LIFE

OF

HENRY VIII.

-

By Mr. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR.

LONDON:

Printed for J. TONSON: And Sold by W. FEALES,
at Rowe's Head, over-against Clement's Inn Gate,

M DCC XXXII,

K

PROLOGUE.

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 shall prefent. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Those that come to fee
Only a show or two, (and so agree,
The play may pass) if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry, bawdy play;
A noise of targets; or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow;
Will be deceiv'd: for, gentle hearers, know
Yo rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, (besides 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 sake, 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 gen'ral 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 Eight.

Cardinal Wolley, his first Minister and Favourite.

Cranmer. Archbishop of Canterbury.

Duke of Norfolk.

Cardinal Campeius, the Pope's Legat.

Capucius, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles the

Fifth.

Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.

Lord Abergavenny.

Lord Sands.

Sir Henry Guildford.

Sir Thomas Lovell.

Sir Anthony Denny,

Sir Nicholas Vaux.

Cromwell, first Servant to Wolfey, afterwards to the
King.

Griffith, Gentleman-Usher to Queen Katharine..
Three Gentlemen.

Dr. Butts, Physician to the King.

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.

Porter and his Man.

Queen Katharine, first Wife to King Henry, afterwards Divorc'd.

Anne Bullen, belov'd by the King, and afterwards married to him.

An old Lady, Friend to Anne Bullen.

Patience, Woman of the Bed-Chamber to Queen Katharine.

Several Lords and Ladies in the dumb shews. Women attending upon the Queen. Spirits which appear to her. Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other

Attendants.

The SCENE lies mostly in LONDON.

The LIFE of

HENRY VIII.

ACTI.

SCENE

I.

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

G

BUCKINGHAM,

OOD morrow, and well met. How

have you done

Since last we saw y'in France ?
Nor. I thank your Grace:
Healthful, and ever since a fresh admire
Of what I saw there.

Buck. An untimely ague

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

Nor. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde:
I was then present, faw 'em falute on horse-back,
Beheld 'em 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

* Sons.

A 3

Such