[Gutenberg 1136] • King Henry the Eighth

THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY.

This drama, under the title of " The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight," was first published in the Folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 205-232 in the division of " Histories." It is printed with remarkable accuracy, and the doubtful or disputed readings are comparatively few. The date of the play has been the subject of much discussion. The earlier editors and commentators, with the single exception of Chalmers, believed that it was written before the death of Elizabeth (March, 1603), and that the allusion to her successor, " Nor shall this peace sleep with her," etc. (v. 4), did not form a part of Cranmer's speech as originally composed, but was interpolated by Ben Jonson after James had come to the throne. But, as White remarks, " the speech in question is homogeneous and Shakespearian • the subsequent allusion to Elizabeth as 'an aged princess' would not have been ventured during her life ; and the exhibition of Henry's selfish passion for Anne Bullen, and of her lightness of character, would have been hardly less offensive to the Virgin Queen, her daughter." Knight, Collier, Dyce, Hudson, and other recent editors, take the same view. But how early in the reign of James was the play written ?