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Henry VIII (Shakespeare Project Lecture) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-03-23 21:13:10
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2026-06
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Content

'Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.'

Our journey through the works of William Shakespeare continues, and we have now arrived at the great playwright's penultimate work in collaboration with John Fletcher: Henry VIII.

We’re discussing Shakespeare's retirement, how the Globe Theatre burnt down, pomp and pageantry, Elizabethan vs Jacobean plays, the history of Henry VIII and his six wives, the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the rise of the Church of England, real history vs drama, and much more.

Timestamps:

0:00 the Globe Theatre burns down

2:00 the bard’s collaboration with Fletcher

4:00 appreciating Shakespeare’s Histories

6:00 Elizabethan vs Jacobean plays

8:00 pomp, pageantry & celebration

10:00 why did the Globe burn down?

12:00 how did Shakespeare feel?

14:00 tragedy in Will’s personal life

16:00 Shakespeare retires from the theatre

18:00 my thoughts on the play Henry VIII

20:00 writing about Queen Elizabeth’s father

22:00 is Henry VIII historically accurate?

24:00 examining the prologue of ‘All Is True’

26:00 on Henry VIII and his six wives

28:00 Henry’s first wife Queen Katherine

30:00 Catholicism vs Protestantism

31:00 why did Henry want a divorce?

34:00 who was Cardinal Wolsey?

36:00 Wolsey vs Duke of Buckingham

38:00 my one-passage & great life advice

40:00 Henry VIII meets Anne Boleyn

41:00 the history of the Reformation

43:00 becoming the head of the Church

44:00 a powerful speech from Katherine

47:00 how Henry became supreme authority

48:00 Cardinal Wolsey on his fall from grace

50:00 discussing the figure Sir Thomas More

52:00 who was Thomas Cromwell?

54:00 the ripples of history are set in motion

55:00 chillingly optimistic ending of the play

56:00 from Anne Boleyn to Jane Seymour

58:00 last three wives & Henry’s death

1:00:00 my personal grading for Henry VIII

1:03:00 preparing our rankings of all the plays

1:05:00 what did you make of Henry VIII?

Recommended Resources:

  • Arden Edition: The Arden edition of this play is excellent. The critical introduction and annotations are incredibly insightful.

  • Shakespeare Appreciation: I wanted to spend time with you and my favourite writer to celebrate my birthday earlier this week. So I put out a podcast reading some of my favourite soliloquies aloud, from plays like Hamlet, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar, and musing on their meaning: Appreciating Shakespeare on My Birthday.

  • Film Appreciation: Treat yourself to a viewing of Kenneth Branagh's All Is True, which dramatises the last years of Shakespeare's life. It's a sad and poignant film, which sees the burning of the Globe and thinks through how Will might have spent his time in Stratford-Upon-Avon after retiring from the stage.

  • Documentaries & TV: This play gives us a good opportunity to investigate one of the most significant periods in the country's history and, luckily, there are a profusion of great documentaries and television dramas to enjoy. Inside the Court of Henry VIII is excellent and highly recommended. Henry VIII and His Six Wives and The Mind of a Tyrant are also fascinating. And if you're in the mood for a superb series, check out the BBC series based on the superb Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall books.

  • History: If you find the history of the kings and queens of England to be fascinating, then you may like David Mitchell's recently book Unruly, which I quoted from in the discussion. Mitchell really brings history alive with his fiendish sense of humour. There's also an excellent interview with him and Dan Snow in which they rank and discuss the monarchs of the country. And, whilst there are many tremendous biographies of each of the king's wives, Alison Weir does a fantastic job at exploring them all in her book The Six Wives of Henry VIII.

  • Performance: My favourite production of Henry VIII is this Arkangel audio production. They consistently produce reliable radio productions of Shakespeare's plays, and this one is great to listen to whilst reading at the same time. For a filmed production, the BBC Shakespeare Collection version is a bit dated but still a great performance.

  • New to Shakespeare: If you are coming to the bard for the first time, you may find a more powerful entrance to his world through some of his other History plays. As mentioned in the discussion, I think reading through the Henriad Saga via the Hollow Crown to offer one of the most sublime reading and viewing experiences you can ever enjoy. You can enjoy them in sequence of composition, as we have done here, or you can watch them through in historical chronological sequence and enjoy our lectures after each one: Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, Richard III.

  • Our Journey Thus Far: If you want to jump into any specific play, you can check out the works we've enjoyed thus far as part of our read-through here.

Questions for You:

1) Why do you think Shakespeare retired from the stage?

2) Does this play feel different from Shakespeare's other History plays to you?

3) What line, passage, idea, or character most resonated with you? And what is your personal grading for Henry VIII?

Happy reading, Bardolators!

Files

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Comments

Ann Lowe

This is such a fascinating period of history, but I wasn't fascinated. Maybe I was reading it too late at night. I have read Wolf Hall and seen the series. So excellent. I remember the play, A Man for All Seasons. What a difference in the portrayal of Cromwell. I think, coming to the conclusion of this amazing Shakespeare-a-thon, that English history is finally starting to fall into place. Prior to joining the HCLBC, I wouldn't have even thought of reading all of the Shakespeare plays. This has been so incredible. Perhaps my most favorite part of the book club. I had seen Shakespeare plays in the past, but now I make a point of searching them out. He was truly a genius and I see his impact all over our culture. I am already ready for a reread, perhaps starting with the tragedies, as I am missing them. It has been such a privilege to be a part of this project. Benjamin, your insights and depth has made this all possible. Thank you so much- and-HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Susan Kelley

I didn’t read the play, but I get so much from the lectures. Thank you.

Phil

Here’s a royal motto to live by: Let no day pass without a deed to crown it.

Ellen M

Hi Ben, Forgot to add this: I was happy to hear you address a topic I’ve been meaning to ask you. You said that you do not count Thomas More as a Shakespeare play. My Arden Complete works includes Thomas More as well as King Edward III and another called Double Falsehood. I’ve been meaning to read them to complete the project in full even though you don’t include them in our list. Not a short answer I know but can you expand a bit on your thoughts as to why these were included - and why you include Henry VIII but not the others? I assume these 3 I mentioned have little to none of Will’s touch, but I’m curious. Also: I was so happy to hear Unruly mentioned. I’ve had it on order since I watched the video with Dan Snow. An audio copy from my library just arrived to my app and how great is it that David Mitchell narrates it as well:))

Caroline P

I just listened to Bens birthday podcast about Shakespeare.. how incredibly enjoyable! It made me want to immediately go back to the beginning of Shakespeares career and start all over again. Instead I might spend a bit of time with my favourites and also a couple that I wasn’t so sure about and see if I feel differently e.g. Measure for Measure I was just in my local bookshop getting a Middle English edition of the Canterbury tales that I had ordered. The bookseller opened the book and read some aloud.. I was super impressed. Then he told me he had picked up Coriolanus recently and said he was surprised and thought it was actually extremely good… so I told him about the Shakespeare project here… who knows, he may join and indulge himself in all the lectures that are sitting there waiting to be enjoyed.

Phil

My one passage (II,iii,22) Verily, I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content, Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow. —‘glistering grief’ and ‘golden sorrow’ —this is kind of a variation of the appearance vs reality theme. Instead of the outward -inward disparity being hidden from each other, there is an open mingling of the two opposites. It prompts contemplation. The passage is profound and powerful.

hardcoreliterature
>>168881753

Hi Ellen! That’s such a fantastic question. And definitely a topic I’ll need to deep dive into at some point. Each of these plays has a really interesting dramatic background! For Double Falsehood, that’s an 18th century play by Lewis Theobold, who claimed that he based it on Shakespeare and Fletcher’s Cardenio, which itself was inspired by Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Theobold said he had several surviving manuscripts of the original play, but sadly there is no longer any surviving manuscript. Lois Potter calls Cardenio the ‘lost Atlantis’ of Shakespeare studies. I really wish we still had that play! For Sir Thomas More, which survives in quite poor condition, this one was written in the early 1590s by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, but there have been tons of different hands found in it via revision (including the likes of Thomas Dekker and Thomas Heywood). It’s thought that Shakespeare had a hand in helping to revise it, but many academics think that his presence can only be discerned in one page and so don’t count it as a Shakespeare play. And Edward III was printed anonymously and has been the subject of vigorous debate as to Will’s involvement and how much was written by other writers, like Thomas Kyd. There’s been linguistic analysis that has suggested Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, and Michael Drayton all could have written substantial parts. It began to be included in the complete works by Arden relatively recently/from the late 90s, and has caused a stir ever since! Jonathan Bate is a proponent for the Shakespeare attribution, whilst Harold Bloom couldn’t get on board with it at all. As for Henry VIII, although a collaborative piece, I think his involvement is much stronger and more overt/consistent. Shakespeare and Fletcher basically divided the scenes up and shared the entire play. You can really tell (I think) which scenes are Will’s and which come from Fletcher. I would be so fascinated to hear your thoughts on those other plays! Now that you’ve read all of Shakespeare deeply and chronologically, you have the expertise and are in such a perfect position to see if you can hear our beloved bard coming through in those plays :)

hardcoreliterature
>>168887880

Thank you so much, Caroline! I'm so thrilled you enjoyed that one because I had so much fun with it too. I find it so comforting to know that Shakespeare is always there for us. He's a constant companion and there are few things I love more than dropping back in to my favourites of his :) It's such a fabulous idea to return to the ones you weren't so sure about too. I'd love to know if you do feel differently for plays like Measure for Measure. On this read-through, the most rewarding thing for me was suddenly finding a lot of love for the plays that hadn't moved me previously! And thank you so much for telling your bookseller about the Shakespeare Project!! It truly would be so wonderful to hear his insights and impressions. I also find it incredibly impressive when people are able to read Chaucer in the original Middle English :)

River

Over the last two days, I listened to both this lecture on Henry VIII and to Benjamin's Appreciating Shakespeare on My Birthday lecture. What a joy to listen to Benjamin read the different parts!! I don't want to be a downer to myself, but sometimes I feel like it's a curse to love SO many things in life! Between being outdoors and learning about our great outdoors, always falling down hours-long rabbit holes around plants, insects, birds and mushrooms, and then crawling up only to be taken in again, this time with my immense love and respect of great literature, there simply never feels like enough time to get to - of all things - Shakespeare!! I have therefore vowed, even written onto my calendar this time, that during our dystopian read through, I will fall fully into Shakespeare instead of Orwell and Huxley. I have many of the Arden series already. I have the back catalogue with all our book club's posts. And best of all, I have Benjamin's many wonderful lectures around Shakespeare. Benjamin, thank you so much! Oh, to have heard just one of your favorite soliloquies when I was a child, I think I would have been under the spell since then. During my schooling, even in college with my majors in biology and medicine, then the fine arts, I barely read and knew much about Shakespeare. Yes, I realize, that's almost impossible to believe, and it's why I am always so happy when I read the posts of American teachers here at the HCLBC, who are teaching Shakespeare; I am ecstatic. It's not a complete excuse, but I honestly believe that this extremely late introduction to Shakespeare, is what's made it more difficult for me to approach it. When I see young folk, I tell them to read Shakespeare, if the reading subject comes up. Your passion is contagious. My hope is that many a child, teen, and adult find you on the web, or wherever you may be.

Chrissy
>>169023291

River, this is a beautiful post, and I too, wish that I’d had a mentor like Benjamin when I was growing up. (Actually it’s not too late. I’m still growing up). I also plan on making a return sojourn into Will’s World, later in the year, but I’ll make mine while the rest of the club reads Joyce and Faulkner. I’m going to view the dystopian reads as immersion therapy, or perhaps an anti venom. Have you decided which works you’re going to revisit yet?

Lee Newman

I enjoyed this presentation and have started at the beginning of this Shakespeare project. Could some Post the order of plays. The Patreon Platform doesn’t seem super friendly especially on an iPhone.

John Ward

I've just started a reread of The Two Noble Kinsmen and got to 1.2.20: ...............................................I do bleed When such I meet and wish great Juno would Resume her ancient fit of jealousy To get the soldier work, that peace might purge For her depletion and retain anew Her charitable heart, now harder and harsher Than strife or war could be. Thank goodness I have the Arden and Ben to help unravel some of Shakespeare's most complex verse. The above is a chilling thought in this day and age that we might need WW3 to renew and strengthen our desire for peace. Hopefully not. Shakespeare certainly didn't go out with a whimper!

Katie

I think my biggest issue with this play is how we feel like we see too much and not enough? Like we get ALL the stage directions and I read about the lavish costumes and set design, but yet...I feel like I'm stuck in the other room while the real excitement happens. This one was not my favorite, to say the least, but I am also not a big fan of British history (sorry...I'm an Early American historian). I only know about Henry VIII because of the rhyme about his wives that my mom taught me when I was little. I may not know all the names of his wives, but I know their fate. It's a bit ironic. Conversation around this play did spark a funny comment where my friend texted me and said "imagine you go to see Hamilton and one of the cannons turns out to be REAL" which was so funny to me. It's so absurd. Regardless of my feelings on it, I love being part of the Shakespeare project because now I have the privilege of making up my own mind about a piece of media I have heard about.