Seven Ages

History · c. 1613

Shakespeare’s Henry VIII

A late collaboration with John Fletcher, staged with such pageantry that its cannon burned the Globe to the ground in 1613.

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By the Seven Ages editors2 min read

The play moves through the falls of Buckingham, Wolsey, and Katherine of Aragon toward the birth of Elizabeth — history close enough to touch for its first audience.

Katherine’s trial scenes and Wolsey’s farewell to greatness are the keepers: dignified, elegiac set pieces in a play more processional than dramatic. One for completists and for anyone curious about how Shakespeare’s career actually ended — in partnership.

Henry VIII on screen

1Henry VIII (1979)

TV film

BBC Television Shakespeare

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