Act 2d scene 1st-Lovel says "To the water side I must conduct your grace; "Then give my charge up to Sir Nicholas Vaux" -in Shakspeare Vaux gives orders for the bargeKemble omits the character of Vaux, and makes Guildford speak his short speech-as he made this alteration, he should, in Lovel's speech, have changed Sir Nicholas Vaux to Sir Henry Guildford -in Bell's edition the thing is better managedLovel's two lines about Vaux are omitted, and he gives orders for the barge himself. "Remember Buckingham" is from the C. G. prompt-book-Shakspeare says Speak how I fell-I have done; and God for"give me!" As no change was necessary, so none should have been made besides the speaker had just before said, that he was no longer Buckingham, but poor Edward Bohun. Scene 2d. "See, the King," is from the promptbook of 1773-there is no particular harm in such little additions to the original text, but why make them? Enter Wolsey and Campeius with a commission. Burnet in his History of the Reformation says— "Wolsey wrote an earnest letter to Campeius at "Rome, to hasten him over; the draught of it is in "his Secretary's hand, amended in some places by "his own; and concluded thus, I hope all things "shall be done according to the will of God, the de"sire of the King, the quiet of the kingdom, and "to our honour, with a good conscience'-but Wol 66 sey dasht out this last word with a good conscience, perhaps judging that was a thing fit for meaner persons, but that it was below the dignity of two "Cardinals to consider it much." 66 Enter Gardiner-in this scene he should not be dressed as a Bishop, he was not made Bishop of Winchester till Dec. 5 1531, after Wolsey's death— this scene is supposed to pass in 1528 when Campeius came into England-the King absolutely gained Campeius to do all he could for him without losing the Pope's favour-he led a very dissolute life in England, hunting and gaming all the day long, and following whores all the night-he brought a bastard* of his own over with him, whom the King knighted-so that if the King sought his pleasure, it was no strange thing, since he had such a copy set him by two Legates, who representing his Holiness so lively in their manners, it was no unusual thing, if a King had a slight sense of such disorders. (Burnet). The King concludes this scene with saying "Would it not grieve an able man, to leave "O', 'tis a tender place, and I must leave her." Shakspeare goes too far in making the King regret so so sweet a bedfellow-he is however in some degree countenanced by Cavendish-but Wolsey, in one of * Jortin in his Life of Erasmus says, that the young man was not a bastard, but born in wedlock, before his father went into orders. his dispatches to Rome, about the divorce, says, that because of some diseases in the Queen, which were incurable, the King had resolved never to come near her more-(Burnet probably)- tho' the King's anxiety for a divorce was doubtless increased by his love for Anne Bullen, yet his scruples of conscience were not a pretence-Rapin well observes, the wonder is he did not feel them sooner-he was married to his brother's widow, when he was about twelve years' old, a dispensation from the Pope having been first obtained-about two years after he, by his father's command, made a formal protestation, that he did not confirm his marriage, but retracted and annulled it-Henry the 7th, when he was just dying, charged his son to break it off-and it was not till after a serious consideration of the reasons on both sides, that Henry the 8th, six weeks after he came to the crown, was married again publickly—when the divorce came to be agitated, the Queen solemnly protested that her marriage with Prince Arthur had never been consummated, but there were the strongest presumptive proofs to the contrary. What were the King's secret motives, is only known to Heaven, but the principal reason which he always assigned was, that he found by the law of Moses, "if a man "took his brother's wife, they should die childless"this made him reflect on the death of his children, which he now looked on as a curse from God for that unlawful marriage-upon this he set himself to study the case, and called for the judgments of the best Divines and Canonists-he likewise commanded the Archbishop of Canterbury to require the opinions of the Bishops of England-and they all, (except the Bishop of Rochester,) declared that they judged it an unlawful marriage-Warham had from the first "objected to it. (Burnet.) Scene 3d. If Kemble had any authority for changing Shakspeare's Old Lady into Lady Denny, he should have pointed it out in a note-if he had none, his caprice was inexcusable. Scene 4th. The King concludes the act with an apostrophe to Cranmer-Cranmer suggested that instead of applying to the Pope for a divorce, it would be better to consult all the learned men, and the Universities of Christendom the King was much pleased with the suggestion, and said that Cranmer "had the sow by the right ear." (Burnet.) Act 3d. Shakspeare begins this act with an interesting scene between the Queen and the two Cardinals-this Kemble has, with much discredit to him. self, omitted-it was retained at C. G. in 1773Davies in 1784, says, it is omitted as tedious and unnecessary-Cavendish gives a circumstantial account of the beginning of this interview, at which he was doubtless present-it corresponds with the scene in Shakspeare-he concludes with saying-" and there"with she took my Lord Cardinal by the hand and "led him into her privy chamber, with the other "Cardinal-where they tarried a season talking with "the Queen, and we might hear her very loud, but "what she said we could not tell." Norfolk tells Wolsey it is the King's pleasure he should confine himself. "To Esher house, my lord of Winchester's." -Ashere was a house Shakspeare is inaccuratesituate near Hampton Court, belonging to the Bishoprick of Winchester, (Cavendish) and consequently to Wolsey himself, who was the Bp. of that See. In Wolsey's 3d speech to Cromwell, Kemble has omitted 5 lines and half which should have been retained, but he has restored as many which were not in the prompt-book of 1773. Act 4th. It has long been customary to give the part of Griffith in this act to Cromwell, for the sake of making the whole more worthy of the attention of a respectable performer-there is however a manifest absurdity in representing the same person as in the confidence of Wolsey and the Queen--Cavendish says, that the Queen at her trial prepared to leave the Court, leaning upon the arm of Mr. Griffith her General Receiver-when she was called backMadam," quoth Griffith, "Ye be called again." "On, on," quoth she, "it maketh no matter," &c. Katharine-" He step'd before me, happily, for my example"-happily here means haply-Herbert in his Country Parson says-" he turns his care to "fit all his children's dispositions with some calling, "not sparing the eldest, but giving him the preroga"tive of his father's profession, which happily for his "other children he is not able to do." Katharine "Of his own body he was ill, and gave one of the articles brought against Wolsey was, that, |