KING HENRY THE EIGHTH:

AN HISTORICAL PLAY, BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

It is generally supposed that this drama was written a short time before the death of Elizabeth, March 24th, 1603; as well from the prophetic eulogium upon her in the last scene, as from the imperfect way in which the panegyric upon King James was subsequently inserted. Having lain for several years unacted, it is supposed that this play was revived by Richard Burbage's company at the Globe Theatre, Bankside, June 29th, 1613, under the title of All is True; with new properties, &c. and a prologue and epilogue. Sir Henry Wotton, in a letter dated July 2nd, states that during this performance "King Henry making a masque at 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 in the thatch; where, being thought at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming, within less than an hour, the whole house to the very ground."

Dr. Johnson suggested that the present Prologue and Epilogue were written by Ben Jonson; in which Dr. Farmer, Steevens, and Malone, concurred, and even attributed to him some of the speeches. He, however, was not in England at the time of it's production; and Gifford supposes that All is True was an entirely different performance. It is, nevertheless, argued, that the Prologue which has been prefixed to Shakspeare's drama ever since it's first publication in 1623, has repeated allusions to such a title; that the piece in question was upon the same point of history; and that the names of old plays were frequently changed.

The scene of Henry VIII. is laid in London and Westminster, excepting Sc. 2nd, Act iv., which is at Queen Katherine's last retirement at Kimbolton, in Hertfordshire. The action commences with the arrest of the Duke of Buckingham, April 16th, 1521, and ends with the christening of Elizabeth, September 10th, 1533. It should be observed, however, that Queen Katherine did not die until January 8th, 1536.

The modern revisal of Henry VIII. was produced by J. P. Kemble at CoventGarden, April 22nd, 1804. It has always been celebrated for it's splendour; and about 1747 the coronation of Anne Boleyn caused it to be performed seventy-two times in one season. Splendour, however, is not it's only merit, since the parts of Katherine, Wolsey, and Cromwell, comprise scenes which are some of the highest efforts of Tragedy; and with which the fame of Mrs. Siddons and her brothers is inseparably united.

A Latin Poem by Lollius, an ancient historiographer of Urbino in Italy; Guido di Colonna's History of Troy in the same language; and Chaucer's metrical English tale of Troylus and Cresyde ;-contain the original history of these famous lovers. Steevens supposes, that the popularity of the last work might be the cause of the present play; but Shakspeare's authorities were Caxton's translation of Raoul le Fevre's Recueyll of the Historyes of Troye, 1471, and Lydgate's Troye Boke, printed by Pynson in 1513. The remarkable character of Thersites, however, was probably taken from an Interlude bearing his name, published in 1598; or George Chapman's translation of Homer, which first appeared in 1596. On the books of the Stationers' Company in 1581, is entered "A proper ballad, dialogue-wise, between Troilus and Cressida," and in 1599, a play was written on the same subject, by Thomas Dekker and Henry Chettle, out of which it has been suggested that Shakspeare might have formed the present.

Malone assigned this drama to the year 1602, chiefly upon the authority of an entry at Stationers' Hall of The Booke of Troilus and Cressida, February 7th, 1603, for J. Roberts, who printed some others of these plays; which, he conceived, identifies it with Shakspeare. In 1609 it was again entered, and published, without being divided into acts," as acted by the Lord Chamberlen's men;" though in the preface of that edition it is called "a new play, never staled with the stage, never clapper-clawed with the palmes of the vulgar." This has been reconciled by supposing it might have been performed at Court only in 1602, by the servants of the Lord Chamberlain, as many of the players then were, and some years after exhibited at the Globe Theatre, to which Shakspeare belonged; to the performers of which James I. gave a license in 1603, when they were called his Majesty's servants.

Dryden considered this play as one of the author's "first endeavours on the stage, in the apprenticeship of his writing;" whilst Pope thought it one of his last works, as well from the terms of the preface, as from "the great number of observations, both moral and political, with which it is crowded, more than any of his other pieces." The scene is laid in the City of Troy, and the Grecian Camp before it; and the time is in the seventh year of the siege. In 1679, Dryden produced an alteration of this play called Troilus and Cressida, or Truth found too late, at the Duke's Theatre, Dorset-Gardens; in which he remodelled the plot, more accurately divided the scene, omitted some characters, expanded others, and added that of Andromache.

Cressida. In faith, I cannot: What would you have me do?
Thersites. A juggling trick, to be-secretly open.
Diomedes. What did you swear you would bestow on me?
Cressida. I pr'ythee, do not hold me to mine oath;

Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek.

Diomedes. Good night.

Troilus. Hold, patience!

Ulysses. How now, Trojan?

Cressida. Diomed,

Diomedes. No, no, good night: I'll be your fool no more.

Troilus. Thy better must.

Cressida. Hark! one word in your ear.

Troilus. Oh! plague and madness!

Ulysses. You are mov'd, prince; let us depart, I pray you,

Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself

To wrathful terms: this place is dangerous;

The time right deadly; I beseech you, go..

Act 5. Sc. 2.

A TRAGEDY, BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

THE materials of this inimitable drama were derived chiefly from the memoirs of Coriolanus contained in The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes compared together, by that graue learned Philosopher and Historiographer, Plutarke of Charonea; translated by Thomas North, Esq. Comptroller of the Household to Queen Elizabeth, London, 1579, folio: and from this book many of the speeches were also adopted, with such alterations only as were required to form them into blank verse. The scene is laid in Rome, and partly in the territories of the Volscians and Antiates; and the action commences with the secession to the Mons Sacer, in the Year of Rome 262,-492 Before Christ, and ends with the death of Coriolanus, Y. R. 266.

There is no entry nor edition of this play, earlier than that of the folio 1623; but, from a slight resemblance between the language of the fable told by Menenius in the First Scene, and that of the same apologue in Camden's Remains, published in 1605,- Malone supposes the passage to have been imitated from that volume. He assigns the production, however, to 1609 or 1610 partly because most of the other plays of Shakspeare have been reasonably referred to other years, and therefore the present might be most naturally ascribed to a time when he had not ceased to write, and was probably otherwise unemployed ;-and partly from Volumnia mentioning the mulberry, the white species of which was brought into England in great quantities in 1609, though possibly other sorts had been already planted here.

A Tragedy of the same name and subject as the present, by James Thomson, was produced at Covent-Garden in 1748, for the benefit of the Author's family, by the zeal of Sir George Lyttleton; which raised a considerable sum, though it added nothing to the Poet's fame. In 1755 Thomas Sheridan brought out Coriolanus, or the Roman Matron, at the same Theatre, composed from both Shakspeare and Thomson; which had some success, being assisted by a splendid ovation. The best revisal, however, was that also taken from both authors by J. P. Kemble, produced originally at DruryLane in February, 1789, sometimes ascribed to Wrighten, the Prompter. It was again brought out by the same excellent performer, with some additions from Thomson, at Covent-Garden, November 3rd, 1806; in which his Coriolanus, and the Volumnia of Mrs. Siddons, formed the proudest display of even their magnificent histrionic powers. It was in the part of the Roman General that Mr. Kemble took leave of the stage, at the above Theatre, on Monday, June 23rd, 1817.

*33*

*338*3*