By th' heels, and fuddenly; and on your heads Go break among the prefs, and find a way out A Marshalfea, shall hold you play these two months. Man. You great fellow, ftand close up, or I'll make your head ake. Port. You i'th' camblet, get up o' th' rail; I'll pick you o'er the pales else. $ CEN E VIII. Changes to the Palace. [Exeunt. Enter Trumpets founding; then two Aldermen, Lord Mayor, Garter, Cranmer, Duke of Norfolk with bis Marfbal's staff, Duke of Suffolk, two Noblemen bearing great standing bowls for the chriftning gifts; then four Noblemen bearing a canopy, under which the Dutchefs of Norfolk, god-mother, bearing the child richly babited in a mantle, &c. Train borne by a lady: then follows the Marchioness of Dorset, the other god-mother, and ladies. The troop pass once about the ftage, and Garter speaks. Gart. Heav'n, from thy endless goodness fend long life, And ever happy, to the high aud mighty Princefs of England, fair Elizabeth! 9-bere ye lie baiting of bum bard..] A bumbard is an ale-bar rel; to bait bumbards is to ripple, to lie at the spigut. Flourish. Flourish. Enter King and Guard. Cran. [Kneeling.] And to your royal Grace, and the good Queen, My noble partners and myself thus pray; All comfort, joy, in this moft gracious lady, King. Thank you, good Lord Arch-bishop; Cran. Elizabeth. King. Stand up, Lord. [The King kiffes the child. With this kifs take my bleffing. God protect thee, Into whofe hand I give thy life. Cran. Amen. King. My noble goffips, ye have been too prodigal, I thank you heartily; fo fhall this lady, When she has fo much English. Cran. Let me fpeak, Sir; For Heav'n now bids me, and the words I utter, Shall ftill be doubled on her. Truth fhall nurse her: She fhall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own fhall blefs her; Her foes fhake, like a field of beaten corn, And And hang-their heads with forrow. Good grows with her. In her days, ev'ry man fhall eat in fafety, As great in admiration as herfelf; So fhall fhe leave her bleffedness to one, When heav'n fhall call her from this cloud of darkness, Shall ftar-like rife, as great in fame as fhe was, That were the fervants to this chofen infant, Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him: Shall be, and make new nations. He fhall flourish, Nor fhall this peace fleep with ber.] Thefe lines, to the interruption by the King, feem to have been inferted at fome revifal of the play after the acceffion of King James. If the paffage, included in crotchets, be left out, the fpeech of Cranmer proceeds in a regular tenour of prediction and continuity of fentiments; but by the interpofition of the new lines, he firft celebrates Elizabeth's fucceffor, and then wishes he did not know 3 that she was to die; first rejoices at the confequence, and then laments the cause. Our author was at once politick and idle; he refolved to flatter James, but neglected to reduce the whole fpeech to propriety, or perhaps intended that the line inferted fhould be spoken in the action, and omitted in the publication, if any publication ever was in his thoughts. Mr. Theobald has made the fame obfervation. King, King. Thou fpeakest wonders.] Cran. She fhall be, to the happiness of England, To th' ground, and all the world fhall mourn her, Thou'ft made me now a man; never, before [Exeunt. coronation about forty years ago drew the people together in multitudes for a great part of the winter. Yet pomp is not the only merit of this play. The meek forrows and virtuous diftrefs of Catherine have furnished fome fcenes which may be juftly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy. But the genius of Shakespeare comes in and goes out with Catherine. Every other part may be easily conceived, and eafily written. EPI EPILOGUE. "T IS ten to one, this Play can never please All that are here. Some come to take their eaft, And fleep an Act or two; but thofe, we fear, We've frighted with our trumpets: fo'tis clear, They'll fay, it's naught; Others, to hear the city Abus'd extremely, and to cry, That's witty! Which we have not done neither; that, I fear, All the expected Good we're like to bear For this Play at this time, is only in The merciful conftruction of good women ; For fuch a one we fhew'd'em. If they fmile, And fay 'twill do; I know within a while All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap, If they bold, when their ladies bid'em clap. In the character of Catharine. Though it is very difficult to decidewhether fhort pieces be genuine or fpurious, yet I cannot reftrain myfelf from expreffing my fufpicionthat neithertheprologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of Shakespeare; non vultus, non color. It appears to me very likely that they were fupplied by the friendship or officioufnefs of Johnson, whofe manner they will be perhaps found exactly to refemble. There is yet another 1 fuppofition poffible: the prologue and epilogue may have been written after Shakespeare's departure from the stage, upon fome accidental revifal of the play, and there will then be reafon for imagining that the writer, whoever he was, intended no great kindness to him, this play being recommended by a fubtle and covert cenfure of his other works. There is in |