As fool and fight is, befide forfeiting Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring, 2 fuch a Show As fool and fight is,] This is not the only paffage in which Shakspeare has difcovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or fix men with fwords, gave a very unfatisfactory idea of an army, and therefore, without much care to excufe his former practice, he allows that a theatrical fight would deftroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an understanding friend. Magnis ingeniis et multa nihilominus habituris fimplex convenit erroris confeffio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shown in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle. 3 the opinion that we bring, JOHNSON. (To make that only true we now intend,)] Thefe lines I do not understand, and fufpect them of corruption. I believe we may better read thus: the opinion, that we bring Or make; that only truth we now intend. JOHNSON. To intend, in our author, has fometimes the fame meaning as to pretend. So, in King Richard III: Again: "The mayor is here at hand: Intend fome fear "Tremble and start at wagging of a straw, Intending deep fufpicion." STEEVENS. If any alteration were neceffary, I should be for only changing the order of the words, and reading: That only true to make we now intend: i. e. that now we intend to exhibit only what is true. This paffage, and others of this Prologue, in which great stress is laid upon the truth of the enfuing reprefentation, would lead one to fufpect, that this play of Henry the VIIIth. is the very play mentioned by Sir H. Wotton, [in his Letter of 2 July, 1613, Reliq. Wotton, p. 425,] under the defcription of "a new play, [acted by the king's players at the Bank's Side] called, All is True, reprefenting fome principal pieces of the reign of Henry the VIIIth." The extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majefty, with which, Sir Henry fays, that play was fet forth, and the particular incident of certain cannons hot off at the King's entry to a masque at the Cardinal Wolfey's house, (by Therefore, for goodness' fake, and as you are known The firft and happiest hearers of the town,+ which the theatre was fet on fire and burnt to the ground,) are ftrictly applicable to the play before us. Mr. Chamberlaine, in Winwood's Memorials, Vol. III. p. 469, mentions "the burning of the Globe, or playhouse, on the Bankfide, on St. Peter's-day [1613,] which (fays he) fell out by a peale of chambers, that I know not on what occafion were to be used in the play." Ben Jonfon, in his Execration upon Vulcan, fays, they were two poor chambers. [See the stage-direction in this play, a little before the King's entrance: "Drum and trumpet, chambers dif charged."] The Continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, relating the fame accident, p. 1003, fays expressly, that it happened at the play of Henry the VIIIth.' In a MS. Letter of Tho. Lorkin to Sir Tho. Puckering, dated London, this laft of June, 1613, the fame fact is thus related: "No longer fince than yesterday, while Bourbage his companie were acting at the Globe the play of Hen. VIII. and there fhooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd," &c. MS. Harl. 7002. TYRWHITT. I have followed a regulation recommended by an anonymous correfpondent, and only included the contested line in a parenthefis, which in fome editions was placed before the word befide. Opinion, I believe, means here, as in one of the parts of King Henry IV. character. ["Thou haft redeem'd thy loft opinion." King Henry IV. Part I. Vol. XI. p. 422.] To realize and fulfil the expectations formed of our play, is now our object. This fentiment (to fay nothing of the general ftyle of this prologue) could never have fallen from the modeft Shakspeare. I have no doubt that the whole prologue was written by Ben Jonfon, at the revival of the play, in 1613. MALONE. * The first and happiest hearers of the town,] Were it neceffary to ftrengthen Dr. Johnson's and Dr. Farmer's fuppofition, (fee notes on the epilogue,) that old Ben, not Shakspeare, was author of the prologue before us, we might obferve, that happy appears, in the prefent inftance, to have been used with one of its Roman fignifications, i. e. propitious or favourable: "Sis bonus O, felixque tuis!" Virg. Ecl. 5. a fenfe of the word which must have been unknown to Shakspeare, but was familiar to Jonfon. STEEVENS. Be fad, as we would make ye: Think, ye fee The very perfons of our noble ftory,5 As they were living; think, you see them great, Think, ye fee The very perfons of our noble Story,] Why the rhyme fhould have been interrupted here, when it was fo eafily to be fupplied, I cannot conceive. It can only be accounted for from the negligence of the prefs, or the tranfcribers; and therefore I have made no fcruple to replace it thus: Think, before ye. THEOBALD. This is fpecious, but the laxity of the verfification in this prologue, and in the following epilogue, makes it not neceffary. JOHNSON. The word ftory was not intended to make a double, but merely a fingle rhyme, though, it must be acknowledged, a very bad one, the last fyllable, ry, correfponding in found with fee. I thought Theobald right, till I obferved a couplet of the fame kind in the epilogue: "For this play at this time is only in "The merciful conftruction of good women." In order to preserve the rhyme, the accent must be laid on the laft fyllable of the words women and ftory. A rhyme of the fame kind occurs in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, where Mafter Humphrey says: "Till both of us arrive, at her request, "Some ten miles off in the wild Waltham forest." M. MASON. King Henry the Eighth. Cardinal Wolfey. Cardinal Campeius. Duke of Norfolk. Duke of Buckingham. Lord Chamberlain. Lord Chancellor. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester. Bishop of Lincoln. Lord Abergavenny. Lord Sands. Cromwell, Servant to Wolfey. Griffith, Gentleman-Usher to Queen Katharine. Doctor Butts, Phyfician 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 An old Lady, Friend to Anne Bullen. 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. KING HENRY VIII. 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." BUCK. Good morrow, and well met. How have you done, Since last we faw in France? NOR. I thank your grace: Healthful; and ever fince a fresh admirer2 BUCK. An untimely ague Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber, when 1 Lord Abergavenny] George Nevill, who married Mary, daughter of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. REED. a fresh admirer-] An admirer untired; an admirer ftill feeling the impreffion as if it were hourly renewed. 2 JOHNSON. 3 Thofe funs of glory,] That is, thofe glorious funs. The editor of the third folio plaufibly enough reads-Thofe fons of glory; and indeed as in old English books the two words are ufed indifcriminately, the luminary being often fpelt fon, it is |