The Life of King Henry VIII: All is True

Hannah Khalil, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher

• Editorial: Methuen Drama
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781350347564
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Categoría: Escritura de obras de teatro

'Who knows yet
But from this Lady may proceed a gem
To lighten all this isle' You know the story: a King who turns his country upside down to try and secure a male heir. But it's never been told this way before. A Queen fights for justice. A Lady provokes reformation. But in the absence of a son, can
a Princess change the future? See the story of Henry VIII from a female perspective: this exploration of love, lineage and power by Shakespeare's Globe Writer in Residence (2022) Hannah Khalil unfolds in a new way.

Act Two

Scene One

Westminster. A street.

Enter two Gentlewomen, meeting.

Woman One

Whither away so fast?

Woman Two

O, God save ye!

Even to the hall, to hear what shall become

Of the great Duke of Buckingham.

Woman One

I’ll save you

That labour, madam. All’s now done, but the ceremony

Of bringing back the prisoner.

Woman Two

Is he found guilty?

Woman One

Yes, truly is he, and condemn’d upon’t.

Woman Two

I am sorry for’t.

Woman One

So are a number more.

Woman Two

But, pray, how pass’d it?

Woman One

He pleaded still not guilty and alleged

Many sharp reasons to defeat the law.

The king’s attorney on the contrary

Urged on the examinations, proofs, confessions

Of divers witnesses;

All these accused him strongly; which he fain

Would have flung from him, but, indeed, he could not:

And so his peers, upon this evidence,

Have found him guilty of high treason.

Woman Two

I do not think he fears death.

Woman One

Sure, he does not:

He never was so womanish; the cause

He may a little grieve at.

Woman Two

Certainly

The cardinal is the end of this.

Woman One

‘Tis likely,

generally, whoever the king favours,

The cardinal instantly will find employment,

And far enough from court too.

Woman Two

All the commons

Hate him perniciously, and, o’ my conscience,

Wish him ten fathom deep: this duke as much

They love and dote on; call him bounteous Buckingham,

The mirror of all courtesy;—

Woman One

Stay there, madam,

And see the noble ruin’d man you speak of.

Enter Buckingham from his arraignment; tip-staves before him; the axe with the edge towards him; halberds on each side: accompanied with Lovell, Sands and common people.

Woman Two

Let’s stand close, and behold him.

Buckingham

All good people,

You that thus far have come to pity me,

Hear what I say, and then go home and lose me.

I have this day received a traitor’s judgment,

And by that name must die: yet, heaven bear witness,

And if I have a conscience, let it sink me,

Even as the axe falls, if I be not faithful!

The law I bear no malice for my death;

’T has done, upon the premises, but justice:

But those that sought it I could wish more Christians:

Be what they will, I heartily forgive’em:

You few that loved me,

And dare be bold to weep for Buckingham,

His noble friends and fellows, whom to leave

Is only bitter to him, only dying,

Go with me, like good angels, to my end;

And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me,

Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice,

And lift my soul to heaven.

During the next speech Buckingham is stripped of his worldy goods and clothes to signify his execution.

Buckingham

When I came hither, I was Lord High Constable

And Duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun:

Yet I am richer than my base accusers,

That never knew what truth meant: All good people,

Pray for me! I must now forsake ye: the last hour

Of my long weary life is come upon me. Farewell:

And when you would say something that is sad,

Speak how I fell. I have done; and God forgive me!

Exit Buckingham.

Woman One

It is full of pity

O God! that one might read the book of fate,

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent,

Weary of solid firmness, melt itself

Into the sea;

Woman Two is shocked at this revolutionary talk.

Woman Two

Remember where we are:

London, amongst a fickle wavering nation.

Woman One

Mistake me not!

There is no living person that more detests, more stirs

against,

Both in her private conscience and her place,

Defacers of a public peace, than I do.

But this is full of pity,

it calls,

I fear, too many curses on their heads

That were the authors.

Woman Two

If the duke be guiltless,

’Tis full of woe: yet I can give you inkling

Of an ensuing evil, if it fall,

Greater than this.

Woman One

Good angels keep it from us!

What may it be...