His hardened insensibility to the feelings of
others is strengthened by the most profligate self-indulgence. The
religious hypocrisy, under which he masks his cruelty and his lust,
is admirably displayed in the speech in which he describes the first
misgivings of his conscience and its increasing throes and terrors,
which have induced him to divorce his queen. The only thing in his
favour in this play is his treatment of Cranmer: there is also
another circumstance in his favour, which is his patronage of Hans
Holbein.--It has been said of Shakespeare, 'No maid could live near
such a man.' It might with as good reason be said, 'No king could
live near such a man.' His eye would have penetrated through the
pomp of circumstance and the veil of opinion. As it is, he has
represented such persons to the life--his plays are in this respect
the glass of history--he has done them the same justice as if he had
been a privy counsellor all his life, and in each successive reign.
Kings ought never to be seen upon the stage. In the abstract, they
are very disagreeable characters: it is only while living that they
are 'the best of kings'. It is their power, their splendour, it is
the apprehension of the personal consequences of their favour or
their hatred that dazzles the imagination and suspends the judgement
of their favourites or their vassals; but death cancels the bond of
allegiance and of interest; and seen AS THEY WERE, their power and
their pretensions look monstrous and ridiculous.
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