Henry VIII - William Shakespeare (big ebook reader txt) 📗

Henry VIII

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Dramatis Personae Henry VIII Prologue Act I Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act II Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Act III Scene I Scene II Act IV Scene I Scene II Act V Scene I Scene II Scene III Scene IV Scene V Epilogue Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Dramatis Personae

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

Doctor Butts, physician to the King

Garter King-at-Arms

Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham

Brandon, and a Sergeant-at-Arms

Door-keeper of the Council-chamber. Porter, and his man

Page to Gardiner. A crier

Queen Katharine, wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced

Anne Bullen, her Maid of Honour, afterwards Queen

An old lady, friend to Anne Bullen

Patience, woman to Queen Katharine

Several lords and ladies in the dumb shows; women attending upon the Queen; scribes, officers, guards, and other attendants

Spirits

Scene: London; Westminster; Kimbolton.

Henry VIII 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 now present. 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 see
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 deceived; for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting
Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
To make that only true we now intend,
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness’ sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye: think ye see
The very persons of our noble story
As they were living; think you see them great,
And follow’d with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends; then in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery:
And, if you can be merry then, I’ll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

Act I Scene I

London. An ante-chamber in the palace.

Enter the Duke of Norfolk at one door; at the other, the Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Abergavenny. Buckingham

Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done
Since last we saw in France?

Norfolk

I thank your grace,
Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer
Of what I saw there.

Buckingham

An untimely ague
Stay’d me a prisoner in my chamber when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Andren.

Norfolk

’Twixt Guynes and Arde:
I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;
Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement, as they grew together;
Which had they, what four throned ones could have weigh’d
Such a compounded one?

Buckingham All the whole time I was my chamber’s prisoner. Norfolk

Then you lost
The view of earthly glory: men might say,
Till this time pomp was single, but now married
To one above itself. Each following day
Became the next day’s master, till the last
Made former wonders its. To-day the French,
All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,
Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they
Made Britain India: every man that stood
Show’d like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubins, all gilt: the madams too,
Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labour
Was to them as a painting: now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye,
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
’Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns⁠—
For so they phrase ’em⁠—by their heralds challenged
The noble spirits to arms, they did perform
Beyond thought’s compass; that former fabulous story,
Being now seen possible enough, got credit,
That Bevis was believed.

Buckingham O, you go far. Norfolk

As I belong to worship and affect
In honour honesty, the tract of every thing
Would by a good discourser lose some life,
Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal;
To the disposing of it nought rebell’d,
Order gave each thing view; the office did
Distinctly his full function.

Buckingham

Who did guide,
I mean, who set the body and the