Hotel de Bourgogne, but interdicted the representation of the Mysteries. But in Spain, we find by Cervantes, that they continued much longer; and held their own, even after good comedy came in amongst them. To return: Upon this prohibition, the French poets turned themselves from religious to moral farces. And in this we soon followed them: the public taste not suffering any great alteration at first, though the Italians at this time afforded many just compositions for better models. These farces they called Moralities. To this sad serious subject they added, though in a separate representation, a merry kind of farce called Sottie, in which there was un Paysan (the Clown) under the name of Sot Commun (or Fool. But we, who borrowed all these delicacies from the French, blended the Moralitie and Sottie together: So that the Payson or Sot Commun, the Clown or Fool, got a place in our serious Moralities: Whose business we may understand in the frequent allusions our Shakespeare makes to them: as in these lines of Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. sc. 2: "So Portent-like I would o'er-rule his state, But the French, as we say, keeping these two sorts of farces distinct, they became, in time, the parents of tragedy and comedy; while we, by jumbling them together, begot in an evil hour, that mungrel species, unknown to nature and antiquity, called tragi-comedy. WARBURTON. I have nothing to add to these observations, but that some traces of this antiquated exhibition are still retained in the rustic puppet-plays, in which I have seen the Devil very lustily belaboured by Punch, whom I hold to be the legitimate successor of the old Vice. JOHNSON. OBSERVATIONS. KING HENRY VIII.] We are unacquainted with any dramatick piece on the subject of Henry VIII. that preceded this of Shakespeare; and yet on the books of the Stationers' Company appears the following entry: "Nathaniel Butter] (who was one of our author's printers) Feb. 12, 1604. That he get good allowance for the enterlude of King Henry Vill. before he begin to print it; and with the wardens hand to yt, he is to have the same for his copy." Dr. Farmer observes, from Stowe, that Robert Greene had written somewhat on the same story. STEEVENS. This historical drama comprizes a period of twelve years, commencing in the twelfth year of King Henry's reign, (1521,) and ending with the christening of Elizabeth in 1533. Shakespeare has deviated from history in placing the death of Queen Katharine before the birth of Elizabeth, for in fact Katharine did not die till 1536. King Henry VIII. was written, I believe, in 1601. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II. Dr. Farmer observes, from Stowe, that " Robert Greene had written something on this story;” but this, I apprehend, was not a play, but some historical account of Henry's reign, written not by Robert Greene, the dramatick poet, but by some other person. In the list of "authors out of whom Stowe's Annals were compiled," prefixed to the last edition printed in his life time, quarto, 1605, Robert Greene is enumerated with Robert de Brun, Robert Fabian, &c. and he is often qucted as an authority for facts in the margin of the history of that reign. MALONE. I PROLOGUE. COME no more to make you laugh; things now, [1] Alluding to the fools and buffoons, introduced in the plays a little before our author's time: and of whom he has left us a small taste in his own. THEOBALD [2] This is not the only passage in which Shakespeare has discovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or six men with swords, gave a very unsatisfactory idea of an army, and therefore, without much care to excuse his former practice, he allows that a theatrical fight would destroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an understanding friend. Magnis ingeniis et multa nihil ominus habituris simplex convedit erroris confessio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shown in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle. JOHNSON. 8 VOL. VII. PERSONS REPRESENTED. 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. Bishop of LINCOLN. Lord ABERgavenny. Sir HENRY GUILDFORD. Sir THOMAS LOVELL. 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 Serjeant 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; Spirits, which appear to her; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants. SCENE, chiefly in London and Westminster; once, at Kimbolton. |