KING HENRY THE EIGHTH. CARDINAL WOLSEY, and CARDINAL CAMPEIUS. CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V. CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Dukes of NORFOLK, BUCKINGHAM, and SUFFOLK. The EARL OF SURREY. The LORD CHAMBERLAIN, and the LORD CHANCELLOR. GARDINER, King's Secretary, afterwards Bishop of Winchester; and the BISHOP OF LINCOLN. LORD ABERGAVENNY, and LORD SANDS. Sir HENRY GUILDFORD, Sir THOMAS LOVELL, Sir ANTHONY DENNY, and Sir NICHOLAS VAUX. CROMWELL, Servant to Wolsey, afterwards King's Secretary. Secretaries to Wolsey. GRIFFITH, Gentleman-usher to Queen Katharine. A Gentleman of the King's; a Gentleman of the Queen's. Three Gentlemen. DOCTOR BUTTS, Physician to the King. Ga ter King-at-Arms, Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham. BRANDON, and a Sergeant-at-Arms. Door-keeper of the Council Chamber. Page to Gardiner; a Por.er, and his Man; a Crie". 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 THE EIGHTH. I PROLOGUE. 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, see Only a show or two, and so agree The play may pass, if they be still and willing, VOL VIII. 17 To rank our chosen truth with such a show Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring, The first and happiest hearers of the town, 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. Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when 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 throned ones could have weigh'd Such a compounded one? Buck. I was my chamber's prisoner. All the whole time 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 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 used 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 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 In honour honesty, the tract of everything Would by a good discourser lose some life, Which action's self was tongue to. Buck. All was royal; I mean, who set the body and the limbs Nor. Who did guide? As you guess: I pray you, who, my lord? One, certes, that promises no element Buck. Nor. All this was order'd by the good dis cretion Of the right reverend cardinal of York. Buck. The devil speed him! no man's pie is From his ambitious finger. What had he Nor. the up rays Surely, sir, There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends : |