Jonson might have supplied the Prologue and Epilogue to the play upon the occasion of its revival. Dr. Farmer, Steevens, and Malone, support his opinion; and even attribute to him some of the passages of the play.

Mr. Gifford has controverted this opinion of Jonson having been the author of the Prologue and Epilogue of this play, and thinks the play which was performed under the title of All is True was a distinct performance, and not Shakspeare's Henry the Eighth. To this it has been answered,-"That the Prologue, which has always accompanied Shakspeare's drama from its first publication in 1623, manifestly and repeatedly alludes to the title of the play which was represented on the 29th of June, 1613, and which we know to have been founded on the history of king Henry the Eighth, affords a strong proof of their identity, as appears by the following passages:

To rank our chosen truth with such a show

As fool and fight is,' &c.

'To make that only true we now intend.'

And though sir Henry Wotton mentions it as a new play, we have Stowe and Lorkin who call it The play of Henry the Eighth.'"

"That the Prologue and Epilogue were not written by Shakspeare, is, I think, clear from internal evidence," says Mr. Boswell; but it does not follow that they were the production of Ben Jonson's pen. That gentleman has clearly shown that there was no intention of covertly sneering at Shakspeare's other works in this Prologue; but that this play is opposed to a rude kind of farcical representation on the same subject by Samuel Rowley. This play, or interlude, which was printed in 1605, is probably referred to in the following entry on the books of the Stationers' Company:-" Nathaniel Butter, Feb. 12, 1604, That he get good allowance for the Enterlude of King Henry VIII. before he begin to print it; and with the warden's hand to yt, he is to have the same for his copy." Stowe has observed that "Robert Greene had written somewhat on the same story;" but there is no evidence that it was in a dramatic form: it may have been something historical, and not by the dramatic poet of that name; as Stowe cites the authority of Robert Greene, with Robert Brun, Fabian, &c., in other places of his Chronicle.

This historical drama comprises a period of twelve years, commencing in the twelfth year of king Henry VIII. (1521), and ending with the

he says, it was at "a new play, acted by the king's players at the Bank's Side, called All is True, representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth."-Reliquiæ Wotton, p. 425, Ed. 2d.

christening of Elizabeth in 1533. The Poet 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. In constructing his scenes he has availed himself largely of the eloquent narrative of Wolsey's faithful servant and biographer, George Cavendish, as copied by the Chronicles; and, indeed, the pathos of the cardinal's dying scene is almost as effective in the simple narrative of Cavendish as in the play. The fine picture which the Poet has drawn of the suffering and defenceless virtue of queen Katharine, and the just and spirited, though softened, portrait he has exhibited of the impetuous and sensual character of Henry, are above all praise. It has been justly said that "this play contains little action or violence of passion; yet it has considerable interest of a more mild and thoughtful cast, and some of the most striking passages that are to be found in the Poet's works."

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.

GARDINER, Bishop of Winchester.

Bishop of Lincoln.

LORD ABERGAVENNY. LORd Sands.

SIR HENRY GUILDFORD. SIR THOMAS LOVELL.

SIR ANTHONY DENNY. SIR NICHOLAS Vaux.

Secretaries to Wolsey.

CROMWELL, Servant to Wolsey.

GRIFFITH, Gentleman Usher to Queen Katharine.

Three other Gentlemen.

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 Honor; 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.

KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.

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,
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,

The play may pass; if they be still, and willing,
I'll undertake, may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry, bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long, motley coat, guarded' with yellow,
Will be deceived; for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting

Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
(To make that only true we now intend,)

Will leave us never an understanding friend.

Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are known
The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye: think ye see
The very persons of our noble story,

1 i. e. faced or trimmed.

2 Happiest being here used in a Latin sense for propitious or favorable.

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!
And, if you can be merry then, I'll say,
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

ACT I.

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.1

Buckingham. GooD morrow, and well met. How have you done,

Since last we saw in France?

Nor.

I thank your grace; Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer Of what I saw there.

Buck.

An untimely ague

Stayed me a prisoner in my chamber, when
Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,
Met in the vale of Arde.

Nor.

'Twixt Guynes and Arde: 2

I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;
Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung
In their embracement, as3 they grew together;
Which had they, what four throned ones could have
weighed

Such a compounded one?

1 George Nevill, who married Mary, daughter of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham.

2 Guynes then belonged to the English, and Arde (Ardres) to the French; they are towns of Picardy. The valley where Henry VIII. and Francis I. met lies between them.

3 As for as if.