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Henry VIII: Act I, Scene 3

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Henry VIII
Act I, Scene 3

London. An ante-chamber in the palace.

Costume design for Chamberlain

Costume design for Chamberlain

Charles Hamilton Smith, Emma Hamilton Smith, 19th century

  1. Enter Lord Chamberlain and Lord Sands.

Lord Chamberlain

1 - 2
  1. Is’t possible the spells of France should juggle
  2. Men into such strange mysteries?

Lord Sands

3 - 5
  1.                                  New customs,
  2. Though they be never so ridiculous
  3. (Nay, let ’em be unmanly), yet are follow’d.

Lord Chamberlain

6 - 11
  1. As far as I see, all the good our English
  2. Have got by the late voyage is but merely
  3. A fit or two o’ th’ face—but they are shrewd ones,
  4. For when they hold ’em, you would swear directly
  5. Their very noses had been councillors
  6. To Pepin or Clotharius, they keep state so.

Lord Sands

12 - 14
  1. They have all new legs, and lame ones. One would take it,
  2. That never see ’em pace before, the spavin
  3. And springhalt reign’d among ’em.

Lord Chamberlain

15 - 19
  1.                                   Death, my lord,
  2. Their clothes are after such a pagan cut to’t,
  3. That sure th’ have worn out Christendom.
  4. Enter Sir Thomas Lovell.
  5.                                          How now?
  6. What news, Sir Thomas Lovell?

Sir Thomas Lovell

20 - 22
  1.                               Faith, my lord,
  2. I hear of none but the new proclamation
  3. That’s clapp’d upon the court gate.

Lord Chamberlain

23
  1.                                     What is’t for?

Sir Thomas Lovell

24 - 25
  1. The reformation of our travel’d gallants,
  2. That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors.

Lord Chamberlain

26 - 28
  1. I’m glad ’tis there. Now I would pray our monsieurs
  2. To think an English courtier may be wise
  3. And never see the Louvre.

Sir Thomas Lovell

29 - 41
  1.                           They must either
  2. (For so run the conditions) leave those remnants
  3. Of fool and feather that they got in France,
  4. With all their honorable points of ignorance
  5. Pertaining thereunto, as fights and fireworks,
  6. Abusing better men than they can be
  7. Out of a foreign wisdom, renouncing clean
  8. The faith they have in tennis and tall stockings,
  9. Short blist’red breeches, and those types of travel,
  10. And understand again like honest men,
  11. Or pack to their old playfellows. There, I take it,
  12. They may, cum privilegio, “oui” away
  13. The lag end of their lewdness and be laugh’d at.

Lord Sands

42 - 43
  1. ’Tis time to give ’em physic, their diseases
  2. Are grown so catching.

Lord Chamberlain

44 - 45
  1.                        What a loss our ladies
  2. Will have of these trim vanities!

Sir Thomas Lovell

46 - 49
  1.                                   Ay, marry,
  2. There will be woe indeed, lords; the sly whoresons
  3. Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies.
  4. A French song and a fiddle has no fellow.

Lord Sands

50 - 55
  1. The devil fiddle ’em! I am glad they are going,
  2. For sure there’s no converting of ’em. Now
  3. An honest country lord, as I am, beaten
  4. A long time out of play, may bring his plain-song
  5. And have an hour of hearing, and, by’r lady,
  6. Held current music too.

Lord Chamberlain

56 - 57
  1.                         Well said, Lord Sands,
  2. Your colt’s tooth is not cast yet?

Lord Sands

58 - 59
  1.                                    No, my lord,
  2. Nor shall not while I have a stump.

Lord Chamberlain

60 - 61
  1.                                     Sir Thomas,
  2. Whither were you a-going?

Sir Thomas Lovell

62 - 63
  1.                           To the Cardinal’s.
  2. Your lordship is a guest too.

Lord Chamberlain

64 - 67
  1.                               O, ’tis true;
  2. This night he makes a supper, and a great one,
  3. To many lords and ladies; there will be
  4. The beauty of this kingdom, I’ll assure you.

Sir Thomas Lovell

68 - 70
  1. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,
  2. A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us;
  3. His dews fall every where.

Lord Chamberlain

71 - 72
  1.                            No doubt he’s noble;
  2. He had a black mouth that said other of him.

Lord Sands

73 - 76
  1. He may, my lord, h’as wherewithal: in him
  2. Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine.
  3. Men of his way should be most liberal,
  4. They are set here for examples.

Lord Chamberlain

77 - 82
  1.                                 True, they are so;
  2. But few now give so great ones. My barge stays;
  3. Your lordship shall along. Come, good Sir Thomas,
  4. We shall be late else, which I would not be,
  5. For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guilford
  6. This night to be comptrollers.

Lord Sands

83
  1.                                I am your lordship’s.
  1. Exeunt.
Coat of arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, KG

Coat of arms of Sir Thomas Lovell, KG

Rs-nourse

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