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296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1613
KING HENRY:At a party held by Wolsey, Henry meets Anne Bullen and falls in love with her. It's quite ridiculous because you get to see what a manwhore Henry really is, but the #instalove aspect of it is rather fun. Buckingham is tried and executed. [Let me tell you, the flashbacks to The Three Musketeers gave me whiplash. It was so hard to keep all of these same names straight.] The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk fail to turn the king against Wolsey. Henry, questioning the legality of his marriage to Katherine, sets up a tribunal, presided over by Wolsey and the papal representative Cardinal Campeius.
The fairest hand I ever touched! O beauty,
Till now I never knew thee.
I think you have hit the mark; but is't not cruelThis whole situation made me absolutely furious for Katherine. She was literally the only character that I rooted for in this play, and she was done so dirty by all the men around her, like the Cardinal who was actively advocating against her, or her own damn husband who completely disregarded her. At one point Norfolk describes her as "a jewel that has hung twenty years about his neck [Henry's], yet never lost her lustre", and I could've puked. However, my gurl Katherine really came through at her own damn trial and defended herself:
That she should feel the smart of this? The Cardinal
Will have his will, and she must fall.
In what have I offended you? What causeThough she had little power, what power she did have she held on to and fought for with great ferocity. Whereas Buckingham did not stand up for himself at all when he was mistreated by the King at Wolsey’s advising, Katherine remained dignified and fought to remain with the man that she loved. And for that we have to stan. I think my favorite moment in the entire play was her threatening Wolsey:
Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure
That thus you should proceed to put me off
And take your good grace from me?
Sir, I am about to weep: but, thinking thatYAAAAAS QUEEN (like, literally, QUEEN!). Also, that during another encounter she took none of Wolsey's shit and told him straight to his face:
We are a queen, or long have dreamed so, certain
The daughter of a king, my drops of tears
I’ll turn to sparks of fire.
Would I had never trod this English earth,I love her more than life itself. Her scenes were the only things worthwhile in this entire play. Anyways, back to the otherwise boring plot: Anne Bullen is made Marchioness of Pembroke. Katherine walks out of the tribunal and demands that the case be decided in Rome. Wolsey and Campeius fail to convince the queen to throw herself on the king's mercy. Anne secretly marries Henry.
Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it!
Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your heart.
This royal infant – heaven still move about her! –Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, attempts to charge Cranmer for heresy. He fails through Henry's intervention. Elizabeth is christened and Cranmer predicts the glory of her reign.
Though in her cradle, yet now promises
Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings,
Which time shall bring to ripeness: she shall be –
But few now living can behold that goodness –
A pattern to all princes living with her,
And all that shall succeed:
Wolsey: Noble lady,/ I am sorry my integrity should breed,/ and service to his majesty and you,/ so deep suspicion, where all faith was meant./ We come not by the way of accusation,/ to taint that honour every good tongue blesses,/ nor to betray you any way to sorrow - / you have too much, good lady - / but to know/ how you stand minded in the weighty difference/ between the king and you, and to deliver,/ like free and honest men, our just opinions/ and comforts to your cause....
Katherine: (aside) To betray me. - / My lords, I thank you both for your good wills;/ ye speak like honest men: pray God, ye prove so!/ But how to make ye suddenly an answer,/ in such a point of weight, so near mine honour,/ more near my life, I fear, with my weak wit,/ and to such men of gravity and learning,/ in truth, I know not..../ Alas, I am a woman, friendless, hopeless!
Tis ten to one this play can never please
All that are here: some come to take their ease,
And sleep an act or two; but those, we fear,
We have frighted with our trumpets; so, 'tis clear,
They'll say 'tis naught: others, to hear the city
Abused extremely, and to cry 'That's witty!'
Which we have not done neither: that, I fear,
All the expected good we 're like to hear
For this play at this time, is only in
The merciful construction of good women;
For such a one we show'd 'em: if they smile,
And say 'twill do, I know, within a while
All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap,
If they hold when their ladies bid 'em clap.