NOR FOLK, godmother, bearing the child richly habited in e mantle, c. Train borne by a Lady: then follows the Marchioness of DORSET, the other godmother, and ladies, The troop balts, and Garter fpeaks. Gart. Heaven, from thy endlefs goodness, fend profperous life, long, and ever happy, to the high and mighty princefs of England, Elizabeth! Flourish. Enter King, and Train. Cran. [kneeling.] And to your royal grace, and the good queen, My noble partners, and myself, thus pray;- King. Thank you, good lord archbishop: Cran. Elizabeth. King. Stand up, lord. [The King kifles the child. With this kifs take my bleffing: God protect thee! Into whofe hand I give thy life. Cran. Amen. King. My noble goffips, ye have been too prodigal: I thank ye heartily; fo thall this lady, When the has fo much English.. Cran. Let me fpeak, fir, For Heaven now bids me; and the words I utter 3 Heaven, from thy endless goodness, &c.] Thefe words are not the invention of the poet, having been pronounced at the chriftening of Elizabeth. See Hall's Chronicle, Henry VIII. fol. 218, MALONE. Than this pure foul fhall be: all princely graces, Shall ftill be doubled on her: truth fhall nurse her, She shall be lov'd, and fear'd: Her own shall bless her; And hang their heads with forrow: Good grows with her : - The every man fhall eat in fafety,] This part of the prophecy feems to have been burlefqued by B. and Fletcher in the Beggar's Bufb, where orator Higgin is making his congratulatory speech to the new king of the beggars: Each man fhall eat his own ftolen eggs, and butter, "In his own fhade, or funfhine," &c. The original thought, however, is borrowed from the fourth chapter of the first book of Kings: "Every man dwelt fafely under his vine." STEEVENS. 5- the perfect ways of bonour,] The old copy reads way. The flight emendation now made is fully juftified by the fubfequent line, and by the fcriptural expreffion which our author probably had in his thoughts. "Her ways are ways of pleasantnefs, and all her paths are peace." MALONE. 6 Nor fhall this peace fleep with ber:] Thefe lines, to the interruption by the king, feem to have been inferted at fome revival of the play, after the acceffion of king James. If the paffage, included in crotchets, be left out, the speech of Cranmer proceeds in a regular tenour of prediction and continuity of fentiments; but, by the interpofition of the new lines, he first celebrates Elizabeth's fuccefior, and then wishes he did not know that he was to die; first rejoices at the confequence, and then laments the caufe. Our authour was at once politick and idle; he refolved to flatter James, but neglected to reduce the whole fpeech to propriety, or perhaps intended that the lines inferted fhould be spoken in the action, and omitted in the publication, if any publication ever was in his thoughts. Mr. Theobald has made the fame obfervation. JOHNSON. I agree entirely with Dr. Johnson with refpect to the time when thefe The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, As great in admiration as herself; So hall the leave her bleffedness to one, (When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness) Who, from the facred afhes of her honour, Shall ftar-like rife, as great in fame as she was, Shall be, and make new nations 7: He fhall flourish, To all the plains about him:-Our children's children King. Thou fpeakest wonders.] Cran. She fhall be, to the happiness of England, An aged princefs; many days fhall fee her, And thefe additional lines were inferted. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. I suspect they were added in 1613, after Shakspeare had quitted the ftage, by that hand which tampered with the other parts of the play fo much, as to have rendered the verfification of it of a different colour from all the other plays of Shakspeare. 7 His bonour and the greatnefs of his name MALONE. Sball be, and make new nations :] On a picture of this contemptible king, which formerly belonged to the great Bacon, and is now in the poffeffion of Lord Grimfton, he is ftyled imperii Atlantici conditor. The year before the revival of this play (1612,) there was a lottery for the plantation of Virginia. Thefe lines probably allude to the fettlement of that colony. MALONE. 8 She jhall be, to the happiness of England, An aged princefs,] The tranfition here from the complimentary addrefs to king James the first is fo abrupt, that it seems obvious to me, that compliment was inferted after the acceffion of that prince. If this play was wrote, as in my opinion it was, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, we may easily determine where Cranmer's eulogium of that princefs concluded. I make no question but the poet refted here: And claim by thofe their greatness, not by blood. All that the bifhop fays after this, was an occafional homage paid to her fucceffor, and evidently inferted after her demife. How naturally, without this infertion, does the king's joy and fatisfactory reflection upon the bishop's prophecy, come in! King. And yet no day without a deed to crown it. To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her. Thou haft made me now a man; never, before To fee what this child does, and praife my Maker.- King. Thou fpeakeft wonders. O lord archbishop, This happy child, did I get any thing, &c. [Exeunt. Whether the king would fo properly have made this inference, upon hearing that a child of fo great hopes fhould die without iffue, is fubmitted to judgment. THEOBALD. 9 And your good breth'ren,] The old copy has-And you, &c. The correction was made by Dr. Thirlby. So, in K. Henry V. "The mayor and all his breth'ren in best fort." MALONE. The play of Henry the Eighth is one of those, which fill keeps poffeffion of the stage, by the fplendour of its pageantry. The coronation, about forty years ago, drew the people together in multitudes for a great part of the winter. Yet pomp is not the only merit of this play. The meek forrows and virtuous distress of Katharine have furnished fome fcenes, which may be justly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy. But the genius of Shakspeare comes in and goes out with Katharine. Every other part may be eafily conceived and eafily written. JOHNSON. EPILOGUE. 'Tis ten to one, this play can never please The merciful conftruction of good women; 2 fuch a one we fhew'd them :] In the character of Katharine. JOHNS. 3 If they fmile, &c.] This thought is too much hackney'd. It had been used already in the Epilogues to As You Like It, and the fecond part of King Henry IV. STEEVENS. Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine or fpurious, yet I cannot reftrain myfelf from expreffing my fufpicion that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of Shakfpeare; non vultus, non color. It appears to me very likely that they were fupplied by the friendship or officioufnefs of Jonfon, whofe manner they will be perhaps found exactly to refemble. There is yet another fuppofition poffible: the prologue and epilogue may have been written after Shakspeare's departure from the stage, upon fome accidental revival of the play, and there will then be reafon for imagining that the writer, whoever he was, intended no great kindness to him, this play being recommended by a fubtle and covert cenfure of his other works. There is in Shakspeare fo much of fool and fight ; -the fellow In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow, appears fo often in his drama, that I think it not very likely that he would have animadverted fo feverely on himself. All this, however, must be received as very dubious, fince we know not the exact date of this or the other plays, and cannot tell how our authour might have changed his practice or opinions. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's conjecture, thus cautiously ftated, has been fince ftrongly confirmed by Mr. Tyrwhitt's note, p. 4, by which it appears that this play was revived in 1613, at which time without doubt the pro logue |