Dramatis Perfonæ.

KING Henry the Eighth.

Cardinal Wolfey, his firft Minifter and Favourite.
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Duke of Norfolk.

Duke of Buckingham.

Duke of Suffolk.

Earl of Surrey.

Lord Chamberlain.

Cardinal Campeius, the Pope's Legate.

Capucius, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Keeper after Sir Tho. Moore; and then 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.

Sir William Sands.

Cromwell, firft Servant to Wolfey, afterwards to the King. Griffith, Gentleman-Ufher to Queen Catharine.

Three Gentlemen.

Doctor Butts, Phyfician to the King.
Garter, King at Arms.

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.
Brandon, Serjeant at Arms.

Door-Keeper of the Council-Chamber.
Porter, and his Man,

Queen

Queen Catharine, firft Wife to King Henry, afterward divorced.

Anne Bullen, beloved by the King, and afterwards mar» ried to him.

An old Lady, Friend to Anne Bullen.

Patience, Woman of the Bed-chamber to Queen Catharine.

Several Lords and Ladies in the Dumb Shows. Women attending upon the Queen; Spirits, which appear to her. Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants.

The SCENE lies moftly in London and r minfter; once, at Kimbolton.

PRO

I

Come no more to make you laugh; things now,
That bear a weighty and a ferious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of ftate and roe;
Such noble fcenes, as draw the eye. to flow,
We shall prefent. Thofe, that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The fubject will deferve it. Such, as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May bere find truth too. Thofe, that come to fee
Only a fhow or too, (and fo agree,

The Play may pafs) if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may fee away their fhilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they,
That come to hear a merry, bawdy plays
A noife of targets; or to fee a fellow (1)
In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow;
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle bearers, know,
To rank our chofen truth with fuch a show
As fool and fight is, (befides forfeiting
Our own brains, and th' opinion that we bring
To make that only true we now intend)
Will leave us ne'er an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness' fake, as you are known
The firft and happiest hearers of the town,

Be fad, as we would make ye. Think before ye (2)
The very perfons of our noble ftory,

As they were living: think, you see them great,
And follow'd with the gen'ral throng, and fweat
Of thousand friends; Then, in a moment, fee
How foon this mightiness meets mifery!
And, if you can be merry then, I'll fay,
A man may weep upon his wedding day.

(1)

or to fee a Fellow

In a long motly Coat,] Alluding to the Fools and Buffoons, introduced for the generality in the Plays a little before our Author's Time: and of whom he has left us a fmall Tafte in his own.

(2)

-Think ye fee

The very Perfons of our noble Story,] Why the Rhyme should have been interrupted here, when it was fo eafily to be fupplied, I cannot conceive. It can only be accounted for from the Negligence of the Prefs, or the Tranfcribers: and therefore I have made no Scruple to replace it.

The

The LIFE of

King HENRY VIII.

ACT

I.

SCENE, An Antechamber in the Palace.

Enter the Duke of Norfolk, at one door : at the other the Duke of Buckingham, and the Lord Abergavenny.

BUCKINGHAM.

OOD morrow, and well met. How have you done,

Since laft we saw in France?

Nor. I thank your Grace:

Healthful, and ever fince a fresh admirer

Of what I faw there.

Buck. An untimely ague

Staid me a prifoner in my chamber, when
Thofe funs of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Arde.

Nor. 'Twixt Gwynes and Arde :

I was then prefent, faw 'em falute on horse-back,
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

Suck a compounded one?
B. All the whole time,
I was my chamber's prifoner.
Then you loft

The view of earthly glory: men might fay,
Till this time Pomp was fingle, but now marry'd
To onc above itself. Each following day
Became the next day's master, 'till the last
Ma e 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,
Shew'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As Cherubins, all gilt; the Madams too,
Not us'd to toil, did almoft sweat to bear
The pride upon them; that their very labour
Was to them as a painting. Now this mak
Was cry'd, incomparable; and th' ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two Kings,
Equal in luftre, were now beft, now worst,
As prefence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praife; and being prefent both,
'Twas faid, they faw but one; and no difcerner
Durft wag his tongue in cenfure.
in cenfure. When these funs
(For fo they phrafe 'em) by their heralds challeng'd
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

Beyond thought's compafs; that old fabulous ftory
(Being now feen poffible enough) got credit;
That t Bevis was believ'd.

Buck. Oh, you go far.

Nor. As I belong to worship, and affect
In honour, honefty; the tract of every thing
Would by a good difcourfer lose some life,
Which action's felf was tongue to.

All was royal; (3)

The old romantick legend of Bevis of Southampton. This Bevis (or, Beauvois) a Saxon, was for his Prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton: Of whom, Cambden in his Britannia. (3) Which Action's felf was Tongue to.

Buck. All was royak