The Life of King Henry VIII

This history play, first performed around 1613, follows the court of Henry VIII through the fall of the Duke of Buckingham, the rise and ruin of Cardinal Wolsey, the divorce of Katherine of Aragon, and the marriage to Anne Boleyn. Cranmer's trial and the christening of the infant Elizabeth close the action. Councils, masques, and public processions share the stage with private grief. The play is a pageant of Tudor politics and conscience, not a full reign chronicle and not a modern biography of Henry.

Series binding. Mottled grey slipcase.