Most editors, from Dr Johnson to Dyce and White, think that the Prologue and the Epilogue of our play were not written by Shakespeare. Some have suggested that they may have been inserted by Ben Jonson, a well-known court flatterer. It is obvious that the somewhat forced compliment to King James in Cranmer's speech (V. iv. 40-56) must have been an interpolation made to gratify the vanity of the king. These lines, as well as the present Prologue and Epilogue, may have been added in 1613, when the play was revived under the title of All is True. See Introduction.

1. The actor who has to speak the Prologue informs the audience that they are about to hear no merry comedy, but a lofty and serious drama, full of pomp and circumstance,' of stirring interest, and of woe.

Staun

3. Working, 'spirit-moving.' ton reads, sad and high-working,' and fortifies this plausible emendation by a quotation from the dedicatory epistle to Chapman's translation of the Iliad: 'Then let not this divinitie in earth, Dear Prince, be sleighted, as she were the birth

Of idle Fancie; since she works so hie.'

9. Truth. There is a reference here to the alternative title under which the play was first presented, 'All is True.' Cf. also to rank our chosen truth with such a show' (line 18), and 'to make that only true we now intend' (line 21), and see Introduction.

12. See away, &c., 'may spend while seeing.' The prices at the Globe Theatre were: for the ground,' 6d. ; for the 'rooms,' is. ; and for places on the stage, an additional 6d. or is. It was built in 1599, was burned down in 1613, but rebuilt next year.

13. In Shakespeare's time, plays were performed during the day, and the performance usually lasted about two hours, commencing about two o'clock in the afternoon. See Fleay's Shakespeare-Manual, chapter vi.

14. Licentiousness in speech was the prevailing vice of the times; but it must not be forgot, that until the time of Charles II., women's parts were put into the mouths of boys. Actresses were first introduced upon the stage late in 1660, or early in 1661.

to

15. Targets targes,' 'shields.' 15-16. Alluding the fools and buffoons of the old plays, and their professional costume. -Motley, 'particoloured.'- -Guarded, trimmed with.'. Cf. Merchant of Venice, II. ii. 164: 'Give him a livery

More guarded than his fellows'.' 22. To rank (line 18) is the subject to 'will leave us,' &c. The meaning of the passage seems to be, 'to place our truth

24. Happiest, 'best disposed,' 'most

use of the word is a Latinism, and remarks, needlessly, that this sense of the word must have been unknown to Shakespeare, but familiar to Jonson. 25-26. See story. Cf. with this rhyme, 'see' and 'misery' (lines 29 and 30), and 'in' and 'women' in the Epilogue (lines 9 and 10).

SCENE 1.

This Duke of Norfolk is Thomas Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk who was slain fighting under the standard of Richard III. at Bosworth. The father's blood was attainted, but his honours were restored in his son, who became Lord Treasurer, Earl Marshal, and Knight of the Garter. This Duke of Buckingham is also the son and heir of the Duke in Richard III., whose forfeited honours were restored in his son by Henry VII. He was Lord High Constable and a Knight of the Garter. Lord Abergavenny is George Neville, third baron of that name, and one of the very few noblemen of his time who was neither beheaded himself, nor the son of a beheaded father, nor the father of a beheaded son. His brother, Sir Thomas, however, was compelled to follow the fashion' (White). The scene opens soon after the meeting of Henry VIII. and Francis I. at 'The Field of the Cloth of Gold,' and the conversation alludes to the pageantry of that occasion.

1. How have ye done? We use this idiomatic expression now only in the present form, 'How do you do?'

2. We saw (each other). Cf. Troilus and Cressida, IV. iv. 59: 'When shall we see again?'

4. Ague means literally 'acute attack.' Old Fr. ague, feminine of agu, from Lat. acuta (febris), acute (fever), ac-u-ere, to sharpen.

5. Stayed, 'detained.'

7. Andren. This is changed to 'Arde' in the second folio, but Shakespeare gives the word as he found it in Holinshed. -Guynes and Arde are two towns in Picardy, of which the former belonged in 1521 to the English, the latter to the French. The Field of the Cloth of Gold' was in the valley be tween the two.

10. As, 'as if.'

11. And if they had done so, what four other monarchs combined could have matched this combination of two?'

12. All the whole time; cf. all my whole device' (Merchant of Venice, III. iv. 81), all the whole army' (Henry VI., Part I., I. i. 126), 'all our whole city' (Romeo and Juliet, IV. ii. 32). It is not true, historically, that Buckingham was not present, as Hall, himself an eyewitness, in his Chronicle represents the French king as being attended by Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Buckingham.

15. Up to this time pomp was com paratively simple, but now, from the rival splendour of the two kings, it be came doubly grand.' This is, in Dr Johnson's words, a somewhat 'noisy paraphrase,' expressing that the pomp on this occasion was more than twice as much as it had ever been before.

16-18. 'Every day learned something from the preceding, till the concluding day collected all the splendour of all the former shows' (Johnson).

18. Its, used absolutely here, = its own. Its was just coming into use instead of his in Shakespeare's time; and, indeed, is not common in our language until the time of Dryden. Its occurs only thrice in Milton (Hymn on the Nativity, 106; Paradise Lost, i. 254, and iv. 813), and not at all in Spenser, or in the authorised version of the Bible of 1611, which has it where modern editions have its in Lev. xxv. 5.

19. Clinquant, 'glittering.'

21. 'Made Britain like India in gorgeousness.

23. Cherubins. The proper plural is cherubim. A cherub is a celestial spirit, next in order to the seraphim. 25. Pride, ornaments." -That so

that.

26.Added colour to their counten.

ances.' -Masque, a diversion or procession in which the company wear masks.

28-30. Johnson quotes from Dryden : 'Two chiefs so match'd as each seem'd worthiest when alone.'

30. Him, for 'he,' perhaps as more emphatic. He who was in eye being still he who was in praise.'

32. 'Twas said (by the spectators).

33. Censure, passing judgment.' 'No critical observer dared venture a judgment in favour of either king.'

38. Bevis of Southampton, the hero of an old romance. He was a prodigy of strength, skill, and good fortune. He lived about the time of the Norman Conquest, and was victorious in many formidable contests with the help of his steed Arundel and his sword Morglay. Of these, the chief were his killing the fire-drake of Cologne, and his subduing the giant Ascapard, whom he afterwards made his servant. The last exploit is referred to in Henry VI., Part II.,

75. File, 'the list' or 'roll.'

76-80.For the most part, men on whom he wished to impose as much expense as they had little honour and his own letter, by his own single authority and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch in whom he papers or sets down in his list.' There has been much needless difficulty over this passage. The above is Pope's explanations and he adds: 'I don't understand it unless this be the meaning.' Most editors follow Pope; but some read 'the papers,' and Staunton conjectures 'he paupers.' 79. Out, 'left out,' 'unnoticed,' 'unconsulted with.' Malone fortifies Pope's explanation of this by quoting from Holinshed: Without consent of the whole boarde of the Counsaille.'

82. Sicken'd, 'impaired.'

84. By spending the value of whole manors on dress.' Cf. King John, ii. 70:

'Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,

their backs.'

39. As I belong to the class to whom reverence is due, and in honour wish to be honest, every detail of the procedure would lose, even in the hands of a good narrator, some of that spirit which the actions themselves expressed."

44. Office the officers; cf. Hamlet, III. i. 73: 'The insolence of office.'

48. Certes, 'certainly. A monosyllable here, pronounced as a dissyllable in the passages where it occurs in the Tempest and Comedy of Errors. The word occurs only five times in Shakespeare.

-No element, 'no proper sphere.' 'Of whom it could not be expected that he would find his proper sphere in such a business.'

52. 'To have a finger in the pie' is still a common proverb.

54. Fierce, 'excessive.'

55. Keech, a lump of fat,' a term specially applicable to Wolsey as a butcher's son, as well as conveying a hit at his corpulency. Keech is a name given to a butcher's wife in Henry IV., Part II., II. i. 101.

57. Surely, a trisyllable here.

60. Successors, accented on the first, súccessors.

63. He gives us note, 'he causes us to perceive.'

65. For him, 'in the case of him.' 78. Upon this visit to France.'

86. Minister communication, 'lead to the announcement of a wretched conclusion.'

88. Not values, 'is not worth.'

90. Malone quotes from Holinshed: 'Monday the xviii. of June was such an hideous storm of wind and weather, that many conjectured it did prognosticate trouble and hatred shortly after to follow between princes.'

91. Not consulting (with one another). 93. Dashing, 'throwing water on suddenly.' 'Bedàsh' is more common in this sense; cf. Richard III., I. ii. 164: like trees bedashed with rain.'- -Aboded, 'foreboded;' cf. Henry VI., Part III., V. vi. 45, aboding luckless time.'

94. Budded. A play on the sound of 'aboded' is involved here.

95-97. A new treaty between France and England was the result of the meeting of the kings, by which Francis stipulated to pay annually 100,000 crowns to Henry. I know not whether Shakespeare meant this by the peace which was not worth its cost; but as the money was not paid punctually, the remark might have been fairly made. A league had been made a few years before between Henry, Charles, and Francis, which was certainly "flaw'd" by a declaration of war between the two latter; and in 1523, the king of France sequestered English goods at Bordeaux,