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highly pleaſing at court, rather than at a period when it muſt have been leſs intereſting.
Queen Catherine, it is true, is repreſented as an amiable character, but ſtill ſhe is eclipſed; and the greater her merit, the higher was the compliment to the mother of Elizabeth, to whoſe ſuperior beauty ſhe was obliged to give way.
2. Had K Henry VIII. been written in the time of king James I. the author, inſtead of expatiating ſo largely in the laſt ſcene, in praiſe of the queen, which he could not think would be very acceptable to her ſucceſſor, would probably have made him the principal figure in the prophecy, and thrown her into the back-ground as much as poſſible.
3. Were James I. Shakſpeare’s chief object in the original conſtruction of the laſt act of this play, he would probably have given a very ſhort character of Elizabeth, and have dwelt on that of James, with whoſe praiſe he would have concluded, in order to make the ſtronger impreſſion on the audience, inftead of returning again to queen Elizabeth, in a very aukward and abrupt manner, after her character ſeemed to be quite finiſhed: an aukwardneſs that can only be accounted for, by ſuppoſing the panegyrick on king James an after-production[1].
- ↑ After having enumerated ſome of the bleſſings that were to enſue from the birth of Elizabeth, and celebrated her majeſty’s various virtues, the poet thus proceeds:
Cran. “ In her days every man ſhall eat in ſafety
Under his own vine, what he plants, and ſing
The merry ſongs of peace to all his neighbours.
God ſhall be truly known; and thoſe about her
From her ſhall read the perfect ways of honour,
And by thoſe claim their greatneſs, not by blood,
[Nor ſhall this peace ſleep with her; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phænix,
Her aſhes new-create another heir,
As great in admiration as herſelf;
So ſhall ſhe leave her bleſſedneſs to one, &c.
He ſhall flouriſh,
And like a mountain cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him:—our childrens’ children
Shall ſee this, and bleſs heaven.
King. Thou ſpeakeſt wonders.]
Cran. She ſhall be, to the happineſs of England,
An aged princeſs; many days ſhall ſee her
