PERSONS REPRESENTED. KING HENRY THE EIGHTH. CARDINAL WOLSEY. CARDINAL CAMPEIUS. CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V. 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 other 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. QUEEN KATHARINE, Wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced. ANNE BULLEN, her Maid of Honor; 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. 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, In a long, motley coat, guarded1 with yellow, As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting 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 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. Since last we saw in France ? Nor. How I thank your grace; Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer Buck. An untimely ague Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber, when Nor. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde:2 I was then present, saw them salute on horseback; 3 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. Nor. 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 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, 2 That Bevis was believed. Buck. 1 i. e. glittering, shining. All was royal; 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 up the Surely, sir, Nor. 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. |