• From her shall read the perfect way of honour, And by those claim their greatness, not by blood. [' Nor shall this peace fleep with her: But as when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her ashes new create another heir, As great in admiration as herself; So fhall she leave her blessedness to one,

(When heaven shall call her from this cloud of

darkness)

Who, from the facred ashes of her honour,
Shall star-like rife, as great in fame as the was,
And so stand fix'd: Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror,
That were the fervants to this chofen infant,
Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him;
Wherever the bright fun of heaven shall shine,
His honour, and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations: He shall flourish,
And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him:- Our children's children

• From ber shall read the perfect way of honour;
And by those &c.]

So the only authentic copy of this play. But surely we ought to read:

-the perfect ways of honour.

This, I think, is manifest, not only from the words those in the next line, but from the scriptural expression, which probably was in our author's thoughts: "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." MALONE.

7

[Nor shall this peace fleep with her :-) These lines, to the interruption by the king, seem to have been inferted at some revifal of the play, after the accession of king James. If the pafsage, included in crotchets, he left out, the speech of Cranmer proceeds in a regular tenour of prediction, and continuity of sentiments; but, by the interpofition of the new lines, he first celebrates Elizabeth's successor, and then wishes he did not know that she was to die; first rejoices at the consequence, and then laments the cause. Our authour was at once politick and idle; he refolved to flatter James, but neglected to reduce the whole speech to propriety; or perhaps intended that the lines inserted should be spoken in the action, and omitted in the publication, if any publication ever was in his thoughts. Mr. Theobald has made the same observation. JOHNSON.

Shall

Shall fee this, and bless heaven.

King. Thou speakest wonders.)

Cran. She shall be, to the happiness of England,

An aged princess; many days shall fee her,
And yet no day without a deed to crown it.
'Would I had known no more! but she must die,
She must, the faints must have her; yet a virgin,
A most unspotted lily shall she pass

To the ground, and all the world shall mourn her.
King. O lord archbishop,
Thou haft made me now a man; never, before
This happy child, did I get any thing:
This oracle of comfort has fo pleas'd me,
That, when I am in heaven, I shall defire
To see what this child does, and praise my Maker.-
I thank ye all.-To you, my good lord mayor,
* And your good brethren, I am much beholden;
I have receiv'd much honour by your prefence,
And ye shall find me thankful. Lead the way,

lords ;

Ye must all fee the queen, and she must thank ye, She will be fick else. This day, no man think He has business at his house; for all shall stay, This little one shall make it holiday.

[Exeunt.

* And you good brethren, But the aldermen were never called brethren to the king. The top of the nobility are but coufins and counsellors. Dr. Thirlby, therefore, rightly advised;

And your good brethren

i. e. the lord mayor's brethren, which is properly their style. THEOBALD.

THE play of Henry the Eighth is one of those, which still keeps possession of the stage, by the splendour of its pageantry. The 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 dittress of Katharine have furnished some scenes, which may be justly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy. But the genius of Shakspeare comes in and goes out with Katharine. Every other part may be easily conceived and easily written.

JOHNSON.

ΕΡΙ

'Tis ten to one, this play can never please All that are here : Some come to take their ease, And fleep an act or two; but those, we fear, We have frighted with our trumpets; So, 'tis clear, They'il fay, 'tis 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 are like to hear For this play at this time, is only in The merciful construction of good women ; For fuch a one we shew'd'em': If they smile', And say, 'twill do, I know, within a while All the best men are ours; for'tis ill hap, If they hold, when their ladies bid 'em clap.

In the character of Katharine.

If they smile, &c.) This thought is too much hackney'd. It had been used already in the Epilogues to As You Like It, and the fecond part of King Henry IV. STEEVENS.

Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine or fpurious, yet I cannot restrain myself from expressing my fufpicion that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of Shakspeare; non vultus, non color. It appears to me very likely that they were supplied by the friendship or officiousness of Jonfon, whose manner they will be perhaps found exactly to resemble. There is yet another supposition possible: the prologue and epilogue may have been written after Shakspeare's departure from the stage, upon some accidental revival of the play, and there will then be reason for imagining that the writer, whoever he was, intended no great kindness to him, this play being recommended by a fubtle and covert censure of his other works. There is in Shakspeare so much of fool and fight;

I entirely agree in opinion with Dr. Johnson, that Ben Jonson wrote the prologue and epilogue to this play. Shakspeare had a little before asisted him in his Sejanus; and Ben was too proud to receive assistance without returning it. It is probable, that he drew up the directions for the parade at the chriftening, &c. which his employment at court would teach him, and Shakspeare must be ignorant of: I think, I now and then perceive his hand in the dialogue.

It appears from Stowe, that Robert Green wrote somewhat on this subject. FARMER.

In support of Dr. Johnson's opinion, it may not be amiss to quote the following lines from old Ben's prologue to his Every Man in his humour :

" To make a child now fwaddled, to proceed
"Man, and then shoot up, in one beard and weed,
"Past threefcore years: or with three rusty fwords,
" And help of some few foot-and-half-foot words,
" Fight over York and Lancaster's long wars,

" And in the tyring-house, &c." STEEVENS.

THE historical dramas are now concluded, of which the two parts of Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth, are among the happiest of our author's compositions; and King John, Richard the Third, and Henry the Eighth, deservedly stand in the second class. Those whose curiofity would refer the historical scenes to their original, may confult Holinshed, and sometimes Hall : from Holinshed Shakspeare has often inserted whole speeches with no more alteration than was neceffary to the numbers of his verse. To transcribe them into the margin was unnecessary, because the original is easily examined, and they are seldom less perfpicuous in the poet than in the historian.

To play histories, or to exhibit a succession of events by action and dialogue, was a common entertainment among our rude ancestors upon great festivities. The parish clerks once performed at Clerkenwell, a play which lasted three days, containing The History of the World. JOHNSON.

It appears from more than one MS. in the British Museum, that the tradesmen of Chester were three days employed in the representation of their twenty-four Whitsun plays or mysteries. The like performances at Coventry must have taken up a longer time, as they are no less than forty in number. The exhibition of them began on Corpus Christi day, which was, (according to Dugdale) one of their ancient fairs. See the Harleian MSS. No. 2013, 2124, 2125, and MS. Cott. Vesp. D. VIII. and Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 116. STEVENS.

CORIO