Home
This site uses cookies
log out

Henry VIII: Act IV, Scene 1

Sign in with Google to add your annotations.

Henry VIII
Act IV, Scene 1

Scene 1

Westminster. A street.

  1. Enter two Gentlemen, meeting one another.

First Gentleman

1
  1. Y’ are well met once again.

Second Gentleman

2
  1.                             So are you.

First Gentleman

3 - 4
  1. You come to take your stand here, and behold
  2. The Lady Anne pass from her coronation?

Second Gentleman

5 - 6
  1. ’Tis all my business. At our last encounter,
  2. The Duke of Buckingham came from his trial.

First Gentleman

7 - 8
  1. ’Tis very true; but that time offer’d sorrow,
  2. This, general joy.

Second Gentleman

9 - 13
  1.                    ’Tis well. The citizens
  2. I am sure have shown at full their royal minds—
  3. As, let ’em have their rights, they are ever forward
  4. In celebration of this day with shows,
  5. Pageants, and sights of honor.

First Gentleman

14 - 15
  1.                                Never greater,
  2. Nor, I’ll assure you, better taken, sir.

Second Gentleman

16 - 17
  1. May I be bold to ask what that contains,
  2. That paper in your hand?

First Gentleman

18 - 23
  1.                          Yes, ’tis the list
  2. Of those that claim their offices this day
  3. By custom of the coronation.
  4. The Duke of Suffolk is the first, and claims
  5. To be High Steward; next, the Duke of Norfolk,
  6. He to be Earl Marshal. You may read the rest.

Second Gentleman

24 - 27
  1. I thank you, sir; had I not known those customs
  2. I should have been beholding to your paper.
  3. But I beseech you, what’s become of Katherine,
  4. The Princess Dowager? How goes her business?

First Gentleman

28 - 39
  1. That I can tell you too. The Archbishop
  2. Of Canterbury, accompanied with other
  3. Learned and reverend fathers of his order,
  4. Held a late court at Dunstable—six miles off
  5. From Ampthill, where the Princess lay—to which
  6. She was often cited by them, but appear’d not;
  7. And, to be short, for not appearance and
  8. The King’s late scruple, by the main assent
  9. Of all these learned men she was divorc’d,
  10. And the late marriage made of none effect;
  11. Since which she was remov’d to Kimmalton,
  12. Where she remains now sick.

Second Gentleman

40 - 41
  1.                             Alas, good lady!
  2. Trumpets.
  3. The trumpets sound; stand close, the Queen is coming.
  1. Hoboys.
  1. The Order of the Coronation
  1. 1. A lively flourish of trumpets.
  1. 2. Then, two JUDGES.
  1. 3. LORD CHANCELLOR, with purse and mace before him.
  1. 4. CHORISTERS, singing.
  1. Music.
  1. 5. MAYOR OF LONDON, bearing the mace. Then GARTER, in his
  2. coat of arms, and on his head he wore a gilt copper crown.
  1. 6. MARQUESS DORSET, bearing a sceptre of gold, on his head a
  2. demi-coronal of gold. With him, the EARL OF SURREY, bearing
  3. the rod of silver with the dove, crowned with an earl’s
  4. coronet. Collars of Esses.
  1. 7. DUKE OF SUFFOLK, in his robe of estate, his coronet on
  2. his head, bearing a long white wand, as High Steward. With
  3. him, the DUKE OF NORFOLK, with the rod of marshalship, a
  4. coronet on his head. Collars of Esses.
  1. 8. A canopy borne by four of the CINQUE-PORTS; under it, the
  2. QUEEN in her robe, in her hair, richly adorned with pearl,
  3. crowned. On each side her, the BISHOPS OF LONDON and
  4. WINCHESTER.
  1. 9. The old DUCHESS OF NORFOLK, in a coronal of gold, wrought
  2. with flowers, bearing the Queen’s train.
  1. 10. Certain LADIES or COUNTESSES, with plain circlets of
  2. gold without flowers.
  1. Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, and
  2. then a great flourish of trumpets.

Second Gentleman

42 - 43
  1. A royal train, believe me. These I know.
  2. Who’s that that bears the sceptre?

First Gentleman

44 - 45
  1.                                    Marquess Dorset,
  2. And that the Earl of Surrey, with the rod.

Second Gentleman

46 - 47
  1. A bold brave gentleman. That should be
  2. The Duke of Suffolk.

First Gentleman

48
  1.                      ’Tis the same: High Steward.

Second Gentleman

49
  1. And that my Lord of Norfolk?

First Gentleman

50
  1.                              Yes.

Second Gentleman

51 - 56
  1.      Heaven bless thee!
  2. Looking on the Queen.
  3. Thou hast the sweetest face I ever look’d on.
  4. Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel;
  5. Our king has all the Indies in his arms,
  6. And more and richer, when he strains that lady.
  7. I cannot blame his conscience.

First Gentleman

57 - 59
  1.                                They that bear
  2. The cloth of honor over her, are four barons
  3. Of the Cinque-Ports.
Queen Katherine

Queen Katherine

From the graphic gallery of Shakespeare's heroines

Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd.; 1896

Second Gentleman

60 - 62
  1. Those men are happy, and so are all are near her.
  2. I take it, she that carries up the train
  3. Is that old noble lady, Duchess of Norfolk.

First Gentleman

63
  1. It is, and all the rest are countesses.

Second Gentleman

64
  1. Their coronets say so. These are stars indeed.

First Gentleman

65
  1. And sometimes falling ones.

Second Gentleman

66
  1.                             No more of that.
  1. Exit the last of the procession; flourish of trumpets.
  1. Enter a third Gentleman.

First Gentleman

67
  1. God save you, sir! Where have you been broiling?

Third Gentleman

68 - 70
  1. Among the crowd i’ th’ Abbey, where a finger
  2. Could not be wedg’d in more. I am stifled
  3. With the mere rankness of their joy.

Second Gentleman

71 - 72
  1.                                      You saw
  2. The ceremony?

Third Gentleman

73
  1.               That I did.

First Gentleman

74
  1.             How was it?

Third Gentleman

75
  1. Well worth the seeing.

Second Gentleman

76
  1.                        Good sir, speak it to us.

Third Gentleman

77 - 96
  1. As well as I am able. The rich stream
  2. Of lords and ladies, having brought the Queen
  3. To a prepar’d place in the choir, fell off
  4. A distance from her; while her Grace sate down
  5. To rest a while, some half an hour or so,
  6. In a rich chair of state, opposing freely
  7. The beauty of her person to the people.
  8. Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman
  9. That ever lay by man—which when the people
  10. Had the full view of, such a noise arose
  11. As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest,
  12. As loud and to as many tunes. Hats, cloaks
  13. (Doublets, I think) flew up, and had their faces
  14. Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy
  15. I never saw before. Great-bellied women,
  16. That had not half a week to go, like rams
  17. In the old time of war, would shake the press
  18. And make ’em reel before ’em. No man living
  19. Could say, “This is my wife” there, all were woven
  20. So strangely in one piece.

Second Gentleman

97
  1.                            But what follow’d?

Third Gentleman

98 - 110
  1. At length her Grace rose, and with modest paces
  2. Came to the altar, where she kneel’d, and saint-like
  3. Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray’d devoutly;
  4. Then rose again and bow’d her to the people;
  5. When by the Archbishop of Canterbury
  6. She had all the royal makings of a queen,
  7. As holy oil, Edward Confessor’s crown,
  8. The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems
  9. Laid nobly on her; which perform’d, the choir,
  10. With all the choicest music of the kingdom,
  11. Together sung Te Deum. So she parted,
  12. And with the same full state pac’d back again
  13. To York-place, where the feast is held.

First Gentleman

111 - 114
  1.                                         Sir,
  2. You must no more call it York-place, that’s past;
  3. For since the Cardinal fell that title’s lost.
  4. ’Tis now the King’s, and call’d Whitehall.

Third Gentleman

115 - 117
  1.                                            I know it;
  2. But ’tis so lately alter’d that the old name
  3. Is fresh about me.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Second Gentleman

118 - 119
  1.                    What two reverend bishops
  2. Were those that went on each side of the Queen?

Third Gentleman

120 - 122
  1. Stokesly and Gardiner, the one of Winchester,
  2. Newly preferr’d from the King’s secretary,
  3. The other, London.

Second Gentleman

123 - 125
  1.                    He of Winchester
  2. Is held no great good lover of the Archbishop’s,
  3. The virtuous Cranmer.

Third Gentleman

126 - 128
  1.                       All the land knows that.
  2. However, yet there is no great breach; when it comes,
  3. Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him.

Second Gentleman

129
  1. Who may that be, I pray you?

Third Gentleman

130 - 134
  1.                              Thomas Cromwell,
  2. A man in much esteem with th’ King, and truly
  3. A worthy friend. The King has made him Master
  4. O’ th’ Jewel House,
  5. And one, already, of the Privy Council.

Second Gentleman

135
  1. He will deserve more.

Third Gentleman

136 - 140
  1.                       Yes, without all doubt.
  2. Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way, which
  3. Is to th’ court, and there ye shall be my guests;
  4. Something I can command. As I walk thither,
  5. I’ll tell ye more.

Both First and Second Gentleman

141
  1.                    You may command us, sir.
  1. Exeunt.
The coronation procession of Anne Boleyn

The coronation procession of Anne Boleyn

James Stephanoff, circa 1800

© 2021 Unotate.com • contact • privacy policy • Creative Commons text from PlayShakespeare.com • All illustrations are public domain or Creative Commons • Header illustration by Byam Shaw