or a lawless romance, or boldly embroidered with imaginary character and incident like the remote reign of King John. The task of bringing these two conflicting lines of interest and sympathy into focus was not insuperable. But it may well have been hard enough, with material not of gossamer romance but of intractable history, to check the impetus of an imagination which, to judge by even the finest work in this drama, had already lost something of its shaping power, something of its marvellous mastery of soulcharacter. The fragment was abandoned, and passed, probably in company with the twin fragment of The Two Noble Kinsmen, into the hands of Shakespeare's brilliant successor, whose facile pen and lax artistic conscience lightly dared the problem which Shakespeare had declined, piecing out the interrupted destinies of his persons with death-scenes of a ready and fluent pathos, but contriving to lift into prominence all the lurking weaknesses of the plot. It was reserved for Fletcher to render Shakespeare's work fairly liable to Hertzberg's summary of it as 'a chronicle-history with three and a half catastrophes, varied by a marriage and a coronation-pageant,' and to mingle the memory of the English Hermione's unavenged and unrepented wrongs with the dazzling coronation of her rival and exuberant prophecies over the cradle of her rival's child. THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH THE PROLOGUE. I COME no more to make you laugh: things now, Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe, The play may pass, if they be still and willing, Richly in two short hours. Only they In a long motley coat guarded with yellow, 3. working, moving. 12. their shilling, the usual price for a seat on the stage, the most privileged place in the Elizabethan theatre. ΙΟ 16. guarded, faced. The yellow-faced motley coat was the garb of the Fool. To rank our chosen truth with such a show Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring, Will leave us never an understanding friend. The first and happiest hearers of the town, As they were living; think you see them great, 20 SCENE I. London, ACT I. 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 ye done Since last we saw in France? Nor. 20. the opinion that we bring, the reputation we bring (of making our ensuing play in strict accordance with truth). I thank your grace, 24. happiest, best disposed, readiest to seize and respond to the dramatist's intention. 2. saw, met. Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer Buck. An untimely ague Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber when Nor. '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? Buck. All the whole time I was my chamber's prisoner. Nor. Then you lost The view of earthly glory: men might say, 4. An untimely ague stay'd me a prisoner, etc. The historic Duke of Buckingham (Edward Stafford, d. 1521) took an important part in the meeting. On June 17 he formed part of the English escort of the French king (so Holinshed, iii. 860). The Duke of Norfolk on the other hand was in England (Cal. Hen. VIII. iii. 1. 873, cit. Stone, p. 425); but it does not appear that Shakespeare could have known this. 7. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde; these places being respectively VOL. VII 161 ΤΟ 20 in English and French territory, both in Picardy. 17. Became the next day's master, taught and transmitted its triumphs to the next day. 18. its, its own. One of the rare undoubted occurrences of the word in Shakespeare's text. The Ff print it 'it's.' 19. clinquant, glittering with gold. The word was properly used of thin sheets of gold, and hence already suggests the golden sheen made more definite by the next words. M Made Britain India: every man that stood 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, Buck. O, you go far. Nor. As I belong to worship and affect 25. pride, splendid vesture. ib. their very labour was to them as a painting; i.e. the exertion inflamed their cheeks. 32. saw but one; their appearance was indistinguishable. 33. in censure, in drawing comparisons. 38. Bevis; Bevis of Hamp the office did 30 40 ton, the hero of the famous Middle English romance of that name. His battle with the giant Ascapart is referred to in the Contention (passage corresponding to 2 Hen. VI. ii. 3. 93). 40. tract, course. 44. office, officers, the officials charged with the arrangement of procedure. |