CONTENTS. I. THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY...... II. THE HISTORICAL SOURCES OF THE PLAY... Page THIS drama, under the title of "The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight," was first published in the Folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 205-232 in the division of "Histories." It is printed with remarkable ac curacy, and the doubtful or disputed readings are comparatively few. The date of the play has been the subject of much discussion. The earlier editors and commentators, with the single exception of Chalmers, believed that it was written before the death of Elizabeth (March, 1603), and that the allusion to her successor, "Nor shall this peace sleep with her," etc. (v. 4), did not form a part of Cranmer's speech as originally composed, but was interpolated by Ben Jonson after James had come to the throne. But, as White remarks, "the speech in question is homogeneous and Shakespearian ; the subsequent allusion to Elizabeth as 'an aged princess' would not have been ventured during her life; and the exhibition of Henry's selfish passion for Anne Bullen, and of her lightness of character, would have been hardly less offensive to the Virgin Queen, her daughter." Knight, Collier, Dyce, Hudson, and other recent editors, take the same view. But how early in the reign of James was the play written? In the Stationers' Registers, under the date of February 12th, 1604-5], we find the following memorandum :-" Nath. Butter] Yf he get good allowance for the Enterlude of K. Henry 8th before he begyn to print it, and then procure the wardens hands to yt for the entrance of yt, he is to have the same for his copy;" and Collier "feels no hesitation in concluding that it referred to Shakespeare's drama, which had probably been brought out at the Globe Theatre in the summer of 1604." Dyce is inclined to agree with Collier; but it is probable that Chalmers was right in assuming that the reference is to a play of Samuel Rowley's, "When you See me you Know me, or the Famous Chronicle History of King Henry the Eighth," which was published in 1605. Knight, White, and Hudson believe that the play was written at Stratford in 1612 or 1613, and that it was the poet's last work. The weight of evidence, both external and internal, seems to me to be in favor of this opinion. The Globe Theatre was burned down on the 29th* of June, 1613, and we have accounts of the accident from several witnesses. In Winwood's "Memorials" there is a letter from John Chamberlain to Sir Ralph Winwood, dated July 12th, 1613, which describes the burning, and says that it "fell out by a peale of chambers"—that is, a discharge of small cannon. In the Harleian Manuscripts we find a letter from Thomas Lorkin to Sir Thomas Puckering, dated “this last of June, 1613," which says, " No longer since than yesterday, while Bourbege his companie were acting at ye Globe the play of Hen=8, and there shooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd." Sir Henry Wotton, writing to his nephew on the 6th of July, 1613, gives a minute account of the accident: "Now to let matters of state sleep, I will entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Bankside. The king's players had a new play called All is True,† representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty. Now, King Henry making a mask at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper, or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where, being thought at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes being more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming, in less than an hour, the whole house to the very ground. *White says "the 26th," but it is probably a slip of the type. Cf. Lorkin's letter, quoted below. † A ballad of the time, entitled "The Lamentable Burning of the Globe Play-House on S. Peter's Day," has for the burden at the end of each stanza, "O sorrow, pitiful sorrow! In the fifth stanza we have the lines, "Away ran Lady Katherine, Nor waited for her trial," which prove that the trial of the Queen formed a part of the play. |