Chapter XIX: Part I

This play is of doubtful parentage. Many would ascribe it either singly or in conjunction to Greene, Peele, Marlowe, Nash, and Shakespeare. It appears in the First Folio amongst the collected works of Shakespeare, and for that reason is admitted in the Shakesperean canon of modern editions. There exists grave doubts whether Shakespeare ever wrote a single line of this composition. This play was written as early as 1590, thirty years before Heminge and Condell, the editors of the First Folio, issued their book. Perhaps Shakespeare revised the work of others, and thus it appeared in its latest form under his name. The altering of a play by another hand without acknowledgment did not constitute in those days any literary offence, although at times an author objected to his work being so treated, and was not mealy-mouthed in proclaiming the fact. An excellent instance of this tampering with another’s property can be read in Greene’s _Groatsworth of Wit_, 1592, where he denounces Shakespeare in no measured terms “as an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers,” in reference to his treatment of the three parts of “Henry VI.” Greene may have been mistaken in identifying Shakespeare as the author. Every critic understands by the “only Shake-scene in the country” as referring to Shakespeare. The entire question is one of the most difficult problems in Shakesperean studies.

HEAVENS.

Hung be the Heavens with black.
I, 1, 1.

The heavens were part of the stage buildings. It was built over the stage in shape of a sloping roof. The stage being open to the sky, it protected the actors against the inclemency of the weather, and also acted as a sounding board. An illustration of the “heavens” can be seen in De Witt’s drawing of the Swan Theatre, c. 1596. Contemporary documents prove that all the theatres were provided with this necessary commodity. Cotgrave, in his French and English Dictionary, 1611, has under the word “volerie,” a robbery, also a place over a stage, which we call the Heaven. In Hatzfeld and Darmsteter’s Modern French Dictionary there is no reference to such a meaning as given by Cotgrave, but under the word “volet” one definition is given as a kind of shutter before a window.

Hung be the Heavens with black.
I, 1, 1.

When a tragedy was played, the stage was draped with black; many references to this custom are found in contemporary authors. In Sidney’s _Arcadia_, 1598: “There arose even with the sun a veil of dark clouds, before his face, had blacked all over the face of heaven, preparing as it were a mournful stage for a tragedy to be played on.” In Marston’s _The Insatiate Countess_: “The stage of heaven is hung with solemn black. A time best fitting to act tragedies,” and in _A Warning for Faire Women_, 1599: “The stage is hung with black, and I perceive the auditors prepared for Tragedy.”

PLAYED. PART.

Pucelle hath bravely play’d her part in this
And doth deserve a coronet of gold.
III, 3, 88.

MASQUERS. REVEL.

Tell false Edward, thy supposed king,
That Lewis of France is sending over masquers
To revel it with him and his new bride.
III, 3, 224.

This passage is repeated in IV, I, 94:

At my depart these were his very words:
“Go tell false Edward, thy supposed king,
That Lewis of France is sending over masquers
To revel it with him and his new bride.”

Masquers were those performers who took part in a masque. As a rule they were gorgeously costumed. The performers were chiefly chosen for their agility and grace in dancing. In later years a dialogue was added to the masque, which the masquers took part in.

There are no theatrical allusions either in Part II or Part III of “Henry VI.”

HENRY VIII

THE PROLOGUE.

SCENE. SHOW. PLAY.

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 calling
I’ll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry play,
A noise of targets or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded in yellow,
Wil be deceived, for gentle heavens, 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 parsons of our noble story
As they were living, think you see them great
And followed with the general throng and sweat
By 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.

I’ll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two hours.

In commenting upon this play, the reader must bear in mind that this is one of the doubtful plays of Shakespeare. Much ingenuity has been displayed in endeavouring to unravel the mystery of its authorship. Most scholars discern the hand of Fletcher, together with that of Shakespeare. Others would award the entire play to Fletcher, while on the other hand, the entire play has been considered as fully Shakesperean. A great poet, Tennyson, was of the opinion that most of the play was written by Fletcher. Spedding, who has devoted much thought to this problem, would assign to Fletcher a great portion of the dialogue, including the famous “Farewell” speech of Wolsey, which I for one cannot for a moment allow, as this speech, above all others, has the true Shakesperean ring. Two very interesting items of theatrical history can be gathered from this prologue, namely, the price of admission to the best seats and the duration of a five act play of Shakespeare’s time. Spedding would give the Prologue and the Epilogue to Fletcher.

The price of admission to the best seats would be a shilling, as we learn from Dekker’s books of Gull’s, where he mentions the twelvepenny rooms as being the best place in the theatre. This price was for the best seats or a seat upon the stage, which at this period was allowed at some of the theatres. When the custom was introduced of allowing a few of the spectators a seat on the stage is uncertain. The matter has not been fully examined or explained, and little information can be gathered from contemporary sources. The boxes, or rooms, as they were styled, were priced at a shilling at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres. The twelvepenny rooms were situated near the stage, in the lowermost gallery, and are seen on the drawing of the interior of the Swan Theatre, close to the word orchestra. Why the writer should refer to the shilling seats only is difficult to make out. Perhaps for the first performance of a new play a shilling was charged for all the seats. We know that a different scale of charges did exist, but the accounts are somewhat confused. It was during a performance of this play that the thatched roof of the Globe Theatre caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This took place on St. Peter’s Day, June 29th, 1613.

ACT. PART. PLAYED.

I would have play’d
The part my father meant to act upon
The usurper Richard.
I, 2, 195.

THE EPILOGUE. PLAY. ACT. CLAP.

’Tis ten to one this play can never please
All that are here; some come to take their ease
And sleep an act or two; but those we fear
We have frighted with our trumpets, so ’tis clear
They’ll say ’tis naught.
For this play at this time, is only on
The merciful construction of good women;
For such a one we show’d ’em if they smile,
And say ’twill do I know within a while,
All the best men are ours for ’tis ill hap
If they hold when their ladies bid ’m clap.

MASQUE.

Now this masque was cried incomparable.
I, 1, 27.

PAGEANTS. SHOWS.

’Tis well; the citizens,
I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds
And let ’em have their rights they are ever forward,
In celebration of this day with shows,
Pageants and sights of honour.
IV, 1, 2.

PLAYHOUSE. AUDIENCE.

These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse and fight for
bitter apples; that no audience but the tribulation of Tower Hill
or the limbs of Lime House, their dear brothers, are able to endure.
V, 4.

MASQUE. REVELS.

Enter the King and others as masquers, habited like shepherds,
ushered by the Lord Chamberlain. They pass directly before the
Cardinal, and gracefully salute him.

A noble company! What are their pleasures?
Because they speak no English, thus they pray’d
To tell your grace, that, having heard by fame
Of this so noble and so fair assembly.

PAGEANT. PLAY. PART.

I will not be slack
To play my part in Fortune’s pageant.