KING HENRY VIII.

The play of Henry the Eighth, supposed to have been written either before the death of Queen Elizabeth (in 1603) or shortly after the accession of King James the First--although not published until 1623, was apparently very popular during the close of Shakespeare's career. A previous play on the same subject by Samuel Rowley, and bearing the quaint title of "When you see me, you know me," had been published in 1605; and about 1613, Shakespeare's play was first produced under the title of "All is True:" during its performance, the old Globe theatre was burnt down." In the following Spring, however, a new theatre was built, and reopened with this play, now re-named Henry the Eighth. Rowley's play was chiefly comedy; Shakespeare's is dignified and religious; Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe." The panegyrics on the dead Queen and the living King (who hated each other) support the opinion that the play may have been performed at an earlier date, and revived in 1613, with costly decorations, and a new Prologue and Epilogue.-This composition closes the series of Shakespeare's English Historical Plays.

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This play is so far unlike others of the series, that it owes nothing to any dramatic predecessor, but everything to the Poet's knowledge of the past: it introduces a great many passages (almost verbally repeated,) from the "Chronicles" of Holinshed-from Cavendish's "Life of Wolsey"-and from Fox's "Acts and Monuments of Christian Martyrs."

The fall of Wolsey was undoubtedly due to his opposition to the King's marriage with Anne Bullen,' but Shakespeare ascribes the circumstance to the accidental enclosure of a letter, (on the subject of the divorce from Queen Katharine,) which, intended for the Pope, had been inadvertently placed in a packet to the King. This incident does not in fact belong to Wolsey; but to one of his contemporaries, Ruthal, Bishop of Durham, who, by a similar mistake, forwarded to Wolsey a schedule of all his private wealth.

The character of Queen Katharine is beautifully, yet royally, depicted: and the reference to her young daughter-the "bloody Mary of history-is simple and touching. The Queen is introduced as taking an active part in State affairs—thus paving the way, as it were, for the resentment of the Cardinal. Her trial is distinguished by her noble, womanly, wifely, and forcible objections to her English Court of Justice; and her downfall is dignified by a calm confidence of right, and by the unwavering support of a truly Christian spirit.

The character of her rival, Queen Anne Bullen,' is also favourably depicted a perfect pattern of that "excelling nature," in whose eyes (a later poet curiously says) "Gospel light first dawned."

It must be remembered that this play may have been written dur

a The old "Globe" theatre-a circular, thatched, wooden building-was burnt to the ground in July, 1613. b Now usually printed Boleyn. c Thomas Gray (1716-1771).

ing the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and it required much courage as well as great delicacy, on Shakespeare's part, to bring on the stage, however modified or relieved, the moral deformities of her "uxorious father, and the easy impressibility of her beautiful mother. The dramatic portraiture of the King is not, however, strictly favourable; his harshness, tyranny, and impetuosity are suppressed; he is rather the "bluff King Hal," endowed with apparent good nature and general integrity; and to these characteristics so different from the degrading qualities usually assigned to him-Shakespeare, in his first title to the play, ("All is True,") publicly expresses his belief in the historical fidelity of the incidents and characters.

The Time occupies about twelve years: commencing in the twelfth year of King Henry's reign,-shortly after the gorgeous spectacular displays of pomp between King Henry and Francis I of France, at the meeting known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold (in 1520) to the christening of the Princess Elizabeth in 1533.

The Scene is chiefly in, London and Westminster; once, at Kimbolton (in Huntingtonshire).

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;

a Supposed to have been written by Ben Jonson.

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, boisterous play,—
A noise of targets,—or to see a fellow

In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow,—
Will be deceived; 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 shew that "All is 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 followed 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.

Henry the Seventh died in 1509, and his only surviving son, Henry the Eighth, then succeeded: for the elder son, Arthur, had died seven years before, shortly after his marriage to the Princess Katharine of Spain.

The events of the first twelve years of this reign are not brought forward in Shakespeare's play: The principal of these are The marriage of the young King to the Princess Katharine, the widow of his deceased brother Arthur, and daughter to Ferdinand of Spain : -The invasion of France ;-The Battle of the Spurs :-The victory over the Scots at Flodden :--The marriage of Lewis the Twelfth of France to Henry's sister, the Princess Mary: three months afterward, the death of that Prince, and the consequent accession of Francis the First; and, four years later, the election of Charles, King of Spain, to be Emperor of Germany. Both these potentates (Lewis and Charles) courted the favour of the young King of England, and of his chief minister and adviser, Cardinal Wolsey--a man who had, from a humble rank in life (reputed to have been the son of a butcher in Ipswich) risen to the highest dignities in Church and State. The meeting between the Kings of France and England (known in history as "the Field of the Cloth of Gold") took

place in 1520; and its magnificent pageantry is the subject of the opening Scene-an Antechamber in the King's Palace in London. There we overhear a conversation between the Dukes of Buckingham and Norfolk: two of Cardinal Wolsey's most powerful and bitter enemies :

Buck. Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done
Since last we saw in France?
I thank your grace,—
Healthful; and, ever since, a 'fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

Nor.

Buck.

Nor.

An untimely ague

Stayed 'me a prisoner in my chamber, when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the Vale of Ardres."

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: men might say,
Till this time, Pomp was 'single, but now 'married
To one above itself. The two great Kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them.

Buck.

Who did guide?—
I mean, who set the body and the limbs
Of this great sport together?

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' vanities?

Nor.

Surely, sir,
There's in him stuff that 'puts him to these ends.
For, being not propped by 'ancestry, gives 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.

Buck.

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? Nor. Like it your grace, The State takes notice of the private difference Betwixt you and the Cardinal. I advise you (And take it from a heart that wishes towards you Honour and plenteous safety)-that you read The Cardinal's 'malice, and his 'potency,

Together; to consider further, that

a O. R. Andren (in Picardy`.

b Proud (fier).

What his high hatred 'would effect, wants not
A minister in his 'power. 'You know his nature,
That he 's revengeful; and 'I know his sword
Hath a sharp edge: it 's long, and 't may be said,
It reaches far; and where 't will 'not extend,
Thither he 'darts it. Bosom-up my counsel,—

You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where 'comes that rock,
That I advise your shunning.

Cardinal Wolsey passes in procession-the purse borne before him, certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with papers. The Cardinal in his passage fixes his eye on Buckingham, and Buckingham on him, both full of disdain. The angry Cardinal inquires. of his Secretary:

Wol. The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor? ha!
Where 's his examination?

1 Secr.
Wol. Is he in 'person ready?
1 Secr.

Here, so please you.

Ay, please your grace.

Wol. Well, we shall then know 'more; and Buckingham Shall lessen this big look.

The Cardinal and his Train withdraw. Buckingham says bitterly:

Buck. This butcher's cur is venom-mouthed, and I

Nor.

Have not the power to 'muzzle him; therefore best
Not 'wake him in his slumber. I read in 's looks
Matter against me; and his eye reviled

Me, as his 'abject object: at this instant,
He bores me with some 'trick.

He's gone to the

Stay, my lord,

And let your reason, with your choler, question
What 't is you go about.

Buck.

Nor.

'I'll to the King; And, from a mouth of honour, quite cry down This Ipswich fellow's 'insolence!

Be advised;

Heat not a furnace for your foe, so hot
That it do singe 'yourself.

Buck. I am thankful to you, and I'll go along
By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow
Is both corrupt and treasonous.

Nor.

Say not, treasonous.

a Wounds.