Henry VIII (Folger Shakespeare Library)

This is my second book of Folger Shakespeare Library and I'm very happy with it as with my first purchase. I'm not a Shakespeare scholar. I read Shakespeare's plays because I love his beautiful language and always enjoy high drama. So for me Folger's edition of Henry VIII is just perfect. It has nice introduction featuring some information about Shakespeare's life, theatre, publication of his plays and understanding his language. It's quite informative but not overwhelming. Explanatory notes are following the original text of the play and conviniently placed at the left pages. That makes reading of even the most difficult pieces more injoyable and easier. After the play there is an essay by B. Mowat wich had some interest for me too. As for the play itself, I highly enjoyed it. Feeling an atmosphere of Henry VIII's coart, and following dramas of Chatherine's, Cardinal Wolsey's and Duke of Buckingham's lives gave me an actual thrill of enjoying a perfection.

I have tried to abide by a discipline to read at least one Shakespearean play a year. I rarely if ever have reviewed any of them because they are so picked over that I don't feel that I have anything to add. However, it was with a good deal of anticipation that I stepped away from the renowned to the obscure by reading "King Henry VIII". I say that because it was the subject that interested me and I admit that it made quite a difference reading a play about someone I knew something about. This, in turn, gave me pause to consider many things about "King Henry VIII" that I would never have even known to consider about his other histories. It's not that I read many of his other histories but those that I had read left me completely at the mercy of the Bard for any sort of perspective or overview. What I found most interesting about "King Henry VIII" is the limited scope that the play covered. Let's face it: even today Ol' King Henry VIII is a treasure chest of plots and subplots. Yet Shakespeare treated his subject with a great deal of respect and, essentially, rewrote history before it was even written. The four or five main characters (with the exception of Cardinal Wolsley) all come across in good light. Perhaps Ann "Bullen" is a bit empty-headed but certainly Henry, Anne of Aragon and the lesser known (outside of the Church) Thomas Cranmer are all noble through and through. There is little of the bawdy, glutonous Henry that history has given us. You would guess that Shakespeare would have done great things with such a subject but he didn't and the question that I asked myself was; WHY? I have not studied anything about this play. I prefer to always see what the play says directly to me before being told by others as to what it means. Thus I may be stating the obvious but I came away with the conclusion that "King Henry VIII" was written for Shakespeare's Quenn Elizabeth. It was pretty obvious when reading Cranmenr's final speech and it put everything into perspective. All that went before were noble and all that came after were not even mentioned. The "noble" divorce of Henry and Ann of Aragon was necessary so that Henry have the proper opportunity to sire Elizabeth. I'm not sure enough of my timetables to know if Elizabeth I was still alive when this play came out but even if she weren't it would still be the Bard's tribute to her. I had come to expect that most of the "good stuff" of Shakespeare (with the exception of "King Henry V") was to be found in his tragedies primarily and comedies next with the histories coming up a poor third. However, I kept my pencil busy underling passages in "King Henry VIII". It is a good play, it's not "MacBeth", but it's a good play. I'd have considered rating it 5 stars but then we'd have to rate some of the rest as 7's 8's and 9's. Most people who'd take the time to read Shakespeare probably already have a pretty good working knowledge of at least the popular history of the King with

Shakespeare managed to describe the later life of King Henry the eight, with much intelligence and gracefulness. This play, written centuries before, has captured my attention unlike any present-day play or novel. King Henry VIII was based on the life of the notoriously known King Henry the eight of England. To my dismay, only two of King Henry's wives were mentioned. This play showed how King Henry's life was never truly complete: he couldn't trust anyone, he was unfaithful to the Lord, his wives and his country, and he was never blessed with a son, to be heir to his throne. For myself, the climax of the play was viewing how the king dealt with the change of wives and the birth of his daughter, Elizabeth. The play King Henry VIII by William Shakespeare is a wonderful recommendation for anyone who wishes to understand the tidings of King Henry the eight from a fictitious, historical, personal point of view, rather than from historical facts.

This was an appropriate conclusion to Shakespeare's career. Not only are the characters such as Henry VIII, Cranmer, and Wolsey convincing, but the poetry and images are beautiful. In addition, through the fall of several characters such as Wolsey, we can see reflections of Shakespeare himself as he wrote his 37th and final play. It is also poetically appropriate that one of the greatest writers England ever knew ended his career by writing a play about one of the greatest kings that England ever knew! I DO NOT believe that Shakespeare only wrote parts of this play as many people do. With the beautiful images, poetry, and captivating characters, I am very confident in the belief that this play was written entirely by the one and only William Shakespeare.