DRAMATIS PERSONE. King Henry VIII. Cardinal Wolsey. Cardinal Campeius. Duke of Norfolk. Duke of Buckingham. Duke of Suffolk. Earl of Surry. Lord Chamberlain. Lord Chancellor. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. Bishop of Lincoln. Lord Abergavenny. Lord Sands. Sir Anthony Denny. Sir Nicholas Vaux. Cromwell, Servant to Wolsey. Griffith, Gentleman Usher to Queen Katharine. 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. Several Lords and Ladies in the dumb Shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Spirits, which appear to her; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants. SCENE, chiefly in London and Westminster; once at Kimbolton. PROLOGUE. I COME no more to make you laugh; things now, 'The play may pass; if they be still, and willing, Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known As they were living; think, you see them great, SCENE I. LONDON. An Antechamber in the Palace. Enter the DUKE of NORFOLK, at one Door; at the other, the DUKE of BUCKINGHAM, and the LORD ABERGAVENNY. Buck. morrow, and well met. How have GOOD you done, Since last we saw in France? Nor. I thank your grace: Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer Buck. An untimely ague Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when "Twixt Guynes and Arde: Nor. Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd Such a compounded one? I was my chamber's prisoner. All the whole time 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 it's: 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 us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear The pride upon them, that their very labour Was to them as a painting: now this mask 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 them), by their heralds challeng'd 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 believ'd. Buck. O, you go far. Nor. 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. Who did guide, Buck. mean, who set the body and the limbs Buck. Buck. The devil speed him! no man's pie is free'd From his ambitious finger. What had he To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder, That such a keech can with his very bulk Take up the rays o'the beneficial sun, And keep it from the earth. Surely, sir, Nor. Aber. I cannot tell What heaven hath given him, let some graver eye Peep through each part of him: Whence has he that? Or has given all before, and he begins A new hell in himself. Buck. Why the devil, Upon this French going-out, took he upon him, Must fetch him in he papers. Aber. I do know |