PROLOGUE. I come no more to make you laugh; things now Those, that come to see Only a show or two, and so agree, The play may pass; if they be still, and willing Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring, Will leave us never an understanding friend. Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known As they were living; think, you see them great, [1] Alluding to the fools and buffoons, introduced in the plays a little before our author's time: and of whom he has left us a small taste in his own. THEOBALD [2] This is not the only passage in which Shakespeare has discovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or six men with swords, gave a very unsatisfactory idea of an army, and therefore, without much care to excuse his former practice, he allows that a theatrical fight would destroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an understanding friend. Magnis ingeniis et multa nihil ominus habituris simplex convedit erroris confessio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shown in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle JOHNSON. PERSONS REPRESENTED. King HENRY the Eighth. Cardinal WOLSEY. Cardinal CAMPEIUS. CAPUCIUS, ambassador from the emperor Charles V. 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. Sir HENRY GUILDFORD. Sir THOMAS LOVELL. CROMWELL, servant to Wolsey. GRIFFITH, gentleman-usher to queen Katharine. Doctor BUTTS, physician 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 Queen KATHARINE, wife to king Henry, afterwards divorced. ANNE BULLEN, her maid of honour, afterwards queen. PATIENCE, woman to queen Katharine. Several Lords and Ladies in the dumb shows; women at tending upon the queen; Spirits, which appear to her; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants. SCENE, chiefly in London and Westminster; once, at Kimbolton. |