Henry VIII

The Life of King Henry the Eighth

the 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,

3

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

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The play may pass-if they be still and willing,

I'll undertake may see away their shilling

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Richly in two short hours. Only they

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That come to hear a merry bawdy play,

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A noise of targets, or to see a fellow

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In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,

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Will be deceived. For, gentle hearers, know

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To rank our chosen truth with such a show

As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting

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Our own brains and the opinion that we bring

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To make that only true we now intend,

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Will leave us never an understanding friend.

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Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known

The first and happiest hearers of the town,

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Be sad, as we would make ye. Think ye see

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The very persons of our noble story

As they were living. Think you see them great,

And followed with the general throng and sweat

Of thousand friends. Then, in a moment, see

How soon this mightiness meets misery.

30

And if you can be merry then, I'll say

A man may weep upon his wedding day.

*

¥    I.1 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

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Of what I saw there.

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buckingham      An untimely ague

Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber when

Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,

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Met in the vale of Andren.

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norfolk      'Twixt Guynes and Arde.

I was then present, saw them salute on horseback,

Beheld them when they lighted, how they clung

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In their embracement, as they grew together;

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Which had they, what four throned ones could have weighed

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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

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To one above itself. Each following day

Became the next day's master, till the last

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Made former wonders, its. Today the French,

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All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods

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Shone down the English; and tomorrow they

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Made Britain India: every man that stood

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Showed like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were

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As cherubins, all gilt. The madams too,

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Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear

The pride upon them, that their very labor

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Was to them as a painting. Now this masque

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Was cried incomparable; and th' ensuing night

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Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,

Equal in luster, were now best, now worst,

As presence did present them: him in eye

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Still him in praise; and being present both,

'Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner

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Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns

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(For so they phrase 'em) by their heralds challenged

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The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

Beyond thought's compass, that former fabulous story,

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Being now seen possible enough, got credit,

That Bevis was believed.

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buckingham      O you go far.

norfolk

As I belong to worship and affect

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In honor honesty, the tract of ev'ry thing

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Would by a good discourser lose some life

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Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal.

To the disposing of it nought rebelled;

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Order gave each thing view. The office did

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Distinctly his full function. Who did guide,

I mean who set the body and the limbs

Of this great sport together? As you guess:

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One, certes, that promises no element

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In such a business.

buckingham      I pray you who, my lord?

norfolk

All this was ordered by the good discretion

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Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

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buckingham

The devil speed him! No man's pie is freed

From his ambitious finger. What had he

To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder

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That such a keech can with his very bulk

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Take up the rays o' th' beneficial sun

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And keep it from the earth.

norfolk      Surely, sir,

There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends;

For, being not propped by ancestry, whose grace

Chalks successors their way, nor called upon

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For high feats done to th' crown, neither allied

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To eminent assistants, but spiderlike

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Out of his self-drawing web, a gives us note,

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The force of his own merit makes his way,

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A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys

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A place next to the king.

abergavenny      I cannot tell

What heaven hath given him. Let some graver eye

Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?

If not from hell the devil is a niggard,

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Or has given all before, and he begins

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A new hell in himself.

buckingham      Why the devil,

Upon this French going out, took he upon him

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(Without the privity o' th' king) t' appoint

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Who should attend on him? He makes up the file

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Of all the gentry, for the most part such

To whom as great a charge as little honor

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He meant to lay upon; and his own letter,

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The honorable board of council out,

Must fetch him in he papers.

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abergavenny      I do know

Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have

By this so sickened their estates that never

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They shall abound as formerly.

buckingham      O many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em

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For this great journey. What did this vanity

But minister communication of

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A most poor issue?

norfolk      Grievingly I think

The peace between the French and us not values

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The cost that did conclude it.

buckingham      Every man,

After the hideous storm that followed, was

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A thing inspired, and not consulting broke

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Into a general prophecy: that this tempest,

Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded

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The sudden breach on't.

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norfolk      Which is budded out;

For France hath flawed the league and hath attached

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Our merchants' goods at Bordeaux.

abergavenny      Is it therefore

Th' ambassador is silenced?

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norfolk      Marry is't!

abergavenny

A proper title of a peace, and purchased

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At a superfluous rate!

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buckingham      Why, all this business

Our reverend cardinal carried.

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norfolk      Like it your grace,

The state takes notice of the private difference

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Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you

(And take it from a heart that wishes towards you

Honor and plenteous safety) that you read

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The cardinal's malice and his potency

Together; to consider further, that

What his high hatred would effect wants not

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A minister in his power. You know his nature,

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That he's revengeful; and I know his sword

Hath a sharp edge; it's long, and 't may be said

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It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend

Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel;

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You'll find it wholesome. Lo where comes that rock

That I advise your shunning.

114

Enter Cardinal Wolsey, the purse borne before him, certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with papers. The Cardinal in his passage fixeth his eye on Buckingham, and Buckingham on him, both full of disdain.

wolsey

The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, ha?

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Where's his examination?

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first secretary      Here, so please you.

wolsey

Is he in person ready?

first secretary      Ay, please your grace.

wolsey

Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham

Shall lessen this big look.Exeunt Cardinal and his train.

119

buckingham

This butcher's cur is venom-mouthed, and I

120

Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best

Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book

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Outworths a noble's blood.

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norfolk      What, are you chafed?

Ask God for temp'rance. That's th' appliance only

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Which your disease requires.

buckingham      I read in's looks

Matter against me, and his eye reviled

Me as his abject object. At this instant

He bores me with some trick. He's gone to th' king.

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I'll follow and outstare him.

norfolk      Stay, my lord,

And let your reason with your choler question

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What 'tis you go about. To climb steep hills

Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like

A full hot horse, who being allowed his way,

Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England

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Can advise me like you. Be to yourself

As you would to your friend.

buckingham      I'll to the king

And from a mouth of honor quite cry down

This Ipswich fellow's insolence, or proclaim

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There's difference in no persons.

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norfolk      Be advised.

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot

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That it do singe yourself. We may outrun

By violent swiftness that which we run at,

And lose by overrunning. Know you not

The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er

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In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised.

I say again there is no English soul

More stronger to direct you than yourself,

If with the sap of reason you would quench,

Or but allay the fire of passion.

149

buckingham      Sir,

I am thankful to you, and I'll go along

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By your prescription. But this top-proud fellow-

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Whom from the flow of gall I name not, but

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From sincere motions-by intelligence,

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And proofs as clear as founts in July when

We see each grain of gravel, I do know

To be corrupt and treasonous.

norfolk      Say not treasonous.

buckingham

To th' king I'll say't and make my vouch as strong

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As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,

Or wolf, or both (for he is equal rav'nous

As he is subtile, and as prone to mischief

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As able to perform't), his mind and place

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Infecting one another, yea reciprocally,

Only to show his pomp as well in France

As here at home, suggests the king our master

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To this last costly treaty; th' interview

That swallowed so much treasure and like a glass

Did break i' th' wrenching.

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norfolk      Faith, and so it did.

buckingham

Pray give me favor, sir. This cunning cardinal

The articles o' th' combination drew

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As himself pleased; and they were ratified

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As he cried "Thus let be," to as much end

As give a crutch to th' dead. But our count-cardinal

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Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey

(Who cannot err) he did it. Now this follows

(Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy

To th' old dam, treason), Charles the emperor,

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Under pretense to see the queen his aunt

(For 'twas indeed his color, but he came

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To whisper Wolsey), here makes visitation.

His fears were that the interview betwixt

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England and France might through their amity

Breed him some prejudice, for from this league

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Peeped harms that menaced him: privily

Deals with our cardinal, and, as I trow,

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Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor

Paid ere he promised, whereby his suit was granted

Ere it was asked; but when the way was made,

And paved with gold, the emperor thus desired,

That he would please to alter the king's course

And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know

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(As soon he shall by me) that thus the cardinal

Does buy and sell his honor as he pleases,

And for his own advantage.

norfolk      I am sorry

To hear this of him, and could wish he were

Something mistaken in't.

195

buckingham      No, not a syllable.

I do pronounce him in that very shape

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He shall appear in proof.

197

Enter Brandon, a Sergeant at Arms before him, and two or three of the Guard.

brandon

Your office, sergeant; execute it.

sergeant      Sir,

My lord the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl

Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I

200

Arrest thee of high treason, in the name

Of our most sovereign king.

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buckingham      Lo you, my lord,

The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish

Under device and practice.

204

brandon      I am sorry

To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on

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The business present. 'Tis his highness' pleasure

You shall to th' Tower.

buckingham      It will help me nothing

To plead mine innocence, for that dye is on me

Which makes my whit'st part black. The will of heav'n

Be done in this and all things! I obey.

210

O my Lord Aberga'ny, fare you well!

brandon

Nay, he must bear you company.

[To Abergavenny]    The king

Is pleased you shall to th' Tower till you know

How he determines further.

abergavenny      As the duke said,

The will of heaven be done, and the king's pleasure

By me obeyed!

brandon      Here is a warrant from

The king t' attach Lord Montacute and the bodies

217

Of the duke's confessor, John de la Car,

One Gilbert Perk, his chancellor-

buckingham      So, so!

These are the limbs o' th' plot. No more, I hope.

220

brandon

A monk o' th' Chartreux.

buckingham      O, Michael Hopkins?

brandon      He.

buckingham

My surveyor is false. The o'ergreat cardinal

Hath showed him gold; my life is spanned already.

223

I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,

Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on

225

By dark'ning my clear sun. My lord, farewell.Exeunt.

*

¥    I.2 Cornets. Enter King Henry, leaning on the Cardinal's shoulder, the Nobles, [the Cardinal's Secretary,] and Sir Thomas Lovell. The Cardinal places himself under the King's feet on his right side.

king

My life itself, and the best heart of it,

1

Thanks you for this great care. I stood i' th' level

2

Of a full-charged confederacy, and give thanks

3

To you that choked it. Let be called before us

That gentleman of Buckingham's; in person

I'll hear him his confessions justify,

6

And point by point the treasons of his master

He shall again relate.

8

A noise within, crying "Room for the Queen!" Enter the Queen, ushered by the Duke of Norfolk, and Suffolk. She kneels. [The] King riseth from his state, takes her up, kisses and placeth her by him.