King Henry The Eighth

1 Enter two Gentlemen, meeting one another.
2 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
3 You’re well met once again.
4 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
5 So are you.
6 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
7 You come to take your stand here and behold
8 The Lady Anne pass from her coronation?
9 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
10 ’Tis all my business. At our last encounter,
11 The Duke of Buckingham came from his trial.
12 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
13 ’Tis very true. But that time offered sorrow,
14 This, general joy.
15 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
16 ’Tis well. The citizens,
17 I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds,
18 As, let ’em have their rights, they are ever forward
19 In celebration of this day with shows,
20 Pageants, and sights of honour.
21 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
22 Never greater,
23 Nor, I’ll assure you, better taken, sir.
24 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
25 May I be bold to ask what that contains,
26 That paper in your hand?
27 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
28 Yes, ’tis the list
29 Of those that claim their offices this day
30 By custom of the coronation.
31 The Duke of Suffolk is the first, and claims
32 To be High Steward; next, the Duke of Norfolk,
33 He to be Earl Marshal. You may read the rest.
34 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
35 I thank you, sir. Had I not known those customs,
36 I should have been beholding to your paper.
37 But I beseech you, what’s become of Katherine,
38 The Princess Dowager? How goes her business?
39 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
40 That I can tell you too. The Archbishop
41 Of Canterbury, accompanied with other
42 Learned and reverend fathers of his order,
43 Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles off
44 From Ampthill where the Princess lay; to which
45 She was often cited by them, but appeared not;
46 And, to be short, for not appearance and
47 The King’s late scruple, by the main assent
48 Of all these learned men she was divorced,
49 And the late marriage made of none effect;
50 Since which she was removed to Kimbolton,
51 Where she remains now sick.
52 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
53 Alas, good lady!
54 [_Trumpets._]
55 The trumpets sound. Stand close. The Queen is coming.
56 _The order of the coronation_.
57 _1. A lively flourish of trumpets.
58 2. Then, two Judges.
59 3. Lord Chancellor, with purse and mace before him.
60 4. Choristers, singing. Music.
61 5. Mayor of London, bearing the mace. Then Garter, in his coat of arms,
62 and on his head he wore a gilt copper crown.
63 6. Marquess Dorset, bearing a sceptre of gold, on his head a
64 demi-coronal of gold. With him, the Earl of Surrey, bearing the rod of
65 silver with the dove, crowned with an earl’s coronet. Collars of S’s.
66 7. Duke of Suffolk, in his robe of estate, his coronet on his head,
67 bearing a long white wand, as High Steward. With him, the Duke of
68 Norfolk, with the rod of marshalship, a coronet on his head. Collars of
69 S’s.
70 8. A canopy, borne by four of the Cinque Ports; under it, the Queen in
71 her robe, in her hair, richly adorned with pearl, crowned. On each side
72 her, the Bishops of London and Winchester.
73 9. The old Duchess of Norfolk, in a coronal of gold wrought with
74 flowers, bearing the Queen’s train.
75 10. Certain Ladies or Countesses, with plain circlets of gold without
76 flowers._
77 [_Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, and then a
78 great flourish of trumpets._]
79 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
80 A royal train, believe me. These I know.
81 Who’s that that bears the sceptre?
82 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
83 Marquess Dorset,
84 And that the Earl of Surrey with the rod.
85 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
86 A bold brave gentleman. That should be
87 The Duke of Suffolk.
88 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
89 ’Tis the same: High Steward.
90 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
91 And that my Lord of Norfolk?
92 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
93 Yes.
94 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
95 [_Sees the Queen_.] Heaven bless thee!
96 Thou hast the sweetest face I ever looked on.
97 Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel.
98 Our King has all the Indies in his arms,
99 And more, and richer, when he strains that lady.
100 I cannot blame his conscience.
101 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
102 They that bear
103 The cloth of honour over her are four barons
104 Of the Cinque Ports.
105 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
106 Those men are happy, and so are all are near her.
107 I take it she that carries up the train
108 Is that old noble lady, Duchess of Norfolk.
109 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
110 It is, and all the rest are countesses.
111 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
112 Their coronets say so. These are stars indeed.
113 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
114 And sometimes falling ones.
115 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
116 No more of that.
117 [_Exit the last of the procession._]
118 Enter a third Gentleman.
119 God save you, sir. Where have you been broiling?
120 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
121 Among the crowds i’ th’ Abbey, where a finger
122 Could not be wedged in more. I am stifled
123 With the mere rankness of their joy.
124 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
125 You saw
126 The ceremony?
127 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
128 That I did.
129 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
130 How was it?
131 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
132 Well worth the seeing.
133 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
134 Good sir, speak it to us.
135 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
136 As well as I am able. The rich stream
137 Of lords and ladies, having brought the Queen
138 To a prepared place in the choir, fell off
139 A distance from her, while her Grace sat down
140 To rest a while, some half an hour or so,
141 In a rich chair of state, opposing freely
142 The beauty of her person to the people.
143 Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman
144 That ever lay by man, which when the people
145 Had the full view of, such a noise arose
146 As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest,
147 As loud and to as many tunes. Hats, cloaks,
148 Doublets, I think, flew up, and had their faces
149 Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy
150 I never saw before. Great-bellied women
151 That had not half a week to go, like rams
152 In the old time of war, would shake the press
153 And make ’em reel before ’em. No man living
154 Could say “This is my wife” there, all were woven
155 So strangely in one piece.
156 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
157 But what followed?
158 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
159 At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces
160 Came to the altar, where she kneeled and saintlike
161 Cast her fair eyes to heaven and prayed devoutly;
162 Then rose again and bowed her to the people,
163 When by the Archbishop of Canterbury
164 She had all the royal makings of a queen,
165 As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown,
166 The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems
167 Laid nobly on her; which performed, the choir,
168 With all the choicest music of the kingdom,
169 Together sung _Te Deum_. So she parted,
170 And with the same full state paced back again
171 To York Place, where the feast is held.
172 FIRST GENTLEMAN.
173 Sir,
174 You must no more call it “York Place”, that’s past;
175 For since the Cardinal fell, that title’s lost.
176 ’Tis now the King’s, and called “Whitehall”.
177 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
178 I know it,
179 But ’tis so lately altered that the old name
180 Is fresh about me.
181 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
182 What two reverend bishops
183 Were those that went on each side of the Queen?
184 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
185 Stokesley and Gardiner, the one of Winchester,
186 Newly preferred from the King’s secretary;
187 The other, London.
188 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
189 He of Winchester
190 Is held no great good lover of the Archbishop’s,
191 The virtuous Cranmer.
192 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
193 All the land knows that.
194 However, yet there is no great breach. When it comes,
195 Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him.
196 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
197 Who may that be, I pray you?
198 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
199 Thomas Cromwell,
200 A man in much esteem with th’ King, and truly
201 A worthy friend. The King has made him
202 Master o’ th’ Jewel House,
203 And one already of the Privy Council.
204 SECOND GENTLEMAN.
205 He will deserve more.
206 THIRD GENTLEMAN.
207 Yes, without all doubt.
208 Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way,
209 Which is to th’ court, and there ye shall be my guests,
210 Something I can command. As I walk thither,
211 I’ll tell ye more.
212 BOTH.
213 You may command us, sir.
214 [_Exeunt._]