CRITICISM

Baillie, William M. “Henry VIII: A Jacobean History.” Shakespeare Studies 12 (1979): 247-66.

Places Henry VIII within the historical context of its first performance at the Globe Theatre in June 1613.

Berman, Ronald. “King Henry the Eighth: History and Romance.” English Studies 48, nos. 1-6 (1967): 112-21.

Surveys the major character-centered and dramaturgical (particularly masque-like) elements of Henry VIII.

Carney, Jo Eldridge. “Queenship in Shakespeare's Henry VIII: The Issue of Issue.” In Political Rhetoric, Power, and Renaissance Women, edited by Carole Levin and Patricia A. Sullivan, pp. 189-202. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Studies Queens Katherine and Anne and the future Queen Elizabeth in Henry VIII, focusing on their principal connection to the issue of reproduction and the creation of an heir to the English throne.

Cook, Albert. “The Ordering Effect of Dramatized History: Shakespeare and Henry VIII.” Centennial Review 42, no. 1 (winter 1998): 5-28.

Presents a historiographical interpretation of Henry VIII that illuminates its emphasis on Machiavellian power politics, the ideological components of history, and the schematic function of binary opposition, or “doubling,” in the drama.

Dean, Paul. “Dramatic Mode and Historical Vision in Henry VIII.” Shakespeare Quarterly 37, no. 2 (summer 1986): 175-89.

Evaluates the relationship between history and romance in Henry VIII.

Hodgdon, Barbara. “Uncommon Women and Others: Henry VIII's ‘Maiden Phoenix,’” In The End Crowns All: Closure and Contradiction in Shakespeare's History, pp. 212-34. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Considers the symbolic construction of Queen Elizabeth, and reconstruction of King Henry VIII's absolute power, in Henry VIII.

Howarth, Herbert. “An Old Man's Methods: Henry VIII and the Late Plays.” In The Tiger's Heart: Eight Essays on Shakespeare, pp. 143-64. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Suggests that Shakespeare wrote Henry VIII with the purpose of utilizing and expanding upon the generic form of the courtly masque.

Hunter, G. K. “Shakespeare and the Church.” In Shakespeare's Universe: Renaissance Ideas and Conventions, edited by John M. Mucciolo, pp. 21-8. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1996.

Assesses Shakespeare's potentially subversive use of doctrinal language in the baptismal episode of Henry VIII Act V, scene iv.

Kurland, Stuart M. “‘A Beggar's Book Outworths a Noble's Blood’: The Politics of Faction in Henry VIII.” Comparative Drama 26, no. 4 (winter 1992-93): 237-53.

Remarks on satirical attacks against Jacobean political practices, especially King James I's habit of indiscriminately bestowing knighthoods, in Henry VIII.

Monta, Susannah Brietz. “‘Thou Fall'st a Blessed Martyr’: Shakespeare's Henry VIII and the Polemics of Conscience.” English Literary Renaissance 30, no. 2 (spring 2000): 262-83.

Addresses the theme of conscience in Henry VIII within the context of early Reformation martyrological literature and controversy.

Noling, Kim H. “Grubbing Up the Stock: Dramatizing Queens in Henry VIII.” Shakespeare Quarterly 39, no. 3 (fall 1988): 291-306.

Concentrates on Shakespeare's dramaturgical subversion of Queens Katherine and Anne in favor of kingly power and male authority in Henry VIII.

Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. “Pericles and King Henry VIII.” In Shakespeare's Workmanship, pp. 203-06. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951.

Comments on the episodic quality of Henry VIII and on Shakespeare's collaborative effort in composing the drama.

Richmond, Hugh M. “The Resurrection of an Expired Form: Henry VIII as Sequel to Richard III.” In Shakespeare's English Histories: A Quest for Form and Genre, edited by John W. Velz, pp. 205-27. Binghamton, N.Y.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1996.

Emphasizes resemblances between Henry VIII and Shakespeare's earlier historical drama Richard III.

Sahel, Pierre. “The Strangeness of a Dramatic Style: Rumour in Henry VIII.” Shakespeare Survey 38 (1985): 145-51.

Designates the motif of rumor as a significant thematic and dramaturgical principal in Henry VIII.

Vanita, Ruth. “Mariological Memory in The Winter's Tale and Henry VIII.” Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 40, no. 2 (spring 2000): 311-37.

Addresses feminine moral authority in Henry VIII and The Winter's Tale through reference to the Christian cult of the Virgin.

Waage, Frederick O., Jr. Henry VIII and the Crisis of the English History Play.” Shakespeare Studies 8 (1975): 297-309.

Contends that unlike many of his earlier histories and late romances, Shakespeare failed to adequately mythologize Henry VIII.

Waith, Eugene M. “King John, Henry VIII, and the Art of Performing Shakespeare's History Plays.” In The Arts of Performance in Elizabethan and Early Stuart Drama: Essays for G. K. Hunter, edited by Murray Biggs, et al., pp. 70-83. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991.

Comments on the stage history of Henry VIII and King John, considering the question of why these two plays have been less frequently performed in the contemporary era than Shakespeare's other historical dramas.

Wasson, John. “In Defense of King Henry VIII.” Research Studies 32, no. 3 (September 1964): 261-76.

Argues that Henry VIII exhibits aesthetic coherence and unity.

Waters, D. Douglas. “Shakespeare and the ‘Mistress-Missa’ Tradition in King Henry VIII.” Shakespeare Quarterly 24, no. 4 (autumn 1973): 459-62.

Cites possible allusions in Henry VIII to a rhetorical tradition of symbolically associating the Roman Catholic Mass with lust and witchcraft.

Wegemer, Gerard. “Henry VIII on Trial: Confronting Malice and Conscience in Shakespeare's All Is True.” Renascence 52, no. 2 (winter 2000): 111-30.

Stresses the thematic significance of the trials of Thomas More and King Henry in Henry VIII.

Wickham, Glynne. “The Dramatic Structure of Shakespeare's King Henry the Eighth: An Essay in Rehabilitation.” Proceedings of the British Academy 70 (1985): 149-66.

Maintains that Shakespeare's chief political motivation for writing Henry VIII was to redeem Katherine of Aragon in the interests of Britain and its national history.