A review by beachbuddy
Henry VIII by William Shakespeare

3.0

While the play is entertaining it unfortunately lacks some of the more interesting parts (formation of a new church, execution of Queen Anne, wives 3-6) of King Henry's reign, likely due to how recent the events still were and Shakespeare's desire not to offend anyone. Instead most of the play is just about various nobles having petty arguments and trying to get each other executed. The play ends with the birth of Elizabeth after which a cardinal prophecizes that she and her successor will be the greatest rulers ever (it should be noted that the play seems to have been published shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth and the ascension of King James so there's definitely no bias there at all). After the prophecy Henry says that he's finally happy now that he has a child destined for greatness, which I'm pretty sure isn't what happened at all. Queen Katherine gets to curse out her political enemies with some pretty great lines though and there's a doctor whose name is Butt so that's pretty cool.