Author Description

Multiple Contemporary Accounts Indicate That The Play Printed In 1623 With The Title The Famous History Of The Life Of King Henry The Eight Was Called All Is True When It Was First Performed At The Globe Playhouse In 1613. Consequently, When Discussing The 1613 Play We Use The Title All Is True, But When Discussing The 1623 Printing We Use King Henry Viii. The Play Was First Printed As The Last Of The English History Plays In The Folio Collection Of Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Most Likely All Is True Was Renamed King Henry Viii As Part Of The Posthumous Publication Process, Making It Suitable To Close The Histories Section. The Core Of That Folio Sequence Of Ten Plays Is A Run Of Eight Depicting The Successive Reigns Of Richard Ii, Henry Iv, Henry V, Henry Vi, And Richard Iii From 1399 To 1485; At The End Of Richard Iii, After The Battle Of Bosworth, The Victorious Earl Of Richmond Is Crowned King (as Henry Vii). The First And Last Plays In The Folio Sequence Are Notably Detached From These Eight: King John (depicting The Monarch Who Reigned 1199-1216) And King Henry Viii (depicting The Monarch Who Reigned 1509-47). Whereas The Other Nine English History Plays Were Written In The 1590s, All Is True Was Written In 1613, The Final Year Of Shakespeare's Professional Career, And In Collaboration With John Fletcher. That Year, Shakespeare Also Co-wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen With Fletcher. In The Mid-nineteenth Century, Quantitative Analysis Of The Verse Style Established That Âll Is True Was Co-authored With Fletcher. On The Basis Of This And Much Subsequent Analysis, The New Oxford Shakespeare Attributes To Fletcher The Prologue, Scenes 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2.204-460, 4.1, 4.2, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, And The Epilogue. Fletcher Wrote More Of The Text Than Shakespeare. It Is Uncertain What Kind Of Manuscript Was Used To Print King Henry Viii: It May Have Included Writing In The Two Authors' Own Hands And May Or May Not Have Been Used To Run The Play In The Theatre. On The Other Hand, The Presence Of Numbered Scene Divisions May Indicate A Scribal Transcript. Whatever Its Provenance, The Manuscript Enabled The Publishers To Produce A Largely Error-free And Editorially Unproblematic Printed Edition. The Folio Text's Act Divisions Are Dramatically Appropriate And Probably Reflect Those Created By The Authors For The First Performances. King Henry Viii's Most Visible Textual Difference From Other Shakespeare Plays Is Its Use Of Long Stage Directions That Detail Various State Rituals In Words Drawn Largely From The Prose Chronicle Sources, Which Occur In Both Dramatists' Parts Of The Play. King Henry Viii Is The Only Play In The Shakespeare Canon Printed With A Prologue And Epilogue That Are Explicitly Labelled As Such. No Surviving Musical Setting Has Been Identified As That Used For The Gentlewoman's Song For Queen Katherine In 3.1 Nor For The Instruments And Singing In The Coronation In 4.1-- Provided By Publisher.