by Mr. Spedding in 1850, but has been adopted by most of the more recent Shakespearian scholars. The part which these critics assign to Shakespeare is, Act I., scs. i. and ii. ; Act II., scs. iii. and iv. ; Act III., sc. ii. (to exit of the king); and Act V., sc. i. The rest of the play is boldly ascribed to Fletcher. The elaborate metrical tests of Mr. Fleay, on which, however, too much stress may easily be laid, give the same result.

Gervinus thinks that Shakespeare prepared a mere sketch of the play, and gave it to Fletcher to be finished. The former was the only poet of the time who could have "sketched the psychological outlines of the main characters with so much sharpness;” but “Fletcher's rhythmic manner is strikingly conspicuous throughout." Mr. Spedding's conjecture as to the plan on which the joint labors of Snakespeare and Fletcher were conducted is as follows: "It was not unusual in those days, when a play was wanted in a hurry, to set two or three, or even four hands, at work upon it; and the occasion of the Princess Elizabeth's marriage (February, 1612–1613) may very likely have suggested the production of a play representing the marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Bullen. . . . Shakespeare had conceived the idea of a great historical drama on the subject of Henry VIII. which should have included the divorce of Katharine, the fall of Wolsey, the rise of Cranmer, the coronation of Anne Bullen, and the final separation of the English from the Romish Church, which being the one great historical event of the reign, would naturally be chosen as the focus of poetic interest; that he had proceeded in

act

the execution of this idea as far, perhaps, as the third when, finding that his fellows of the Globe were in distress for a new play to honor the marriage of the Lady Elizabeth with, he thought that his half-finished work might help them, and accordingly handed them his manuscript to make what they could of it; that they put it into the hands of Fletcher (already in high repute as a popular and expeditious playwright), who, finding the original design not very suitable to the occasion, and utterly beyond his capacity, expanded the three acts into five, by interspersing scenes of show and magnificence, and passages of description and long poetical conversations, in which his strength lay . . and so turned out a splendid 'historical masque or show-play,' which was, no doubt, very popular then, as it has been ever since." Apart altogether from evidence based on the slippery ground of the peculiarities of metre, it is certain that the play differs in many respects from Shakespeare's other historical dramas. It is much more spectacular; a reference needs only to be made to the procession to the Court in Blackfriars (Act II. sc. iv.), that at the coronation of Anne Bollen (Act IV. sc. i.), the vision of Queen Katharine (Act IV. sc. ii.), and the procession at the baptism of the young Princess Elizabeth (Act V. sc. iv.) Again, it has less dramatic unity than the other historical dramas. There is no great single figure as an artistic centre round which the minor figures group themselves. As Gervinus says, The interest first clings to Buckingham and his designs against Wolsey; but with the second act he leaves the stage; then Wolsey

draws the attention increasingly, and he, too, disappears in the third act; meanwhile our sympathies are drawn more and more to Katharine, who also leaves the stage in the fourth act; then, after being thus shattered through four acts by circumstances of a tragic character, we have the fifth act closing with a merry festivity, for which we are not prepared, and crowning the king's base passion with victory, in which we take no warm interest." However the vexed question of its authorship may affect that of the defective dramatic unity of the piece, it is certain that the three principal figures are described with tran scendant power. These are the King, Queen Katharine, and Cardinal Wolsey. "The queen," says Professor Dowden, "is one of the noble, long-enduring sufferers, just-minded, disinterested, truly charitable, who give their moral gravity and grandeur to Shakespeare's last plays. She has clear-sighted penetration to see through the Cardinal's cunning practice, and a lofty indignation against what is base, but no unworthy personal resentment. Henry, if we judge him sternly, is cruel and selfindulgent; but Shakespeare will hardly allow us to judge Henry sternly. He is a lordly figure, with a full, abounding strength of nature, a self-confidence, an ease and mastery of life, a power of effortless sway, and seems born to pass on in triumph over those who have fallen and are afflicted. Wolsey is drawn with superb power; ambition, fraud, vindictiveness, have made him their own, yet cannot quite ruin a nature possessed of noble qualities."

Shakespeare's historical authorities for this play were,

as usual, Hall's Union of the Families of Lancaster and York, of which the first edition appeared in 1548, and Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published in 1577. These writers had borrowed largely from Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey, of which there were many manuscript copies in Shakespeare's day, though the work was not printed until 1641. For the fifth act, his materials were taken from Foxe's Acts ana Monuments of the Church, published in 1563. A great part is merely a versification of what he found in his authorities. Events, however, are not always given in chronological order; these discrepancies from the facts of history are pointed out in the notes. The action of the play commences with the eleventh year of the reign of Henry in 1520, and closes at the christening of Eliza beth in 1533, thus covering a period of thirteen years. The death of Queen Katharine, however, actually took place in 1536, and the accusation against Cranmer in 1543, thus separating the historical events treated in the play by an interval of twenty-three years, or from 1520 to 1543.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

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 LOVELL.
SIR ANTHONY DENNY.
SIR NICHOLAS VAUX.
Secretaries to Wolsey.

CROMWELL, servant to Wolsey.

GRIFFITH, gentleman-usher to Queen Katharine.
Three Gentlemen.

DR. BUTTS, physician to the king.

Garter King at Arms.