History of Henry VIII (1613)

Intro

Title Variant: All Is True; or, The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII
Online Critical Edition in Progress - Version 1.b.
Shakespeare Network - https://shakespearenetwork.net/

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Act I, Scene 3

An ante-chamber in the palace.

Lord Chamberlain
Is't possible the spells of France should juggle
Men into such strange mysteries?

Lord Sands
New customs,
Though they be never so ridiculous,
Nay, let 'em be unmanly, yet are follow'd.

Lord Chamberlain
As far as I see, all the good our English
Have got by the late voyage is but merely
A fit or two o' the face; but they are shrewd ones;
For when they hold 'em, you would swear directly
Their very noses had been counsellors
To Pepin or Clotharius, they keep state so.

Lord Sands
They have all new legs, and lame ones: one would take it,
That never saw 'em pace before, the spavin
Or springhalt reign'd among 'em.

Lord Chamberlain
Death! my lord,
Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too,
That, sure, they've worn out Christendom.
[Enter LOVELL]
How now!
What news, Sir Thomas Lovell?

Sir Thomas Lovell
Faith, my lord,
I hear of none, but the new proclamation
That's clapp'd upon the court-gate.

Lord Chamberlain
What is't for?

Sir Thomas Lovell
The reformation of our travell'd gallants,
That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors.

Lord Chamberlain
I'm glad 'tis there: now I would pray our monsieurs
To think an English courtier may be wise,
And never see the Louvre.

Sir Thomas Lovell
They must either,
For so run the conditions, leave those remnants
Of fool and feather that they got in France,
With all their honourable point of ignorance
Pertaining thereunto, as fights and fireworks,
Abusing better men than they can be,
Out of a foreign wisdom, renouncing clean
The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings,
Short blister'd breeches, and those types of travel,
And understand again like honest men;
Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it,
They may, 'cum privilegio,' wear away
The lag end of their lewdness and be laugh'd at.

Lord Sands
'Tis time to give 'em physic, their diseases
Are grown so catching.

Lord Chamberlain
What a loss our ladies
Will have of these trim vanities!

Sir Thomas Lovell
Ay, marry,
There will be woe indeed, lords: the sly whoresons
Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies;
A French song and a fiddle has no fellow.

Lord Sands
The devil fiddle 'em! I am glad they are going,
For, sure, there's no converting of 'em: now
An honest country lord, as I am, beaten
A long time out of play, may bring his plainsong
And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r lady,
Held current music too.

Lord Chamberlain
Well said, Lord Sands;
Your colt's tooth is not cast yet.

Lord Sands
No, my lord;
Nor shall not, while I have a stump.

Lord Chamberlain
Sir Thomas,
Whither were you a-going?

Sir Thomas Lovell
To the cardinal's:
Your lordship is a guest too.

Lord Chamberlain
O, 'tis true:
This night he makes a supper, and a great one,
To many lords and ladies; there will be
The beauty of this kingdom, I'll assure you.

Sir Thomas Lovell
That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,
A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us;
His dews fall every where.

Lord Chamberlain
No doubt he's noble;
He had a black mouth that said other of him.

Lord Sands
He may, my lord; has wherewithal: in him
Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine:
Men of his way should be most liberal;
They are set here for examples.

Lord Chamberlain
True, they are so:
But few now give so great ones. My barge stays;
Your lordship shall along. Come, good Sir Thomas,
We shall be late else; which I would not be,
For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guildford
This night to be comptrollers.

Lord Sands
I am your lordship's.

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History of Henry VIII (1613)

Act I, Scene 3

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