The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth - ebook

Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE PROLOGUE

ACT I

SCENE I. London. An ante-chamber in the palace.

SCENE II. The same. The council-chamber.

SCENE III. An ante-chamber in the palace.

SCENE IV. A Hall in York Place.

ACT II

SCENE I. Westminster. A street.

SCENE II. An ante-chamber in the palace.

SCENE III. An ante-chamber of the Queen's apartments.

SCENE IV. A hall in Black-Friars.

ACT III

SCENE I. London. The Queen's apartments.

SCENE II. Ante-chamber to the King's apartment.

ACT IV

SCENE I. A street in Westminster.

SCENE II. Kimbolton.

ACT V

SCENE I. A gallery in the palace.

SCENE II. Lobby before the council-chamber.

SCENE III. The council-chamber.

SCENE IV. The palace yard.

SCENE V. The palace.

EPILOGUEDRAMATIS PERSONAE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (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 SANDYS (called also SIR WILLIAM SANDYS)

SIR HENRY GUILDFORD

SIR THOMAS LOVELL

SIR ANTHONY DENNY

SIR NICHOLAS VAUX

Secretaries to Wolsey

CROMWELL, servant to Wolsey

GRIFFITH, gentleman usher to Queen Katherine

Three 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 KATHERINE, 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 Katherine

Spirits

Several Lords and Ladies in the Dumb Shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants

SCENE: London; Westminster; KimboltonTHE 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.ACT I

SCENE I. London. An ante-chamber in the palace

BUCKINGHAM.

Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done

Since last we saw in France?

NORFOLK.

I thank your Grace,

Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer

Of what I saw there.

BUCKINGHAM

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.

NORFOLK.

'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?

BUCKINGHAM

All the whole time

I was my chamber’s prisoner.

NORFOLK.

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 its. 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 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.

BUCKINGHAM

O, you go far!

NORFOLK.

As I belong to worship and affect

In honour honesty, the tract of ev’rything

Would by a good discourser lose some life,

Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal;

To the disposing of it nought rebell’d,

Order gave each thing view; the office did

Distinctly his full function.

BUCKINGHAM

Who did guide,

I mean, who set the body and the limbs

Of this great sport together, as you guess?

NORFOLK.

One, certes, that promises no element

In such a business.

BUCKINGHAM

I pray you, who, my lord?

NORFOLK.

All this was ord’red by the good discretion

Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

BUCKINGHAM

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’ th’ beneficial sun,

And keep it from the earth.

NORFOLK.

Surely, sir,

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.

ABERGAVENNY.

I cannot tell

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.

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