Two stories dominate Henry VIII: the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s powerful advisor, and Henry’s quest to divorce Queen Katherine, who has not borne him a male heir, and marry Anne Bullen (Boleyn).
First, the Duke of Buckingham questions Wolsey’s costly staging of a failed meeting with the French king. Wolsey arrests Buckingham and accuses him of treason; testimony from a bribed witness leads to Buckingham’s execution. Queen Katherine takes a stand against Wolsey. Wolsey gives a party at which Henry meets Anne.
Henry falls in love with Anne and seeks to divorce Katherine, but Katherine refuses to be judged by Wolsey and other church officials. The king secretly marries Anne and then has her crowned queen. Meanwhile, Henry discovers Wolsey’s treachery against him. Wolsey, arrested, falls sick and dies. Katherine also sickens and dies. . . .
As Buckingham and Wolsey fall, they accept their change in fortune as matters of Fate, but as Katherine of Aragon dies, Shakespeare introduces a celestial miracle of heavenly promise, with this long description of "The Vision":
Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six personages, clad in white robes, wearing on their heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their faces; branches of bays or palm in their hands. They first congee unto her, then dance; and, at certain changes, the first two hold a spare garland over her head; at which the other four make reverent curtsies; then the two that held the garland deliver the same to the other next two, who observe the same order in their changes, and holding the garland over her head: which done, they deliver the same garland to the last two, who likewise observe the same order: at which, as it were by inspiration, she makes in her sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her hands to heaven: and so in their dancing vanish, carrying the garland with them. The music continues.
Perhaps the music of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel's Dream Pantomime, anachronistically fits?
Katherine wakes up:
Spirits of peace, where are ye? are ye all gone,
And leave me here in wretchedness behind ye?
But neither Griffith nor Patience saw her vision:
No? Saw you not, even now, a blessed troop
Invite me to a banquet; whose bright faces
Cast thousand beams upon me, like the sun?
They promised me eternal happiness;
And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel
I am not worthy yet to wear: I shall, assuredly.
The Folger website includes this commentary on the role of Queen Katherine:
Whatever the ethics of Shakespeare’s Henry, Katherine’s integrity glows so splendidly in the play’s action and dialogue that her role has long been coveted by actors. She first takes the stage as the advocate for all the English people crushed by Wolsey’s oppressive taxes, and then she is properly suspicious, as Henry is not, of the motives of the witnesses who send Buckingham to his death. Her fierce opposition to Wolsey is repeatedly justified by the play’s depiction of the cardinal’s vices. When she is summoned to the church court that is deliberating on the propriety of her marriage, her defense of her conduct as Henry’s wife is resounding in its eloquence. She has been admired for centuries by readers and playgoers alike.
Buckingham, Wolsey, and Katherine all reflect on their falls, but only Katherine is given a beatific vision before her death. According to all the books about Henry's wives I've read she had certainly been popular among the English people during her reign, and Shakespeare (and/or John Fletcher, whom scholars agree collaborated on this play) gave her a deathbed scene that reflects that popularity (she dies offstage, of course!).
Image Credit (Public Domain): Dame Ellen Terry as Queen Katherine of Aragon
This is the last of the history plays this group has read. I joined in the middle of Henry IV pair, for part two, the Merry Wives of Windsor (following up on Falstaff), Henry V, the Henry VI cycle, Richard III, and now the last play, Henry VIII. Missed out on King John, Richard II, and Henry IV, part one. The hosts will select one of the comedies to restart our progress through the plays.
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