ARKCODEX
Dramatis Personae
1King Henry the Eighth Cardinal Wolsey Cardinal Campeius Capucius, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Duke of Norfolk Duke of Buckingham Duke of Suffolk Earl of Surrey Lord Chamberlain Lord Chancellor Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester Bishop of Lincoln Lord Abergavenny Lord Sands Sir Henry Guildford Sir Thomas Lovell Sir Anthony Denny Sir Nicholas Vaux Secretaries to Wolsey Cromwell, servant to Wolsey Griffith, gentleman-usher to Queen Katharine Three gentlemen Doctor Butts, physician to the King Garter King-at-Arms Surveyor to the Duke of Buckingham Brandon, and a Sergeant-at-Arms Door-keeper of the Council-chamber. Porter, and his man Page to Gardiner. A crier Queen Katharine, wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced Anne Bullen, her Maid of Honour, afterwards Queen An old lady, friend to Anne Bullen 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
2Scene: London; Westminster; Kimbolton.
Prologue
3
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
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
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
How soon this mightiness meets misery:
And, if you can be merry then, I’ll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.