OBSERVATIONS.

WE are unacquainted with any dramatick piece on the fubject of Henry VIII. that preceded this of Shakspeare; and yet on the books of the Stationers' Company appears the following entry: “Nathaniel Butter] (who was one of our author's printers) Feb. 12, 1604. That he get good allowance for the enterlude of K. Henry VIII. before he begin to print it; and with the wardens hand to yt, he is to have the fame for his copy." Dr. Farmer obferves from Stowe, that Robert Greene had written fomewhat on the fame ftory. STEEVENS.

This hiftorical drama comprizes a period of twelve years, commencing in the twelfth year of King Henry's reign, (1521,) and ending with the chriftening of Elizabeth in 1533. Shakspeare has deviated from history in placing the death of Queen Katharine before the birth of Elizabeth, for in fact Katharine did not die till 1536.

King Henry VIII. was written, I believe, în 1601.

Dr. Farmer obferves from Stowe, that "Robert Greene had written something on this story; but this, I apprehend, was not a play, but fome hiftorical account of Henry's reign, written not by Robert Greene, the dramatick poet, but by fome other perfon. In the lift of "authors out of whom Stowe's Annals were compiled," prefixed to the laft edition printed in his life time, quarto, 1605, Robert Greene is enumerated with Robert de Brun, Robert Fabian, &c. and he is often quoted as an authority for facts in the margin of the hiftory of that reign. MALONE.

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,

The subject will deferve it.

let fall a tear;

Such, as give

Their money out of hope they may believe,

May here find truth too. Thofe, that come to fee

Only a fhow or two, and so agree,

The play may pass; if they be still, and willing,
I'll undertake, may see away their fhilling

Richly in two short hours. Only they,
That come to hear a merry, bawdy play,
A noise of targets; or to fee a fellow
In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow,
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chofen truth with fuch a show
As fool and fight is, befide 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's fake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,

Be fad, as we would make ye: Think, ye fee
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, fee
How foon this mightiness meets misery!
And, if you can be merry then, I'll fay,
A man may weep upon his wedding day.

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 Wolfey.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman-Ufher to Queen Katharine.

Three other Gentlemen.

Doctor BUTTS, Phyfician to the King.

Garter, King at Arms.

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.

BRANDON, and a Serjeant at Arms.

Door-keeper of the Council-Chamber. Porter, and his Man. Page to Gardiner. A Cryer.

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 fbows; Women attending upon the Queen; Spirits, which appear to her; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants.

SCENE, chiefly in London, and Westminster ; ́ence, 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 ABERGAVENNY.

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

Nor.

"Twixt Guynes and Arde:
I was then prefent, faw them falute 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?

Buck.

All the whole time

I was my chamber's prisoner.

Nor.

Then you lost

The view of earthly glory: Men might say,

Till this time, pomp was fingle; but now marry'd

To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's matter, 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 almoft fweat 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 enfuing night
Made it a fool, and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in luftre, were now beft, now worst,
As prefence did prefent them, him in eye,.
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'Twas faid, they faw but one; and no difcerner
Durft wag his tongue
in cenfure. When these funs
(For fo they phrase them,) by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

Beyond thought's compafs; that former fabulous story,
Being now feen poffible enough, got credit,

That Bevis was believ'd.

Buck.

O, you go far.

Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect
In honour honefly, the tract of every thing
Would by a good difcourfer lose fome life,
Which action's felf was tongue to. All was royal;
To the difpofing of it nought rebell'd,

Order gave each thing view: the office did
Diftinctly his full function.

Buck.

Who did guide,

I mean, who fet the body and the limbs
Of this great fport together, as you guess?

Nor.