Chapter 6 of King Henry VIII is here in full — 150 sentences across 30 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter VI
Chapter 6 of King Henry VIII is here in full — 150 sentences across 30 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Enter Queene and her Women as at worke. Queen. Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working. SONG. Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
Chapter 6 of King Henry VIII is here in full — 150 sentences across 30 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/30 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
an old form of “can”, used with “thou”
From this reading “Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.”
distribute loosely
From this reading “Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.”
stop moving or become immobilized
From this reading “Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.”
a substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface to make it impervious to gas or liquid
From this reading “Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.”
(Greek mythology) a great musician; when his wife Eurydice died he went to Hades to get her back but failed
From this reading “Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.”
of the highest quality
From this reading “Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.”
plural of “trouble” — a source of difficulty
From this reading “Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.”
informal terms for a (young) woman
From this reading “Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
at the same time that; because; in the way that
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
a knot with two loops and loose ends; used to tie shoelaces
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
an old form of “can”, used with “thou”
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
the past form of “do”, used in questions and negatives
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
distribute loosely
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
a quad with a square body
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
to come or go into
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
stop moving or become immobilized
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
belonging to a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
on condition that; in the event that
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
a substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface to make it impervious to gas or liquid
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
(Greek mythology) a great musician; when his wife Eurydice died he went to Hades to get her back but failed
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs
From this reading Queen.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
deliver by singing
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
a short musical composition with words
From this reading SONG.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
carry out
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
an old word for “you”, as the subject, speaking to one person
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
an old word for “your”, speaking to one person
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
of the highest quality
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
plural of “tree” — a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
plural of “trouble” — a source of difficulty
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
informal terms for a (young) woman
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
at the time that
From this reading Orpheus with his Lute made Trees, And the Mountaine tops that freeze, Bow themselues when he did sing.
in the company of; together with
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
plural of “woman” — an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Enter Queene and her Women as at worke.
actively engaged in paid work
From this reading Take thy Lute wench, My Soule growes sad with troubles, Sing, and disperse 'em if thou canst: leaue working.
Chapter 6 of King Henry VIII by William Shakespeare holds 150 sentences, grouped into 30 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 6 holds 150 sentences of King Henry VIII, unabridged, divided into 30 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 6 of King Henry VIII by William Shakespeare exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 150 sentences, grouped into 30 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 30 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 30 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 6 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading King Henry VIII by William Shakespeare on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1656 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #1136 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #1136, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 138 minutes of reading across 332 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through King Henry VIII section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 11 chapters of King Henry VIII to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in King Henry VIII, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
