seems established, namely, that there was a play upon the same subject at least as early as Shakespeare's "Henry the Eighth," presumably before; for in Henslowe's Diary, pp. 189, 198, 221, &c., are notices regarding two pieces, consisting of a first and second part, written in 1601, the one entitled The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey," and the other, "Cardinal Wolsey," on which an exceptional amount of money was expended for costume and decoration. There is a probability, too, that at one period "Henry the Eighth" bore a double title, and was known "Henry the Eighth, or All is True." The grounds for supposing so are these. On the 29th of June, 1613, the Globe theatre on Bankside was totally destroyed, owing to the thatch of the roof being fired by the wadding of some "chambers," or small cannon, discharged during a performance. According to Howes, the continuator of Stow's Chronicle, this catastrophe occurred at the representation of "Henry the Eighth." The same fact is recorded in a MS. letter from Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, dated the very day after the fire:** ** "No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbege his companie were acting at y Globe the play of Hen 8. and there shooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd, and fastened upon the thatch of the house and there burned so furiously, as it consumed the whole house and all in lesse then two houres;" &c.-MSS. Harl. 7002. But Sir Henry Wotton, writing on the 2d of July in the same year, and describing this calamity, says it took place during the acting of "a new play, called, All is true, representing some principal pieces of the Reign of Henry the 8th."-Reliquiæ (edit. 1672, p. 425). There appears to be no doubt that the play in question, which Sir Henry terms new, probably because it was revived with new dresses, new prologue, epilogue, &c. &c., was our author's "Henry the Eighth," and the discrepancy as to the title might have arisen from the circumstance, just hinted at, of its having originally borne a double one.

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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, King's Secretary, afterwards Bishop of Winchester.

BISHOP of LINCOLN.

LORD ABERGAVENNY.
LORD SANDS.

Sir HENRY GUILFORD.

Sir THOMAS LOVELL.
Sir ANTHONY DENNY.
Sir NICHOLAS VAUX.
Secretaries to Wolsey.

CROMWELL, Servant to Wolsey, afterwards King's Secretary.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman-Usher to Queen Katharine.

Gentleman of the King's.

Gentleman of the Queen's.

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.

Porter, and his Man.

Page to Gardiner.

▲ Crier.

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; Spirits, which appear to her; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants.

SCENE,-Chiefly in LONDON and WESTMINSTER; once at KIMBOLTON.

PROLOGUE.

I COME no more to make you laugh; things now,
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, and high-working, full of state and woe,
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
We now present. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The subject 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'll undertake may see away their shilling

Richly in two short hours. Only they,
That come to hear a merry bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow,
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show

As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting

Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,

(To make that only true we now intend,)

Will leave us never an understanding friend.

Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make

ye: think

ye see

The very persons of our noble story,
As they were living; think you see them great,
And follow'd with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery!
And, if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day."

a Sad, and high-working,-] The old, and every modern copy, read"Sad, high, and working; "

but see,

"Then let not this Divinitie in earth

(Deare Prince) be sleighted, as she were the birth
Of idle Fancie; since she workes so hie."

Epistle Dedicatorie to Chapman's "Iliads of Homer."

b Upon his wedding-day.] The conjecture of Johnson and Farmer, that Ben Jonson furnished the prologue and epilogue to this play, is strongly borne out, not only by their general style and structure, but by particular expressions in them also. As Johnson observes, there is in Shakespeare's dramas so much of "fool and fight," that it is not probable he would animadvert so severely on the introduction of such characters and incidents.

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Since last we saw in France?
NORF.

I thank your grace,
Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

BUCK.
An untimely ague
Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when

Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.

NORF. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde: I was then present, saw them salute on horseback; 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. I was my NORF. Then you lost The view of earthly glory: men might say, Till this time pomp was single, but now married To one above itself. Each following day Became the next day's master, till the last Made former wonders its: 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, Show'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 masque Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings, Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst, As presence did present them; him in eye, Still him in praise: and, being present both, 'Twas said, they saw but one; and no discerner Durst wag his tongue in censure." When these suns (For so they phrase 'em) by their heralds challeng'd The noble spirits to arms, they did perform Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous story,

All the whole time
chamber's prisoner.

Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believ'd.(1)

BUCK.

0, you go far.

NORF. 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 self was tongue to. All was royal; " To the disposing of it nought rebell'd,

a Andren.] So in the original, and so also in Holinghed, whom Shakespeare followed. The valley of Ardren lies between Guynes and Ardres; and, at the period alluded to, the former belonged to the English, and the latter to the French.

b Durst wag his tongue in censure.] That is, in judging either superior to the other.'"

All was royal;] These words and the remainder of the speech are in the old copies given to Buckingham.

d No element-] No rudimentary knowledge even.

e Keech-] See note (e), p. 530, Vol. I.

f Out of his self drawing web,-he gives us note,-] The old text reads:

"Out of his Selfe-drawing Web. O gives us note," &c. Steevens surmised that the manuscript had, "A gives us note," which the compositor mistook for "O gives us note." This is not improbable; but the expression, "self-drawing web," which every editor adopts without comment, appears to us an error likewise. The sense is better and more clearly expressed by omitting the hyphen.

g A gift that heaven gives for him, &c.] This is a very doubt

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BUCK.
pray you, who, my lord?
NORF. All this was order'd by the good
discretion

Of the right-reverend cardinal of York. [freed
BUCK. The devil speed him! no man's pie is
From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun,
And keep it from the earth.

NORF.
Surely, sir,
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends:
For,-being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
Out of his self drawing web,-he gives us note,-
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

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ABER.
I cannot tell
What heaven hath given him,-let some graver eye
Pierce into that ;-but I can see his pride
Peep through each part of him: whence has he
that?

If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;
Or has given all before, and he begins
A new hell in himself.

Why the devil,

BUCK. Upon this French going-out, took he upon him, Without the privity o' the king, to appoint Who should attend on him? He makes up the file Of all the gentry; for the most part such To whom as great a charge as little honour He meant to lay upon and his own letter, The honourable board of council out, Must fetch him in, he papers.h

ful line. Mr. Collier's annotator changes it to

"A gift that heaven gives him, and which buys;" but if such licentious alterations were permissible, it would be easy to improve on this emendation.

h

and his own letter,

The honourable board of council out,
Must fetch him in, he papers.]

By "The honourable board of council out," is meant, without concurrence of the council; but what are we to understand by the expression in the last line,-"he papers?" In sheer despair, Pope threw out a suggestion that papers was here a verb,-" whom he papers down," and succeeding editors have been content with the explication; yet what thinking reader can ever believe this is what Shakespeare intended? From the context, see especially the two next speeches, it would seem that the sense requires a synonyme for the verb beggars,-"whom he beggars," or impoverishes; it is then possible that the meaningless papers is a misprint, and that we should read :—

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And his own letter, Must fetch him in, he paupers."

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