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KING HENRY VIII.

1

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 Gentlemen.

DR. 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; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants; Spirits.

SCENE,-Chiejiy in LONDON and WESTMINSTER; once at KIMBOLTON.

KING HENRY VIII.

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 come 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,
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 ye: 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.

SCENE I.-LONDON.

ACT I.

An Ante-chamber in the Palace.

Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK at one door; at the other, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM and the LORD ABERGAVENNY.

Buck. 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 suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.

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;

Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd
Such a compounded one?

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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
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubims, 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 masque
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 'em,-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.

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Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect
In honour honesty, the tract of everything
Would by a good discourser lose some life,

Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal;
To the disposing of it naught rebell'd,

Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function,

Buck.

Who did guide,
I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together, as you guess?
Nor. One, certes, that promises no element
In such a business.

Buck.

I pray you, who, my lord?
Nor. All this was order'd 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 vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun,
And keep it from the earth.

Surely, sir,

Nor.
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way; nor call'd upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
To eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note
The force of his own merit makes his way;
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

I cannot tell

Aber.
What heaven hath given him,-let some graver eye
Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him: whence has he that?
If not from hell, the devil is a niggard;

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,

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