31. Is the motive Bertram alleges for denying her probably the true one? How would Ophelia or Viola have taken the rejection?

32. How does the King give to Helena "social promotion"? In the light of this play comment on Shakespeare's general aristocracy of feeling.

33. Does Bertram's sudden acquiescence in the King's demand bode ill? Does one feel that there is in Bertram a mental reservation?

34. What is the episodic purpose of the scene between Parolles and Lafeu? How does this scene develop the presentation of Parolles? How is he defined by Lafeu? Where is the undoing of Parolles foreshadowed?

35. What does Bertram determine upon after his marriage?

36. How do you account (Sc. iv.) for the presence of the Clown at Paris? What message does Parolles bring to Helena?

37. What is Helena's attitude towards Bertram now that she has won him in marriage?

38. What opinion of Parolles (Sc. v.) does Bertram give Lafeu? Indicate the dramatic purpose of the return of Parolles to the Scene.

39. What deceit does Bertram practise upon Helena? How might this Scene be marred in the hands of an artist less great than Shakespeare?

ACT THIRD.

40. Indicate the position of Sc. i. in the time scheme.

41. How is Bertram described by the Clown? Indicate the dramatic purpose of the Clown's forswearing of Isbel.

42. What were the contents of the letters to the Countess and to Helena?

43. What is the bearing of the Countess under the news brought in the letters?

44. Indicate the train of thought expressed by Helena. What does she determine upon doing?

45. In Sc. iii. what rise in the fortunes of Bertram is indicated? 46. What is the metrical form of Helena's letter? What report does she give out of her intentions?

47. What is the story of Diana?

48. Does Helena tell a lie to the Widow of Florence?

49. What is the dramatic effect of the Widow's and Diana's pity for the wife of Bertram?

50. How is the drum episode foreshadowed?

51. For what purpose is the stratagem put upon Parolles?

52. How does Parolles answer to the suggestion that the drum be recovered? What leads him to an undertaking for which he has no stomach?

53. Can you find in your own observation any confirmation of the truth uttered in Sc. vi. 94 et seq.?

54. Is it to point Bertram's youth that he is made unable to see through Parolles?

55. What trait of Helena is manifest in Sc. vii.? How does she overcome the scruples of the Widow?

ACT FOURTH.

56. Explain choughs' language. Where did Shakespeare get his suggestion for this?

57. Does Parolles know himself to be a coward? Did Falstaff? Did the latter ever confess it to himself?

58. What is the Second Lord's comment on Parolles?

59. What things did Parolles meditate to say in accounting for himself on his return to camp? What does he promise after his capture?

60. In Sc. ii. Bertram for the first time takes the initiative. Define the importance of this Scene from a dramatic point of view.

61. How does Diana plead against Bertram's desires? Does Shakespeare allow her own individuality to assert itself? What is the implication in her name?

62. Give the dramatic significance of the rings. Sc. ii. has what episodic value?

63. What news did the letter of the Countess contain? When was it delivered to Bertram? What was its effect upon him?

64. Bearing in mind that this play deals with Frenchmen, with ideals unlike the Anglo-Saxon, what is the point of honour implied in the conversation of the two Lords at the opening of Sc. iii.?

65. What is the dramatic excuse for this conversation?

66. In what temper of mind does Bertram appear on his entrance into Sc. iii.? What judgement of Bertram is demanded

of the spectator by the combined impressions derived from this Scene?

67. What is Bertram's fear when Parolles is brought in for examination?

68. Is the humour of this examination equal to that in Measure for Measure, where Lucio tells lies to his face about the Duke of dark corners?

69. On what terms is Parolles willing to accept life? What would have supported Falstaff in such an extremity as this of Parolles?

70. How does Sc. iv. advance the plot? In what temper of mind do we find Helena in this Scene?

71. Does the wit of the Clown improve in Sc. v.? What thoughts (line 49 et seq.) does he express similar to some of the Porter's in Macbeth?

72. Lafeu calls the Clown unhappy; why is he so? Consider the character of Lafeu as indicated by his likes and dislikes of people.

73. What further complication of the plot does the last Scene of Act IV. provide?

ACT FIFTH.

74. Does Helena ever seem to confess a feminine shrinking from her purposes, or to feel any fatigue that the accomplishment of them imposes?

75. How does Sc. ii. exhibit the degradation of Parolles? Explain the words to Lafeu, you are the first that found me?

76. Where had Lafeu talk of Parolles, as he says, last night? Has the Countess ever, earlier than in Sc. iii., when she pleads extenuation of Bertram's faults, shown a similar attitude towards him?

77. What kind of penitence does Bertram show? What does Bertram say of Lafeu's daughter, with whom a marriage is arranged for him?

78. By whom is the ring first noticed? Can you justify Bertram's account of the way he came into possession of it?

79. How does Bertram meet the accusations of Diana? What quality of his nature is shown in his protest against using the evidence of Parolles against him?

80. What impression is derived from Diana's quibbling with the King? Is this possibly a part of the earlier form of the play, or

is her tortuous policy dramatically justified by the nature of the revelations to be made?

81. Does the conclusion of the play seem slighted by the dramatist. Is this abrupt ending contrary to his usual method?

82. Comment on this view of Hudson: "The play is more apt to inspire an apologetic than an enthusiastic tone of mind."

83. Mention phrases, ideas, complexions of thought, that ally the play with Hamlet. Does it seem, from internal evidence, to have been written before or after Hamlet?

84. Herford has said that Helena's love for Bertram seems to spring from something fundamentally irrational in the nature of love itself; does this view account for her unusual conduct?

85. In how many of Shakespeare's plays do we find the pursuit by the woman of the man? Is this motif legitimatized by modern literature?

86. In depicting the character of Helena, how does Shakespeare compensate for the absence of many outward circumstances of which she has the advantage in the story of Boccaccio?

87. Herford further speaks of Helena's "clear and penetrating mind." With such qualities she could have been under no misapprehension of moral values. How did she meet and solve her problems?

88. Are the materials of this play essentially dramatic? Would they adapt themselves better to narrative treatment, and if so, why?

89. What is Shakespeare's attitude towards such young men as Bertram, Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, and Claudio in Measure for Measure?

90. Swinburne calls Lafeu " one of the best old men in all the range of comic art." Show reasons for his view.

91. Show the evident dramatic purpose of Parolles and of the Countess. Is motherhood a favourite motif with Shakespeare? 92. What is Shakespeare's philosophic outlook upon life as evinced by this play?

Famous History of the

Life of King Henry VIII.

Preface.

6

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.

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," 1613, referring to the catastrophe of the previous day, says: No longer since than yesterday, while Bour

66

66

* Except in the case of Act V. Sc. iii., 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,' etc.

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.