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,
I'll undertake, may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That came 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,

such a show

As fool and fight is,] This is not the only passage in which Shakspeare has discovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or six men with swords, gave a very unsatisfactory idea of an army, and therefore, without much care to excuse his former practice, he allows that a theatrical fight would destroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an understanding friend. Magnis ingeniis et multa nihilominus habituris simplex convenit erroris confessio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shown in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle. JOHNSON.

(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 you: 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.

(To make that only true we now intend,)] To intend, in our author, has sometimes the same meaning as to pretend, but this line is somewhat obscure.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

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, 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. Page to Gardiner. A 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.

KING HENRY VIII.

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 ABERGA

VENNY.

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

Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber when
Those sons of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Arde.

Nor.
'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;

3

Guynes and Arde :] Guynes then belonged to the English, and Arde to the French: they are towns in Picardy, and the valley of Ardren lay between them. Arde is Ardres, but both Hall and Holinshed write it as Shakspeare does.

Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have

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,
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 mask
Was cry'd 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 challeng'd 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 believ'd".

Buck.

O, you go far.

Clarendon uses this

All clinquant,] All glittering, all shining. word in his description of the Spanish Juego de Toros.

Durst wag his tongue in censure.] Censure for determination of

which had the noblest appearance.

6 That Bevis was believ'd.] The old romantick legend of Bevis of Southampton.