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KING HENRY the Eighth.
Cardinal WOLSEY.

CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Duke of NORFOLK.

Duke of BUCKINGHAM.

Duke of SUFFOLK.

Earl of SURREY. N

Lord Chamberlain..

Cardinal CAMPEIUS, the Pope's Legate.
CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles the
Fifth.

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 fhows. Women attending upon the Queen; Spirits, which appear to her. Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other attendants.

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

PROLOGUE.

I Come no more to make you laugh; things now
That bear a weighty and a ferious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and we,
Such noble fcenes as draw the eye to flow,
We ball prefent. Thofe that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The fabject will deferve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Thofe that come to fee
Only a bow or two, and fo agree

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*

The play may pafs, if they be fill and willing,
I'll undertake may fee away their filling
Richly in two bort hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry baudy play,
A noife of targets, or to fee a fellow
In a long moatly coat, guarded with yellow,
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with fuch a bow t,
As fool and fight is, befides 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 tafte in his own. Theobald.

This is not the only paffage in which Shakespeare has difcovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles reprefented on the ftage. He knew that five or fix men with fwords give a very unfatisfactory idea of an army; and therefore, without much care to excufe his former practice, he allows, that a theatrical fight would deftroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an underStanding friend. Maguis ingeniis et multa nihilominus habituris fimplex convenit erroris confeffio. Yet I know not whether the coronation fhewn in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle. Johnson.

A

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 fee
The very perfous of our noble story

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

Thefe 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 new intend. Johnfon

KING HENRY VIII.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

An Antechamber in the Palace.

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

G

Buckingham.

OOD morrow, and well met. How have you done,

I Since laft we faw in France?

Nor. I thank your Grace,

Healthful, and ever fince a fresh admirer
Of what I faw there.

Buck An untimely ague

Staid me a prifoner in my chamber when
Thofe funs of glory, thofe 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 fingle, but now marry'd To one above itfelf. Each following day

Became the next day's mafter, '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 ftood,
Shew'd like a nine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins all gilt. The Madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almoft fweat to bear
The pride upon them; that their very labour
Was to them as a painting. Now this mak
Was cry'd incomparable; and th' enfuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two Kings,
Equal in luftre, were now beft, now worst,
As prefence did prefent them; him in eye,
Still him in praife; and being present both,
'Twas faid they faw but one; and no difcerner
Durft wag his tongue in cenfure †. When these
funs,

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

Buck. Oh, you go far.

Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honefty, the tract of every thing Would by a good difcourfer lofe fome 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 fet the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?

Became the last day's mafter, till the next, &c. Canons of Criticism, + Cenfure for determination, of which had the nobleft appearance.

Warburton.

The old romantic legend of Bevis of Southampton.

Each office. Canons of Criticism,

Pope.

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