By the kind permission of Messrs Macmillan & Co. and W. Aldis Wright, Esq., the text here First issue of this Edition oy "King Henry VIII." printed 1895. Reprinted 1896, 1898, 1890, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1904, 1900, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1916. FROM : THE BEQUEST OF EVERT JANSEN WENDELL 1918 “The effect of the play as a whole is weak and disappointing. The truth is that the interest, instead of rising towards the end, falls away utterly, and leaves us in the last act among persons whom we scarcely know, and events for which we do not care. ... I know no other play in Shakespeare which is chargeable with a fault like this, none in which the moral sympathy of the spectator is not carried along with the main current of action to the end. In all the historical tragedies a Providence may be seen presiding over the development of events, as just and relentless as the fate in a Greek tragedy. Even in Henry IV., where the comic element predominates, we are never allowed to exult in the success of the wrong-doer, or to forget the penalties which are due to guilt. And if it be true that in the romantic comedies our moral sense does sometimes suffer a passing shock, it is never owing to an error in the general design, but always to some incongruous circumstance in the original story which has lain in the way and not been entirely got rid of, and which after all offends us rather as an incident improbable in itself than as one for which our sympathy is unjustly demanded. The singularity of Henry VIII. is that, while four-fifths of the play are occupied in matters which are to make us incapable of mirth,—' Be sad, as we would make you,'-the remaining fifth is devoted to joy and triumph, and ends with universal festivity: THIS DAY NO MAN THINK 'HAS BUSINESS AT HIS HOUSE: FOR ALL SHALL STAY: THIS LITTLE QNB SHALL MAKE IT HOLIDAY."" SPEDDING. Preface. The First Edition, • The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth' was printed for the first time in the First Folio. There was no Quarto edition of the play. The text of the play is singularly free from corruptions; the Acts and Scenes are indicated throughout *; the stage-directions are full and explicit.† Rowe first supplied, imperfectly, the Dramatis Personæ. 1613, Date of Composition. Henry the Eighth was undoubtedly acted as "a new play' on June 29th, 1613, and resulted in the destruction by fire of the Globe Theatre on that day. The evidence on this point seems absolutely conclusive : (i.) Thomas Lorkin, in a letter dated “this last of June" referring to the catastrophe of the previous day, says: “ No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbage his companie were acting at the Globe the play of Henry VIII., and their shooting of certayne chambers in the way of triumph, the fire catch'd," &c. * Except in the case of Act V. Scene üï., where no change of scene is marked in the folio. “Exeunt" is not added at the end of the previous scene, but it is quite clear that the audience was to imagine a change of scene from the outside to the inside of the Council-chamber. The stage. direction runs: -A Councell Table brought in with Chayres and Stooles, and placed under the state,' &c. + The lengthy stage-direction at the beginning of Act V. Sc. v. was taken straight from Holinshed ; similarly, the order of the Coronation in Act IV. Sc. i. |