prove this play to have been written in her lifetime; on the contrary, that the concluding lines of her character feem to imply that fhe was dead when it was compofed.. The objection certainly has weight; but, I apprehend, the following obfervations afford a fufficient anfwer to it.

1. It is more likely that Shakspeare should have written a play, the chief fubject of which is, the difgrace of Queen Catharine, the aggrandizement of Anne Boleyn, and the birth of her daughter, in the life-time of that daughter, than after her death: at a time when the fubject must have been highly pleafing at court, rather than at a period when it muft have been lefs interefling.

Queen Catharine, it is true, is reprefented as an amiable character, but still she is eclipfed; and the greater her merit, the higher was the compliment to the mother of Elizabeth, to whofe fuperior beauty fhe was obliged to give way.

2. If King Henry VIII. had been written in the time of King James I. the author, inflead of expa tiating fo largely in the laft fcene, in praise of the queen, which he could not think would be acceptable to her fucceffor, who hated her memory, would probably have made him the principal figure in the prophecy, and thrown her into the background as much as poffible.

3. Were James I. Shakspeare's chief object in the original conftruction of the laft act of this play,

6 King James on his acceffion to the throne ftudioufly marked his difregard for Elizabeth by the favour which he fhewed to Lord Southampton, and to every other perfon who had been difgraced by her. Of this Shakspeare could not be ignorant.

he would probably have given a very fhort character of Elizabeth, and have dwelt on that of James, with whofe praise he would have concluded, in order to make the ftronger impreffion on the audience, inftead of returning again to Queen Elizabeth, in a very aukward and abrupt manner, after her character feemed to be quite finifhed: an aukwardness that can only be accounted for, by fuppofing the panegyrick on King James an after-production. "

4. If the Queen had been dead when our author wrote this play, he would have been acquainted with the particular circumflances attending her death, the fituation of the Kingdom at that time, and of foreign ftates, &c. and as archbishop Cranmer is fuppofed to have had the gift of prophecy. Shakspeare, probably, would have made him mention fome of thofe circumftances. Whereas the prediction, as it ftands at prefent, is quite general, and fuch as might, without any hazard of error, have been pronounced in the life-time of her majefty; for the principal facts that it foretells, are, that fhe fhould die aged, and a virgin. Of the former, fuppofing this piece to have been written in 1601, the author was fufficiently fecure; for fhe was then near feventy years old. The latter may perhaps be thought to delicate a fubject, to have been mentioned while fhe was yet living. But we may prefume, it was far from being an ungrateful topick; for very early after her acceffion to the

7 After having enumerated fome of the breffings which were to enfue from the birth of Elizabeth, and celebrated her majefty's various virtues, the poet thus proceeds:

Cran. In her days every man fhall eat in fafety
"Under his own vine, what he plants, and fing
"The merry fongs of peace to all his neighbours.

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throne, fhe appears to have been proud of her maiden character; declaring that fhe was wedded to her people, and that fhe defired no other inscription on her tomb, than-Here lyeth Elizabeth, who reigned and died a virgin. " Befides, if Shakfpeare knew, as probably moft people at that time did, that she became very folicitous about the reputation of virginity, when her title to it was at leaft equivocal, this would be an additional induce ment to him to compliment her on that head.

5. Granting that the latter part of the panegyrick on Elizabeth implies that he was dead when it was compofed, it would not prove that this play was written in the time of King James; for thefe latter lines in praife of the queen, as well as the whole of the compliment to the king, might have

"God fhall be truly known; and thofe about her
"From her shall read the perfect ways of honour,
"And by thofe claim their greatnefs, not by blood.
[Nor fhall this peace fleep with her; but as when
"The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,
"Her afhes new-create another heir,

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So fhall fhe leave her bleffednefs to one, &c.

He fhall flourish,

And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches

"To all the plains about him :-our children's children "Shall fee this, and blefs heaven.

"King. Thou fpeakeft wonders.]

"Gran. She fhall be, to the happiness of England,

"An aged princefs; many days fhall fee her,

And yet no day without a deed to crown it.

Would I had known no more! but fhe muft die.

She muft, the faints must have her; yet a virgin." &c. The lines between crotchets are thofe fuppofed to have been inferted by the author after the acceffion of King James. Camden, 27. Melvil, 49.

been added after his acceffion to the throne, in order to bring the fpeaker back to the object immediately before him, the infant Elizabeth. And this Mr. Theobald conjectured to have been the cafe. I do not, however, fee any neceffity for this fuppofition; as there is nothing, in my apprehenfion, contained in any of the lines in praise of the queen, inconfiftent with the notion of the whole of the panegyrick on her having been composed in her life-time.

In further confirmation of what has been here. advanced to fhew that this play was probably written while queen Elizabeth was yet alive, it may be obferved, (to ufe the words of an anonymous writer,) that "Shakspeare has caft the difagreeable parts of her father's character as much into fhade as poffible; that he has reprefented him as greatly displeased with the grievances of his subjects, and ordering them to be relieved; tender and obliging [in the early part of the play] to his queen, grateful to the cardinal, and in the cafe of Cranmer capable of diftinguishing and rewarding true merit." "He has exerted (adds the fame author) an equal degree of complaifance, by the amiable lights in which he has fhewn the mother of Elizabeth. Anne Bullen is reprefented as affected with the moft tender concern for the fufferings of her miflrefs, qucen Catharine; receiving the honour the king confers on her, by making her marchionefs of Pembroke, with a graceful humility; and more anxious to conceal her advancement from the queen, left it should aggravate her forrows, than folicitous to penetrate

The author of Shakspeare Illuftrated.

into the meaning of fo extraordinary a favour, or of indulging herself in the flattering profpect of future royalty."

It is unneceffary to quote particular paffages in fupport of these affertions; but the following lines, which are fpoken of Anne Boleyn by the Lord Chamberlain, appear to me fo evidently calculated for the ear of Elizabeth, (to whom such incense was by no means difpleafing,) that I cannot forbear to tranfcribe' them:

"She is a gallant creature, and complete

"In mind and feature. I perfuade me, from her
"Will fall fome bleffing to this land, which shall
"In it be memoriz’d.”

Again:

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66

- 1 have perus'd her well;

Beauty and honour are in her fo mingled,

"That they have caught the king: and who knows yet, "But from this lady may proceed a gem,

"To lighten all this ifle.'

Our author had produced fo many plays in the preceding years, that it is not likely that King Henry VIII. was written before 1601. It might perhaps with equal propriety be afcribed to 1602, and it is not easy to determine in which of those years it was composed; but it is extremely probable that it was written in one of them. It was not printed till 1623.

A poem, called the Life and Death of Thomas Wolfey, Cardinal, which was entered on the books of the Stationers' company, and publifhed, in the year 1599, perhaps fuggefted this fubject to Shakspeare.

He had alfo certainly read Churchyard's Legend