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    King Henry VIII
    King Henry VIII
    King Henry VIII
    Ebook142 pages1 hour

    King Henry VIII

    By William Shakespeare

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Loyalty and Heredity-- King Henry VIII covers the period of Henry's reign from shortly after he becomes king to the birth of Elizabeth, who would one day become queen and for whom the play was written. The firing of a cannon during the very first performance of this play caused a fire that burnt the Globe theater to the ground. Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself. We may outrun By violent swiftness that which we run at, And lose by over-running.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 10, 2015
    ISBN9781627556897
    King Henry VIII
    Author

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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    Reviews for King Henry VIII

    3.5/5

    146 ratings7 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Henry VIII is the final play in the histories series. Although it’s frequently challenged as being written solely by Shakespeare, I'm accepting it as part of the canon. The histories begin, chronologically, with Richard II and take us all the way through the Wars of the Roses. The plot covers the execution of Buckingham, the rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the divorce of Henry VIII and Queen Katherine, his marriage to Anne Boleyn, the birth of Elizabeth, and more. The play itself is rarely produces and not well known, but pieces of it will be familiar to anyone who has read Wolf Hall or The Other Boleyn Girl. There's a lot crammed into this one, but a few of the characters truly shine. Your heart breaks for the neglected Katherine. She’s tossed aside by her husband of 20 years when someone younger catches his eye. She has some fantastic moments when she challenges Cardinal Wolsey.“Y’ are meek and humble-mouth’d,You sign your place and calling, in full seeming, with meekness and humility;but your heart is cramm’d with arrogance, spleen, and pride.”Buckingham is also a sympathetic character with some great speeches. Overall the play doesn't flow as well as many of his others. It's too scattered, too many moving pieces, but it's still got some beautiful language. “Yet I am richer than my base accusers,That never knew what truth meant.”“Heat not a furnace for your foe so hotThat it do singe yourself.”“Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;Corruption wins not more than honesty.Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not:Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,Thy God's, and truth's.”
    • 5/5
      The epitome of what an Arden edition should be. What a shame this came out so early, leaving so much for other editors to live up to!

      The dense (200 page) introduction covers everything you expect - production history, composition history, placing the play within a social, cultural, political context, and textual analysis - and includes the expected amount of academic frou-frou (but we forgive those in an Arden, surely). But what really makes it sing is the editor's wonderfully knowing sense of narrative voice. He has his own passionate beliefs, but is happy to situate those within the 400-year history of bardolatry and Shakespearean criticism, thus giving the amateur reader a great overall understanding of the issues editors and academics face in working with these texts. It's the kind of edition that breathes new life into a play that is often ignored.
    • 3/5
      34 William Shakespeare, John Fletcher Henry VIIIFORMATOTHERSGENRERATINGE-BOOKLewis Theobald, editorLiterature***I read this late collaboration because I knew it had great speeches and because I wanted to see how the Bard and his fellows would have treated England's Stalin. I liked the great speeches, i.e., Katherine of Aragon's defense of herself and Wolsey's farewell to his greatness, and would like to think that Shakespeare wrote them. But I had to shake my head sadly at how the playwrights had to treat the Anne Boleyn story with kid gloves and eulogize the baby Elizabeth.
    • 4/5
      Henry has decided to divorce his first wife, Katherine, after twenty years of marriage, in order to marry Anne Bullen. At his side is the manipulative Cardinal Wolsey, common born yet with the King wrapped around his finger. Though Katherine pleads with her husband, Wolsey is instrumental in her downfall, and in the execution of the Duke of Buckingham, accused of treasonous gossip. The whole court holds its breath waiting for the day the King will realize he's been Wolsey's puppet.Clearly written to be performed for Elizabeth I, Shakespeare is currying favor. Henry VIII is a man who was manipulated into treating Katherine badly, and who rejoiced that Anne had given birth to a daughter (ha!). Anne is a sweet maiden who worries about Katherine, and the play ends with a gushing speech about Elizabeth herself. This probably won't make anyone's list of the best of Shakespeare, but it is interesting and there are some good scenes, such as Katherine ripping into Wolsey.
    • 2/5
      Read this as a companion piece after I finished Wolf Hall. I didn't even know he wrote a play about Henry VIII, and now I know why: it pretty much sucks. And a total whitewash, which makes sense in retrospect. Where's the fucking beheadings, Will?
    • 2/5
      Shakespeare's "Henry VIII" is best remembered as the play that was on stage when the Globe Theater burned down. There's a reason that's what it's known for.... the play itself really doesn't hold up well to the bard's more famous works.Rife with historical inaccuracies, most of the action takes place off stage, so you just hear characters talking about it. (Yeah, I didn't like it when Hilary Mantel did this either.) It was the Elizabethan age, so of course Shakespeare makes the birth of Queen Elizabeth something like the second coming and is mostly laudatory about her mother Anne Boleyn. There really isn't much that's great about this one.
    • 2/5
      Well here we are in the ugly competition. "Worst plays by William Shakespeare". Wisely the first line is "I come no more to make you laugh:... And you won't. It seems to me, that a sort of historical pageant was required, perhaps to get some people to put their money down at the box-office, and this was cobbled up. It is a chore to read, and only the queen Catherine of Argon scenes have much fire. We have records that the theatre caught fire during one of the performances and the audience must have left the theatre early with some relief. The theatre burned down , this was WS's last history play, and he soon retired. the play was written or revised, in1613.

    Book preview

    King Henry VIII - William Shakespeare

    KING HENRY VIII

    by William Shakespeare

    Wilder Publications, Inc.

    Copyright © 2014

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    ISBN 978-1-62755-689-7

    Table of Contents

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    THE PROLOGUE

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. London. The palace

    ACT I. SCENE II. London. The Council Chamber

    ACT I. SCENE III. London. The palace

    ACT I. SCENE IV. London. The Presence Chamber in York Place

    ACT II

    ACT II. SCENE I. Westminster. A street

    ACT II. SCENE II. London. The palace

    ACT II. SCENE III. London. The palace

    ACT II. SCENE IV. London. A hall in Blackfriars

    ACT III

    ACT III. SCENE I. London. The QUEEN’S apartments

    ACT III.SCENE II. London. The palace

    ACT IV

    ACT IV. SCENE I. A street in Westminster

    ACT IV. SCENE II. Kimbolton

    ACT V

    ACT V. SCENE I. London. A gallery in the palace

    ACT V. SCENE II. Lobby before the Council Chamber

    ACT V. SCENE III. The Council Chamber

    ACT V. SCENE IV. The palace yard

    ACT V. SCENE V. The palace

    THE EPILOGUE

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    KING HENRY THE EIGHTH

    CARDINAL WOLSEY CARDINAL CAMPEIUS

    CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V

    CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

    DUKE OF NORFOLK DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM

    DUKE OF SUFFOLK EARL OF SURREY

    LORD CHAMBERLAIN LORD CHANCELLOR

    GARDINER, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER

    BISHOP OF LINCOLN LORD ABERGAVENNY

    LORD SANDYS SIR HENRY GUILDFORD

    SIR THOMAS LOVELL SIR ANTHONY DENNY

    SIR NICHOLAS VAUX SECRETARIES to Wolsey

    CROMWELL, servant to Wolsey

    GRIFFITH, gentleman—usher to Queen Katharine

    THREE GENTLEMEN

    DOCTOR BUTTS, physician to the King

    GARTER KING—AT—ARMS

    SURVEYOR to the Duke of Buckingham

    BRANDON, and a SERGEANT—AT—ARMS

    DOORKEEPER Of the Council chamber

    PORTER, and his MAN PAGE to Gardiner

    A CRIER

    QUEEN KATHARINE, wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced

    ANNE BULLEN, her Maid of Honour, afterwards Queen

    AN OLD LADY, friend to Anne Bullen

    PATIENCE, woman to Queen Katharine

    Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Lords and Ladies in the Dumb

    Shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Scribes,

    Officers, Guards, and other Attendants; Spirits

    SCENE:

    London; Westminster; Kimbolton

    THE PROLOGUE

    I come no more to make you laugh; things now

    That bear a weighty and a serious brow,

    Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,

    Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,

    We now present. Those that can pity here

    May, if they think it well, let fall a tear:

    The subject will deserve it. Such as give

    Their money out of hope they may believe

    May here find truth too. Those that come to see

    Only a show or two, and so agree

    The play may pass, if they be still and willing,

    I’ll undertake may see away their shilling

    Richly in two short hours. Only they

    That come to hear a merry bawdy play,

    A noise of targets, or to see a fellow

    In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,

    Will be deceiv’d; for, gentle hearers, know,

    To rank our chosen truth with such a show

    As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting

    Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring

    To make that only true we now intend,

    Will leave us never an understanding friend.

    Therefore, for goodness sake, and as you are known

    The first and happiest hearers of the town,

    Be sad, as we would make ye. Think ye see

    The very persons of our noble story

    As they were living; think you see them great,

    And follow’d with the general throng and sweat

    Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see

    How soon this mightiness meets misery.

    And if you can be merry then, I’ll say

    A man may weep upon his wedding—day.

    ACT I

    ACT I. SCENE I. London. The palace

    Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK at one door; at the other, the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM and the LORD ABERGAVENNY

    BUCKINGHAM: Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done

    Since last we saw in France?

    NORFOLK: I thank your Grace,

    Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer

    Of what I saw there.

    BUCKINGHAM: An untimely ague

    Stay’d me a prisoner in my chamber when

    Those suns of glory, those two lights of men,

    Met in the vale of Andren.

    NORFOLK: ‘Twixt Guynes and Arde—

    I was then present, saw them salute on horseback;

    Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung

    In their embracement, as they grew together;

    Which had they, what four thron’d ones could have weigh’d

    Such a compounded one?

    BUCKINGHAM: All the whole time

    I was my chamber’s prisoner.

    NORFOLK: Then you lost

    The view of earthly glory; men might say,

    Till this time pomp was single, but now married

    To one above itself. Each following day

    Became the next day’s master, till the last

    Made former wonders its. To—day the French,

    All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods,

    Shone down the English; and to—morrow they

    Made Britain India: every man that stood

    Show’d like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were

    As cherubins, an gilt; the madams too,

    Not us’d to toil, did almost sweat to bear

    The pride upon them, that their very labour

    Was to them as a painting. Now this masque

    Was cried incomparable; and th’ ensuing night

    Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,

    Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,

    As presence did present them: him in eye

    still him in praise; and being present both,

    ‘Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner

    Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns—

    For so they phrase ‘em—by their heralds challeng’d

    The noble spirits to arms, they did perform

    Beyond thought’s compass, that former fabulous story,

    Being now seen possible enough, got credit,

    That Bevis was believ’d.

    BUCKINGHAM: O, you go far!

    NORFOLK: As I belong to worship, and affect

    In honour honesty, the tract of ev’rything

    Would by a good discourser lose some life

    Which action’s self was tongue to. All was royal:

    To the disposing of it nought rebell’d;

    Order gave each thing view. The office did

    Distinctly his full function.

    BUCKINGHAM: Who did guide—

    I mean, who set the body and the limbs

    Of this great sport together, as you guess?

    NORFOLK: One, certes, that promises no element

    In such a business.

    BUCKINGHAM: I pray you, who, my lord?

    NORFOLK: All this was ord’red by the good discretion

    Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.

    BUCKINGHAM: The devil speed him! No man’s pie is freed

    From his ambitious finger. What had he

    To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder

    That such a keech can with his very bulk

    Take up the rays o’ th’ beneficial sun,

    And keep it from the earth.

    NORFOLK: Surely, sir,

    There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends;

    For, being not propp’d by ancestry, whose grace

    Chalks successors their way, nor call’d upon

    For high feats done to th’ crown, neither allied

    To eminent assistants, but spider—like,

    Out of his self—drawing web, ‘a gives us note

    The force of his own merit makes his way—

    A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys

    A place next to the King.

    ABERGAVENNY: I cannot tell

    What heaven hath given him—let some graver eye

    Pierce into that; but I can see his pride

    Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that?

    If not from hell, the devil is a niggard

    Or has given all before, and he begins

    A new hell in himself.

    BUCKINGHAM: Why the devil,

    Upon this French going out, took he upon him—

    Without the privity o’ th’ King—t’ appoint

    Who should attend on him? He makes up the

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