Henry VIII, with line numbers E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 133

Beschreibung

The classic Shakespeare history play, with line numbers. According to Wikipedia: "William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright."

Leseprobe

King Henry VIII By William Shakespeare

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

Other histories by William Shakespeare:

King John

King Richard II

King Henry IV Part 1

King Henry IV Part 2

King Henry V

King Henry VI Part 1

King Henry VI Part 2

King Henry VI Part 3

King Richard III

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Dramatis Personae

King Henry VIII

The Prologue

Act I

Scene I London. An Ante-Chamber In The Palace.

Scene II The Same. The Council-Chamber.

Scene III An Ante-Chamber In The Palace.

Scene IV A Hall In York Place.

Act II

Scene I Westminster. A Street.

Scene II An Ante-Chamber In The Palace.

Scene III An Ante-Chamber Of The Queen's Apartments.

Scene IV A Hall In Black-Friars.

Act III

Scene I London. Queen Katharine's Apartments.

Scene II Ante-Chamber To King Henry Viii's Apartment.

Act IV

Scene I A Street In Westminster.

Scene II Kimbolton.

Act V

Scene I London. A Gallery In The Palace.

Scene II Before The Council-Chamber. Pursuivants, Pages, &C. Attending.

Scene III The Council-Chamber.

Scene IV The Palace Yard.

Scene V The Palace.

Epilogue

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

King Henry The Eighth (King Henry VIII:)

Cardinal Wolsey:

Cardinal Campeius:

Capucius, Ambassador From The Emperor Charles V

Cranmer, Archbishop Of Canterbury.

Duke Of Norfolk (Norfolk:)

Duke Of Buckingham (Buckingham:)

Duke Of Suffolk (Suffolk:)

Earl Of Surrey (Surrey:)

Lord Chamberlain (Chamberlain:)

Lord Chancellor (Chancellor:)

Gardiner Bishop Of Winchester.

Bishop Of Lincoln. (Lincoln:)

Lord Abergavenny (Abergavenny:)

Lord Sands (Sands:)

Sir Henry Guildford (Guildford:)

Sir Thomas Lovell (Lovell:)

Sir Anthony Denny (Denny:)

Sir Nicholas Vaux (Vaux:)

Secretaries To Wolsey.

 (First Secretary:)

 (Second Secretary:)

Cromwell, Servant To Wolsey.

Griffith, Gentleman-Usher To Queen Katharine.

Three Gentlemen.

 (First Gentleman:)

 (Second Gentleman:)

 (Third Gentleman:)

Doctor Butts, Physician To The King.

Garter King-At-Arms. (Garter:)

Surveyor To The Duke Of Buckingham. (Surveyor:)

Brandon:

A Sergeant-At-Arms. (Sergeant:)

Door-Keeper Of The Council-Chamber. Porter, (Porter:)

And His Man. (Man:)

Page To Gardiner. (Boy:)

A Crier. (Crier:)

Queen Katharine (Queen Katharine:), Wife To King Henry, Afterwards Divorced. (Katharine:)

Anne Bullen (Anne:) Her Maid Of Honour, Afterwards Queen. (Queen Anne:)

An Old Lady, Friend To Anne Bullen. (Old Lady:)

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.

 (Scribe:)

 (Keeper:)

 (Servant:)

 (Messenger:)

SCENE London; Westminster; Kimbolton

KING HENRY VIII

THE PROLOGUE

(1) 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

(10) 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

(20) 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

(30) How soon this mightiness meets misery:

 And, if you can be merry then, I'll say

 A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

ACT I

SCENE I London. An ante-chamber in the palace.

[Enter NORFOLK at one door; at the other, BUCKINGHAM and ABERGAVENNY]

(1) 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

(10) 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,

(20) 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,

(30) 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

(40) 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?

(50) 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

(60) Chalks successors their way, nor call'd upon

 For high feats done to the crown; neither allied

 For eminent assistants; but, spider-like,

 Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,

 The force of his own merit makes his way

 A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys

 A place next to the king.

ABERGAVENNY          I cannot tell

 What heaven hath given him,--let some graver eye

 Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

 Peep through each part of him: whence has he that,

(70) If not from hell? the devil is a niggard,

 Or has given all before, and he begins

 A new hell in himself.

BUCKINGHAM           Why the devil,

 Upon this French going out, took he upon him,

 Without the privity o' the king, to appoint

 Who should attend on him? He makes up the file

 Of all the gentry; for the most part such

 To whom as great a charge as little honour

 He meant to lay upon: and his own letter,

 The honourable board of council out,

 Must fetch him in the papers.

(80) ABERGAVENNY           I do know

 Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have

 By this so sickened their estates, that never

 They shall abound as formerly.

BUCKINGHAM           O, many

 Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em

 For this great journey. What did this vanity

 But minister communication of

 A most poor issue?

NORFOLK           Grievingly I think,

 The peace between the French and us not values

 The cost that did conclude it.

BUCKINGHAM           Every man,

(90) After the hideous storm that follow'd, was

 A thing inspired; and, not consulting, broke

 Into a general prophecy; That this tempest,

 Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded

 The sudden breach on't.

NORFOLK Which is budded out;

 For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd

 Our merchants' goods at Bourdeaux.

ABERGAVENNY           Is it therefore

 The ambassador is silenced?

NORFOLK           Marry, is't.

ABERGAVENNY A proper title of a peace; and purchased

 At a superfluous rate!

BUCKINGHAM           Why, all this business

 Our reverend cardinal carried.

(100) NORFOLK           Like it your grace,

 The state takes notice of the private difference

 Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise you--

 And take it from a heart that wishes towards you

 Honour and plenteous safety--that you read

 The cardinal's malice and his potency

 Together; to consider further that

 What his high hatred would effect wants not

 A minister in his power. You know his nature,

 That he's revengeful, and I know his sword

(110) Hath a sharp edge: it's long and, 't may be said,

 It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend,

 Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel,

 You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock

 That I advise your shunning.

[Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, the purse borne before him, certain of the GUARD, and two SECRETARIES with papers. CARDINAL WOLSEY in his passage fixeth his eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full of disdain]

CARDINAL WOLSEY The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, ha?

 Where's his examination?

FIRST SECRETARY           Here, so please you.

CARDINAL WOLSEY Is he in person ready?

FIRST SECRETARY           Ay, please your grace.

CARDINAL WOLSEY Well, we shall then know more; and Buckingham

 Shall lessen this big look.

[Exeunt CARDINAL WOLSEY and his Train]

(120) BUCKINGHAM This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I

 Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best

 Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book

 Outworths a noble's blood.

NORFOLK           What, are you chafed?

 Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only

 Which your disease requires.

BUCKINGHAM           I read in's looks

 Matter against me; and his eye reviled

 Me, as his abject object: at this instant

 He bores me with some trick: he's gone to the king;

 I'll follow and outstare him.

(130) NORFOLK           Stay, my lord,

 And let your reason with your choler question

 What 'tis you go about: to climb steep hills

 Requires slow pace at first: anger is like

 A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,

 Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England

 Can advise me like you: be to yourself

 As you would to your friend.

BUCKINGHAM           I'll to the king;

 And from a mouth of honour quite cry down

 This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim

 There's difference in no persons.

NORFOLK           Be advised;

(140) Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot

 That it do singe yourself: we may outrun,

 By violent swiftness, that which we run at,

 And lose by over-running. Know you not,

 The fire that mounts the liquor til run o'er,

 In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised:

 I say again, there is no English soul

 More stronger to direct you than yourself,

 If with the sap of reason you would quench,

 Or but allay, the fire of passion.

BUCKINGHAM           Sir,

(150) I am thankful to you; and I'll go along

 By your prescription: but this top-proud fellow,

 Whom from the flow of gall I name not but

 From sincere motions, by intelligence,

 And proofs as clear as founts in July when

 We see each grain of gravel, I do know

 To be corrupt and treasonous.

NORFOLK           Say not 'treasonous.'

BUCKINGHAM To the king I'll say't; and make my vouch as strong

 As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,

 Or wolf, or both,--for he is equal ravenous

(160) As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief

 As able to perform't; his mind and place

 Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally--

 Only to show his pomp as well in France

 As here at home, suggests the king our master

 To this last costly treaty, the interview,

 That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass

 Did break i' the rinsing.

NORFOLK           Faith, and so it did.

BUCKINGHAM Pray, give me favour, sir. This cunning cardinal

 The articles o' the combination drew

(170) As himself pleased; and they were ratified

 As he cried 'Thus let be': to as much end

 As give a crutch to the dead: but our count-cardinal

 Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,

 Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,--

 Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy

 To the old dam, treason,--Charles the emperor,

 Under pretence to see the queen his aunt--

 For 'twas indeed his colour, but he came

 To whisper Wolsey,--here makes visitation:

(180) His fears were, that the interview betwixt

 England and France might, through their amity,

 Breed him some prejudice; for from this league

 Peep'd harms that menaced him: he privily

 Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,--

 Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor

 Paid ere he promised; whereby his suit was granted

 Ere it was ask'd; but when the way was made,

 And paved with gold, the emperor thus desired,

 That he would please to alter the king's course,

(190) And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know,

 As soon he shall by me, that thus the cardinal

 Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases,

 And for his own advantage.

NORFOLK           I am sorry

 To hear this of him; and could wish he were

 Something mistaken in't.

BUCKINGHAM           No, not a syllable:

 I do pronounce him in that very shape

 He shall appear in proof.

[Enter BRANDON, a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS before him, and two or three of the GUARD]

BRANDON Your office, sergeant; execute it.

SERGEANT           Sir,

 My lord the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl

(200) Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I

 Arrest thee of high treason, in the name

 Of our most sovereign king.

BUCKINGHAM           Lo, you, my lord,

 The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish

 Under device and practise.

BRANDON           I am sorry

 To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on

 The business present: 'tis his highness' pleasure

 You shall to the Tower.

BUCKINGHAM           It will help me nothing

 To plead mine innocence; for that dye is on me

 Which makes my whitest part black. The will of heaven

(210) Be done in this and all things! I obey.

 O my Lord Abergavenny, fare you well!

BRANDON Nay, he must bear you company. The king

[To ABERGAVENNY]

 Is pleased you shall to the Tower, till you know

 How he determines further.

ABERGAVENNY           As the duke said,

 The will of heaven be done, and the king's pleasure

 By me obey'd!

BRANDON           Here is a warrant from

 The king to attach Lord Montacute; and the bodies

 Of the duke's confessor, John de la Car,

 One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor--

BUCKINGHAM           So, so;

 These are the limbs o' the plot: no more, I hope.

BRANDON A monk o' the Chartreux.

(220) BUCKINGHAM           O, Nicholas Hopkins?

BRANDON           He.

BUCKINGHAM My surveyor is false; the o'er-great cardinal

 Hath show'd him gold; my life is spann'd already:

 I am the shadow of poor Buckingham,

 Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on,