KING HENRY THE EIGHTH. PROLOGUE. I COME no more to make you laugh; 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 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, Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring, Will leave us never an understanding friend. Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known The first and happiest hearers of the town, 2 Be sad, as we would make ye: think ye see 1 i. e. faced or trimmed. 2 Happiest being here used in a Latin sense for propitious or favorable. As they were living; think you see them great, ACT I SCENE I. London. An Antechamber in the Palace. Enter the DUKE of NORFOLK, at one door; at the other, the DUKE of BUCKINGHAM, and the LORD ABERGAVENNY.1 Buckingham. GOOD morrow, and well met. How have you done, Since last we saw in France? Nor. I thank your grace; Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer Of what I saw there. Buck. An untimely ague Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber, when 'Twixt Guynes and Arde: 2 Nor. 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 throned ones could have weighed Such a compounded one? 1 George Nevill, who married Mary, daughter of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham. 2 Guynes then belonged to the English, and Arde (Ardres) to the French; they are towns of Picardy. The valley where Henry VIII. and Francis I. met lies between them. 3 As for as if. Buck. All the whole time I was my chamber's prisoner. 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 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, Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too, Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear The pride upon them, that their very labor Was to them as a painting. Now this mask 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 them) by their heralds challenged The noble spirits to arms, they did perform Beyond thought's compass; that former fabulous story, Being now seen possible enough, got credit, That Bevis was believed. Buck. O, you go far. Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal; Buck. 1 i. e. glittering, shining. Who did guide, 2 The old romantic legend of Bevis of Hampton. I mean, who set the body and the limbs Buck. I pray you, who, my lord? Nor. All this was ordered by the good discretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York. Buck. The devil speed him! No man's pie is freed From his ambitious finger. What had he To do in these fierce 2 vanities? I wonder And keep it from the earth. Nor. Surely, sir, There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends; Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note, Aber. I cannot tell What Heaven hath given him; let some graver eye Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that? Or has given all before, and he begins A new hell in himself. Buck. Why the devil, 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 file1 1 No initiation, no previous practice. 2 Fierce is here used, like the French fier, for proud. 3 A round lump of fat. The prince calls Falstaff tallow-keech in the First Part of King Henry IV. It has been thought that there was some allusion here to the cardinal, being reputed the son of a butcher. 4 List. Of all the gentry; for the most part such, Must fetch him in he papers.1 I do know Aber. Buck. O, many Have broke their backs with laying manors on them A most poor issue? Nor. Grievingly I think, The peace between the French and us not values Buck. Nor. Which is budded out; For France hath flawed the league, and hath attached Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux. 1 He papers, a verb; i. e. his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch him in whom he papers down. 2 Monday the xviii of June was such an hideous storme of winde and weather, that many conjectured it did prognosticate trouble and hatred shortly after to follow between princes."-Holinshed. 3 The French ambassador, being refused an audience, may be said to be silenced. |