The portrait of a monarchy in crisis, this historical drama concerns the famous king's efforts to secure a divorce from his dignified and popular queen in order to marry an enchanting courtesan and produce a male heir. The play ranks among Shakespeare's most sumptuous and spectacular works, offering a splendid pageant of masques and royal ceremony. Occasional lapses in historical accuracy are compensated for by keen psychological and political insights, vivid characterizations, and evocative language. Possibly the last of Shakespeare's dramas, Henry VIII was almost certainly co-written with John Fletcher. It is a play of farewells - to the world, to life, to power - in which major historical characters make memorable exits, including Cardinal Wolsey's rueful observation: "Had I but served my God with half the zeal/I served my king, he would not in mine age/Have left me naked to mine enemies." Nevertheless, the play ends in triumph and hopeful expectations with the prophecy of the coming Elizabethan age.
Author Biography
"He was not of an age, but for all time," declared Ben Jonson of his contemporary William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Jonson's praise is especially prescient, since at the turn of the 17th century Shakespeare was but one of many popular London playwrights and none of his dramas were printed in his lifetime. The reason so many of his works survive is because two of his actor friends, with the assistance of Jonson, assembled and published the First Folio edition of 1623.
