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    The Life of King Henry the Eighth: “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”
    The Life of King Henry the Eighth: “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”
    The Life of King Henry the Eighth: “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”
    Ebook193 pages2 hours

    The Life of King Henry the Eighth: “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”

    By William Shakespeare and John Fletcher

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    About this ebook

    William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in late April 1565 and baptised there on 26th April. He was one of eight children.

    Little is known about his life but what is evident is the enormous contribution he has made to world literature.

    His writing was progressive, magnificent in scope and breathtaking in execution.

    Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets helped enable the English language to speak with a voice unmatched by any other.

    William Shakespeare died on April 23rd 1616, survived by his wife and two daughters. He was buried two days after his death in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church. The epitaph on the slab which covers his grave includes the following passage.

    Good friend, for Jesus’s sake forbear,

    To dig the dust enclosed here.

    Blessed me the man that spares these stones,

    And cursed be he that moves my bones.

    John Fletcher was born in December, 1579 in Rye, Sussex. He was baptised on December 20th.

    As can be imagined details of much of his life and career have not survived and, accordingly, only a very brief indication of his life and works can be given.

    Young Fletcher appears at the very young age of eleven to have entered Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University in 1591. There are no records that he ever took a degree but there is some small evidence that he was being prepared for a career in the church.

    However what is clear is that this was soon abandoned as he joined the stream of people who would leave University and decamp to the more bohemian life of commercial theatre in London.

    The upbringing of the now teenage Fletcher and his seven siblings now passed to his paternal uncle, the poet and minor official Giles Fletcher. Giles, who had the patronage of the Earl of Essex may have been a liability rather than an advantage to the young Fletcher. With Essex involved in the failed rebellion against Elizabeth Giles was also tainted.

    By 1606 John Fletcher appears to have equipped himself with the talents to become a playwright. Initially this appears to have been for the Children of the Queen's Revels, then performing at the Blackfriars Theatre.

    Fletcher's early career was marked by one significant failure; The Faithful Shepherdess, his adaptation of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il Pastor Fido, which was performed by the Blackfriars Children in 1608.

    By 1609, however, he had found his stride. With his collaborator John Beaumont, he wrote Philaster, which became a hit for the King's Men and began a profitable association between Fletcher and that company. Philaster appears also to have begun a trend for tragicomedy.

    By the middle of the 1610s, Fletcher's plays had achieved a popularity that rivalled Shakespeare's and cemented the pre-eminence of the King's Men in Jacobean London. After his frequent early collaborator John Beaumont's early death in 1616, Fletcher continued working, both singly and in collaboration, until his own death in 1625. By that time, he had produced, or had been credited with, close to fifty plays.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStage Door
    Release dateApr 8, 2018
    ISBN9781787379251
    The Life of King Henry the Eighth: “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”
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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      Book preview

      The Life of King Henry the Eighth - William Shakespeare

      The Life of King Henry the Eighth

      by William Shakespeare & John Fletcher

      William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in late April 1565 and baptised there on 26th April. He was one of eight children. 

      Little is known about his life but what is evident is the enormous contribution he has made to world literature. 

      His writing was progressive, magnificent in scope and breathtaking in execution. 

      Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets helped enable the English language to speak with a voice unmatched by any other. 

      William Shakespeare died on April 23rd 1616, survived by his wife and two daughters. He was buried two days after his death in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church. The epitaph on the slab which covers his grave includes the following passage,

      Good friend, for Jesus’s sake forbear,

      To dig the dust enclosed here.

      Blessed me the man that spares these stones,

      And cursed be he that moves my bones.

      John Fletcher was born in December, 1579 in Rye, Sussex.  He was baptised on December 20th.

      As can be imagined details of much of his life and career have not survived and, accordingly, only a very brief indication of his life and works can be given.

      Young Fletcher appears at the very young age of eleven to have entered Corpus Christi College at Cambridge University in 1591.  There are no records that he ever took a degree but there is some small evidence that he was being prepared for a career in the church.

      However what is clear is that this was soon abandoned as he joined the stream of people who would leave University and decamp to the more bohemian life of commercial theatre in London.

      The upbringing of the now teenage Fletcher and his seven siblings now passed to his paternal uncle, the poet and minor official Giles Fletcher. Giles, who had the patronage of the Earl of Essex may have been a liability rather than an advantage to the young Fletcher.  With Essex involved in the failed rebellion against Elizabeth Giles was also tainted.

      By 1606 John Fletcher appears to have equipped himself with the talents to become a playwright. Initially this appears to have been for the Children of the Queen's Revels, then performing at the Blackfriars Theatre.

      Fletcher's early career was marked by one significant failure; The Faithful Shepherdess, his adaptation of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il Pastor Fido, which was performed by the Blackfriars Children in 1608.

      By 1609, however, he had found his stride. With his collaborator John Beaumont, he wrote Philaster, which became a hit for the King's Men and began a profitable association between Fletcher and that company. Philaster appears also to have begun a trend for tragicomedy.

      By the middle of the 1610s, Fletcher's plays had achieved a popularity that rivalled Shakespeare's and cemented the pre-eminence of the King's Men in Jacobean London. After his frequent early collaborator John Beaumont's early death in 1616, Fletcher continued working, both singly and in collaboration, until his own death in 1625.  By that time, he had produced, or had been credited with, close to fifty plays.

      Index of Contents

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      THE SCENE: London; Westminster; Kimbolton

      THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH

      PROLOGUE

      ACTUS PRIMUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA - London

      SCÆNA SECUNDA - The Same. The Council Chamber

      SCÆNA TERTIA - An Ante-Chamber in the Palace

      SCÆNA QUARTO - A Hall in York Place

      ACTUS SECUNDUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA - Westminster. A Street

      SCÆNA SECUNDA - An Ante-Chamber in the Palace

      SCÆNA TERTIA - An Ante-Chamber of the Queen’s Apartments

      SCÆNA QUARTO - A Hall in Black-Friars

      ACT TERTIUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA - London

      SCÆNA SECUNDA - Ante-Chamber to King Henry VIII's Apartment

      ACT QUARTUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA - A Street in Westminster

      SCÆNA SECUNDA - Kimbolton

      ACT QUINTUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA - London. A Gallery in the Palace

      SCÆNA SECUNDA - Before the Council Chamber

      SCÆNA TERTIA - The Council-Chamber

      SCÆNA QUARTO - The Palace Yard

      SCÆNA QUINTA - The Palace

      EPILOGUE

      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

      WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      JOHN FLETCHER - A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

      JOHN FLETCHER - A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      King Henry VIII

      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 Gentlemen.

      Doctor Butts, Physician to the King.

      Garter King-at-Arms.

      Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham.

      Brandon

      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 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; Scribes, Officers, Guards, and other Attendants.

      Spirits.

      THE SCENE: London; Westminster; Kimbolton

      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

      As they were living; think you see them great,

      And follow'd 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.

      ACTUS PRIMUS

      SCÆNA PRIMA

      London. An Ante-Chamber in the Palace

      Enter NORFOLK at one door; at the other, BUCKINGHAM and 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

      Of what I saw there.

      BUCKINGHAM

      An untimely ague

      Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber when

      Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,

      Met in the vale of Andren.

      NORFOLK

      '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?

      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

      To one above itself. Each following day

      Became the next day's master, till the last

      Made former wonders its. To-day the French,

      All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,

      Shone down the English; and, to-morrow, they

      Made Britain India: every man that stood

      Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were

      As cherubins, all guilt: the madams too,

      Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear

      The pride upon them, that their very labour

      Was to them as a painting: now this masque

      Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night

      Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,

      Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,

      As presence did present them; him in eye,

      Still him in praise: and, being present both

      'Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner

      Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these 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,

      That Bevis was believed.

      BUCKINGHAM

      O, you go far.

      NORFOLK

      As I belong to worship and affect

      In honour honesty, the tract of every thing

      Would by a good discourser lose some life,

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

      To the disposing of it nought rebell'd.

      Order gave each thing view; the office did

      Distinctly his full function.

      BUCKINGHAM

      Who did guide,

      I mean, who set the body and the limbs

      Of this great sport together, as you guess?

      NORFOLK

      One, certes, that promises no element

      In such a business.

      BUCKINGHAM

      I pray you, who, my lord?

      NORFOLK

      All this was order'd by the good discretion

      Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

      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

      That such a keech can with his very bulk

      Take up the rays o' the beneficial sun

      And keep it from the earth.

      NORFOLK

      Surely, sir,

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

      For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace

      Chalks successors their way, nor call'd upon

      For

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