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And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose with the red :-
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That joug hath frown'd upon their enmity !-
What traitor bears me, and says rot,-Amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd her-
self;

The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compeli'd, been butcher to the sire;
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided, in their dire division.-
Oh! now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together

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THIS historical play was probably written in the year 1601. It comprises a period of twelve years, com mencing in the 12th of Henry's reigu, (1521) and terminating with the baptism of Elizabeth, 1533. It has always been an easy medium for the display of pageantry and splendour; consequently a great favourite with the generality of audiences. Its most powerfully drawn characters are the Queen and the Cardinal. The dying moments of the former (Act IV. Sc. 2.) are pourtrayed with a mingled majesty and pathos, scarcely ever equalled by any other poet (Dr. Johnson numbers it, indeed, amongst "the greatest efforts of tragedy:") and the exquisite soliloquy of the latter, at the time of his degradation, would evince the superiority of Shakspeare's genius, had he never written another line. (It is a fine philosophical picture of fallen ambition, brought to reflectiou by a merited reverse of fortune: the assimilation of human greatness to the vegetation of a fruit tree, with the puerility of venturing upon “a sea of troubles,” for burdeasome and perishable acquisitions, affords a charming specimen of imaginative colouring and didactic morality. Yet this is one of the parts which, according to the Doctor, "may be easily conceived, and easily written." Perhaps Shakspeare found it otherwise.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

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 LO-
VELL.

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 KATHARINE, Wife to King Henry; afterwards divorced.

ANNE BULLEN, her Maid of Honour ; afterwards Queen.

AN OLD LADY, Friend to Anne Bullen.

SIR ANTHONY DENNY.-SIR NICHOLAS VAUX. PATIENCE, Woman to Queen Katharine. SECRETARIES to Wolsey.

CROMWELL, Servant to Wolsey.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman-Usher to Queen Ka

tharine.

THREE OTHER GENTLEMEN.

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.

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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

R. LENOX

OUNDATIONS

ACT I.

Buck. The devil speed him! no man's pie is free'd

SCENE 1-London.-An Ante-chamber in From his ambitions finger. What had he

the Palace.

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

Nor. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde:

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I was then present, saw them salute on horse.
back;
[clung
Bebeld them, when they lighted, how they
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 single; but now mar-
ried

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

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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.

Nor. 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 assistance, but, spider-like,

Oat 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.
Aber. I cannot tell

[eye

What heaven hath given him, let some graver
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,

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Upon this French going-out, took he upon him,
Without the privity o' the king, to appoint
Who should attend on him? He makes up the
Of all the gentry for the most part such
Too, whom as great a charge as little honour
He meant to lay upon and his own letter,
The honourable board of council out,
Must fetch him in the papers.

Aber. I do know

Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have By this so sicken'd their estates, that never They shall abound as formerly.

Buck. O many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on

them

For this great journey.

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?

Nor. Grievingly I think,

What did this vanity

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The peace between the French and us not The cost that did conclude it.

Buck. Every man,

After the hideous storm that follow'd, was
A thing inspir'd: and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy,-That this tempest
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on't.

Nor. Which is budded out;

For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd

Our merchants" goods at Bourdeaux.

Aber. Is it therefore

The ambassador is silenc'd?

Nor. Marry, is't.

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