Henry VIII

Henry VIII
By William Shakespeare.




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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