Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Penguin Books
Pages
153
Description
This is the first fully annotated modern-spelling edition of King Henry VIII to appear for over a decade and includes up-to-date scholarship on all aspects of the play, including dating authorship, printing, sources and stage history. The editor accepts the view that the play is a collaboration between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Unique to this edition is the frequent reference to Cavendish's biography of Wolsey, neglected in earlier editions. This edition includes a fullydetailed commentary and a selective collation of major variant readings appear immediately beneath the text. Special attentio
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1612
1623 (Folio)
Physical description
153 p.; 7.2 inches
ISBN
0140714367 / 9780140714364
Similar in this library
User reviews
LibraryThing member mstrust
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
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.
Show More
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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member libraryhermit
When I was younger, I wanted to do nothing but read Shakespeare, but now I wish I could just see some plays, because I am unable to really make a good drama out of it from my own imagination. Reading it recently, I can see that Henry was under a lot of pressure. He was trying to keep up with the
Recently I have also been reading Reformation Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 by Diarmaid MacCulloch, and that is colouring a lot of my reaction to Shakespeare. Part of me thinks that Shakespeare cannot possibly stand up to the erudition and complexity of MacCulloch, but thankfully that is not even the question. Complexity and erudition don't matter a jot when you are trying to write drama; it's a totally different genre entirely. So I should just be satisfied with each book on its own and not worry about meaningless comparisons.
It really sucks to be a queen who leaves her own country and goes to a foreign court as a complete stranger. If the king becomes estranged from you, you don't stand much of a chance of any happiness. Too bad.
Being a hanger-on or court attendant must have ranged from just galling because of how appallingly sycophantic you had to be, all the way to outright fear for one's life, when the tide of favour changed, and suddenly you were in a party about to be ousted from a position of power. Even the churches were not safe, and their lands were taken over. What a bloody business it all was. Could anybody be really happy in this awful mess?
Show More
Jones'. In this case, the Jones' would be the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France, as well as the nation of Spain. I am sure that the English did not think that they were being arrogant by asserting that they were superior to those other nations on the mainland. They were just trying to survive in a free-for-all. Recently I have also been reading Reformation Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 by Diarmaid MacCulloch, and that is colouring a lot of my reaction to Shakespeare. Part of me thinks that Shakespeare cannot possibly stand up to the erudition and complexity of MacCulloch, but thankfully that is not even the question. Complexity and erudition don't matter a jot when you are trying to write drama; it's a totally different genre entirely. So I should just be satisfied with each book on its own and not worry about meaningless comparisons.
It really sucks to be a queen who leaves her own country and goes to a foreign court as a complete stranger. If the king becomes estranged from you, you don't stand much of a chance of any happiness. Too bad.
Being a hanger-on or court attendant must have ranged from just galling because of how appallingly sycophantic you had to be, all the way to outright fear for one's life, when the tide of favour changed, and suddenly you were in a party about to be ousted from a position of power. Even the churches were not safe, and their lands were taken over. What a bloody business it all was. Could anybody be really happy in this awful mess?
Show Less
LibraryThing member AlCracka
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 f*ck*ng beheadings, Will?
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member amerynth
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
There really isn't much that's great about this one.
Rife with historical inaccuracies, most of the action takes
Show More
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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Coach_of_Alva
34 William Shakespeare, John Fletcher Henry VIII
FORMAT OTHERS GENRE RATING
E-BOOK Lewis Theobald, editor Literature ***
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
FORMAT OTHERS GENRE RATING
E-BOOK Lewis Theobald, editor Literature ***
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
Show More
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. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
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
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 hot
That 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.”
The plot covers the
Show More
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 hot
That 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.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member john257hopper
This is one of the later and less well known of the Bard's plays (am reading it in the aftermath of The Mirror and the Light), and was co-written with another dramatist, John Fletcher. It telescopes the events of over 10 years between the execution of Buckingham for alleged treason to the birth of
Show More
Elizabeth, taking in the fall of Wolsey and the King's divorce from Katherine of Aragon. A decent play for anyone knowledgeable enough about the Tudors to spot the historical errors! The play is perhaps most famous for being performed at the time the original Globe theatre burned down in 1613 due to a cannon being set off. Show Less
LibraryThing member TobinElliott
I feel like there's diminishing returns in these last few "Shakespeare and friends" works. This one was an awful lot of politics (the boring kind), a whole lotta telling, and almost everything important happening off-stage.
That said, the scene where Cardinal Wosley's scheming is revealed and he
Overall, however, not my favourite. Nope, not by a long shot.
That said, the scene where Cardinal Wosley's scheming is revealed and he
Show More
realizes he's lost the favour of King Henry, and ultimately sends Cromwell away? Brilliantly done.Overall, however, not my favourite. Nope, not by a long shot.
Show Less
LibraryThing member et.carole
Not bad. Not excellent. Happy birthday to it this year.
Subjects
Call number
FIC A2 Sha