Henry VIII and His Court Part 6

"A Hall in Blackfriars. Enter two vergers with short silver wands; next them two scribes in the habit of doctors.... Next them with some small distance, follows a gentleman bearing the purse with the great seal and a Cardinal's hat; then two priests bearing each a silver cross; then a gentleman usher bareheaded, accompanied with a sergeant-at-arms bearing a silver mace; then two gentlemen bearing two great silver pillars; after them, side by side, the two Cardinals, Wolsey and Campeius; two n.o.blemen with the sword and mace," etc.

I confess my symbolic imagination was completely gravelled, and in the absence of any symbolic subst.i.tute, I have been compelled to fall back on the stage directions.

Yet we are gravely told by the writer of a recent article that "all Shakespeare's plays" lend themselves of course to such symbolic treatment.

We hear, indeed, that the National Theatre is to be run on symbolic lines.

If it be so, then G.o.d help the National Theatre--the symbolists will not.

No "ism" ever made a great cause. The National Theatre, to be the dignified memorial we all hope it may be, will owe its birth, its being and its preservation to the artists, who alone are the guardians of any art. It is the painter, not the frame-maker, who upholds the art of painting; it is the poet, not the book-binder, who carries the torch of poetry. It was the sculptor, and not the owner of the quarry, who made the Venus of Milo. It is sometimes necessary to re-a.s.sert the obvious.

Now there are plays in which symbolism is appropriate--those of Maeterlinck, for instance. But if, as has been said, Maeterlinck resembles Shakespeare, Shakespeare does not resemble Maeterlinck. Let us remember that Shakespeare was a humanist, not a symbolist.

_The End_

The end of the play of Henry VIII. once more ill.u.s.trates the pageantry of realism, as prescribed in the elaborate directions as to the christening of the new-born princess.

It is this incident of the christening of the future Queen Elizabeth that brings to an appropriate close the strange eventful history as depicted in the play of Henry VIII. And thus the injustice of the world is once more triumphantly vindicated: Wolsey, the devoted servant of the King, has crept into an ignominious sanctuary; Katharine has been driven to a martyr's doom; the adulterous union has been blessed by the Court of Bishops; minor poets have sung their blasphemous paeans in unison. The offspring of Anne Boleyn, over whose head the Shadow of the Axe is already hovering, has been christened amid the acclamations of the mob; the King paces forth to hold the child up to the gaze of a shouting populace, accompanied by the Court and the Clergy--trumpets blare, drums roll, the organ thunders, cannons boom, hymns are sung, the joy bells are pealing. A lonely figure in black enters weeping. It is the Fool!

CHRONOLOGY OF PUBLIC EVENTS DURING THE LIFETIME OF KING HENRY VIII.

1491. Birth of Henry, second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York.

1501. Marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, to Katharine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.

1502. Death of Arthur, Prince of Wales.

1509. Death of King Henry VII.

Marriage of Henry VIII. at Westminster Abbey with Katharine of Aragon, his brother's widow.

Thomas Wolsey made King's Almoner.

1511. Thomas Wolsey called to the King's Council.

The Holy League established by the Pope.

1512. War with France.

1513. Battles of the Spurs and of Flodden.

Wolsey becomes Chief Minister.

1516. Wolsey made Legate.

Dissolution of the Holy League.

1517. Luther denounces Indulgences.

1520. Henry meets Francis at "Field of Cloth of Gold."

Luther burns the Pope's Bull.

1521. Quarrel of Luther with Henry.

Henry's book against Luther presented to the Pope.

Pope Leo confers on Henry the t.i.tle "_Fidei Defensor_."

1522. Renewal of war with France.

1523. Wolsey quarrels with the Commons on question of 20 per cent.

property tax.

1525. Benevolences of one-tenth from the laity and of one-fourth from clergy demanded.

Exaction of Benevolences defeated.

Peace with France.

1527. Henry resolves on a Divorce.

Sack of Rome.

1528. Pope Clement VII. issues a commission to the Cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio for a trial of the facts on which Henry's application for a divorce was based.

1529. Trial of Queen Katharine at Blackfriars' Hall.

Katharine appeals to Rome.

Fall of Wolsey. Ministry of Norfolk and Sir Thomas More.

Rise of Thomas Cromwell.

1530. Wolsey arrested for treason.

Wolsey's death at Leicester Abbey.

1531. Henry acknowledged as "Supreme Head of the Church of England."

1533. Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn.

Cranmer, in Archbishop of Canterbury's Court, declares Katharine's marriage invalid and the marriage of Henry and Anne lawful. Anne Boleyn crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey.

Birth of Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth).