All is True (or, 'Enery the Eighth)

King Henry VIII has always held a sort of fascination for me. Maybe it was his arguably chauvinistic womanizing, his seeming cruelty, or his unforgettable break with Rome that got me (hey, I did go to Catholic school). Or, maybe it was this movie (see photo on right). Or, of course, it could be this charming little ditty:

I'm Henery the Eighth, I am,
Henery the Eighth I am, I am!
I got married to the widow next door,
She'd been married seven times before.
And every one was an Henery
It wouldn't be a Willie or a Sam
I'm her eighth old man named Henery
Henery the Eighth, I am!

Regardless, I've always been interested in books, art, and movies about Henry VIII and specifically, his many wives. My next choice of Shakespeare play, then, was obvious: All is True (or, more commonly known as Henry VIII).

While the play is full of much pomp and spectacle (and many more stage directions than you usually find in Shakespeare), I was disappointed that Anne Boleyn had very few lines and scenes and only one with Henry himself. Katherine of Aragon, however, had quite a few long passages that were full of dramatic import (and thus the best for reading aloud in the solitary comfort of one's home).

The play is not, of course, about Henry's wives or marriages. It is more about the fall of greatness -- and from the Duke of Buckingham to Cardinal Wolsey, there is quite a bit of falling. Below, some of my favorite quotations:

Norfolk to Buckingham:
"Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself."

Queen Katherine regarding the cardinals:
"They should be good men, their affairs as righteous --
But all hoods make not monks."

Cardinal Wolsey:
"O negligence,
Fit for a fool to fall by!"

Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester:
"Affairs that walk,
As they say spirits do, at midnight, have
In them a wilder nature than the business
That seeks dispatch by day."

What I can't really figure out is why this play isn't commonly performed anymore. Henry VIII is a well-known king and the play itself offers a good history lesson (or brush-up) on part of his realm. It may not be funny or bawdy or violent, but is still entertaining, thought-provoking, and possibly tear jerking. As the Prologue says, "I come no more to make you laugh. Things now / That bear a weighty and a serious brow, / Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe -- / Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow / We now present."