1864. Mr. Grant White points the passage as follows; "The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire: Divided in their dire division, O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, The true succeeders of each royal house, By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!" "The construction," he says, "is a little involved, perhaps, but plain enough. The sense is, all this (i.e. what has just been related) divided York and Lancaster. O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth, &c., who were divided in their dire division (i. e. the division of York and Lancaster), by God's fair ordinance join together." But surely, as Mr. Robson observes to me, "what has just been related" was not the cause of the division of York and Lancaster, it was the consequence of that division. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "Rebate the edge,"-very improperly. "Abate" in the present passage, and the contracted form "bate" in the opening speech of Love's Labour's lost ("That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge"), are equivalent to "rebate" so, too, in the novel of Pericles, 1608, by Wilkins, "Absence abates that edge that Presence whets" (p. 20, ed. Mommsen); where Mr. Collier (Supplem. Notes to his Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 272, ed. 1858) would alter "abates" to "rebates." KING HENRY VIII. FIRST printed in the folio of 1623.-I agree with Mr. Hunter and Mr. Collier in thinking that this play was written after the death of Queen Elizabeth, and that, of course, the passage concerning her successor (act v. sc. ult., "Nor shall this peace sleep with her," &c.) formed a portion of Cranmer's speech as originally composed; a passage which Theobald and others, who contended that Henry the Eighth was written before the death of Elizabeth, pronounced to be a subsequent addition to the text. The following memorandum in the Stationers' Registers "12 Feb. 1604[-5]. Nath. Butter] Yf he get good allowance for the Enterlude of K. Henry 8th before he begyn to print it, and then procure the wardens hands to yt for the entrance of yt, he is to have the same for his copy"-was referred by Chalmers to Samuel Rowley's When you see me, you know me, 1605; but Mr. Collier "feels no hesitation in concluding that it referred to Shakespeare's drama, which had probably been brought out at the Globe Theatre in the summer of 1604" (Introd. to King Henry VIII.); and perhaps Mr. Collier is right.-It has been before mentioned (see the Memoir of Shakespeare, p. 111) that the Globe was burned down June 29th, 1613, in consequence of the discharge of some small cannon during the performance of a piece which, according to two authorities,* was named Henry the Eighth, but according to Sir Henry Wotton,† was "a new play called All is true.” Now it is difficult to believe that our author's Henry the Eighth was new play" in 1613; for, without taking into consideration the memorandum above quoted, Shakespeare at that date had, in all likelihood, ceased to write; and if we suppose that the piece in question was by him, we must adopt the notion of Malone that King Henry the Eighth had "been revived in 1613, under the title of All is true, with new decorations, and a new Prologue and Epilogue. Mr. Tyrwhitt observes, that the Prologue has two or three distinct references to this title; a circumstance which authorises us to conclude, almost with certainty, that it was an occasional production, written some years after the composition of the play. King Henry VIII. not being then printed, the fallacy of calling it a new play on its revival was not easily detected." Life of Shakespeare, p. 396. But Gifford positively maintains that the piece acted in 1613 was not written by Shakespeare,-that it was "constructed, indeed, on the history of Henry VIII., and, like that, full of shows; but giving probably a different view of some of the leading incidents of that monarch's life. Shakespeare's Henry VIII., as Mr. Malone affirms, was written in 1601; if it had been merely revived, the Prologue would have adverted to the circumstance: but it speaks of the play as one which had * Stowe's Annales, by Howes, p. 926, ed. 1631; and Thomas Lorkin,-Letter, Ms. Harl. 7002. ↑ Reliq. Wotton. p. 425, ed. 1685. not yet appeared; it calls the attention of the audience to a novelty; it supposes, in every line, that they were unacquainted with its plan; and it finally tells them that, if they came to hear a bawdy play, a noise of targets, or to see a fellow in a fool's coat, they would be deceived. Could the audience expect any thing of this kind? or was it necessary to guard them against it, in a favourite comedy, with which they had all been perfectly familiar for twelve years?" Memoirs of Ben Jonson, &c. p. cclxxiii.—The Prologue and Epilogue, whoever wrote them, are manifestly not by Shakespeare.- Roderick (apud Edwards's Canons of Criticism) long ago noticed certain peculiarities in the versification of this play; and recently attempts have been made to prove that portions of it were composed by Fletcher.Frequently in King Henry VIII. we have all but the very words of Holinshed. That two plays, partly on the same subject as the present drama, and most probably preceding it, were composed in 1601,-The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal Wolscy,-we are informed by Henslowe, whose memoranda concerning them are, as usual, rather confused: see his Diary, pp. 189, 193-8, 200, 202-4, 221, 222, ed. Shake. Soc. DRAMATIS PERSONE. 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, king's secretary, afterwards bishop of Winchester. LORD ABERGAVENNY. LORD SANDS. SIR HENRY GUILDFORD. SIR THOMAS LOVELL. SIR ANTHONY DENNY. SIR NICHOLAS VAUX. 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. An old Lady, friend to Anne Bullen. PATIENCE, woman to Queen Katharine. Several Bishops, Lords, and Ladies in the Dumb-shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants. Spirits. SCENE-Chiefly in London and Westminster; once at Kimbolton. |