Shakespeare
is no longer able or willing to discover a new play: he can only copy
himself, and in one of the scenes which he wrote into "Henry VIII." the
copy is slavish.
I allude to the third scene in the second act; the dialogue between Anne
Bullen and the Old Lady is extraordinarily reminiscent. When Anne Bullen
says--
"'Tis better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief
And wear a golden sorrow"
I am reminded of Henry VI. And the contention between Anne Bullen and
the Old Lady, in which Anne Bullen declares that she would not be a
queen, and the Old Lady scorns her:
"Beshrew me, I would,
And venture maidenhead for't; and so would you,
For all this spice of your hypocrisy."
is much the same contention, and is handled in the same way as the
contention between Desdemona and Emilia in "Othello."
There are many other proofs of Shakespeare's weakness of hand throughout
this last period, if further proofs were needed.
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