SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010 EXHIBIT REVIEW
At Folger, Henry VIII is reigning supreme
Exhibit marks the 500th anniversary of the monarch and his court
by Philip Kennicott
There’s the unmistakable scent of celebrity coming off the Folger Shakespeare Library’s new exhi- bition, “Vivat Rex!,” which marks the 500th anniversary of the 1509 accession of Henry VIII. Forget the accidental 15 minutes of fame or infamy, or the manufactured celebrity of starlets. The second Tudor king has survived as an ob- ject of fascination and fantasy for half a millennium. He had all the obligatory qual-
ities. Good looks and charm in the early years; power and a mercuri- al temperament in his prime. He helped to transform court life in England from a glorified thug- ocracy to a system centered on the cult of the king. Under Henry, power radiated outward through favored ministers to an elaborate web of supplicants, supporters and suck-ups. He also ruled during the first
great age of the printing press, which arrived in England in the late 1470s, a generation before Henry came to power. Hence, the paper trail on Henry is excellent, and there is ample evidence to demonstrate that his fame was at least as vital when he was alive as it is now, even after Shakespeare’s flattering portrayal in the uneven history play of the same name. The Folger exhibition was first
seen at New York’s Grolier Club in 2009, and was organized by Ar- thur Schwarz, a retired bond trad- er, bibliophile and passionate amateur scholar of the Tudor age. The show draws not only on the Folger’s extensive holdings, but on the collections of the Morgan Library and Museum and the Houghton Library at Harvard. Al- though the current show is a bit smaller than the one in New York, it is amply stocked with treasure. If the usual show at the Folger
is focused and erudite, this one is a bit broader and loaded with greatest hits. Which include one of Henry’s first schoolbooks, a copy of Cicero, in which the boy has written: “Thys Boke is Myne Prynce Henry.” That, and so much more, would be his by the time he had mastered his Cicero, and as- sumed the throne of a country emerging as a powerhouse in Eu- rope. There is also a letter from Kath- erine of Aragon, the king’s first wife and the hapless victim of his understandable but cruel deter- mination to leave a male heir to the throne. Writing to her neph- ew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Katherine audaciously (but privately) lambastes the pope for his delay in pronouncing upon the issue that would define Henry’s reign: his divorce of Katherine, an older wife who was almost certain never to bear him a son. In her blunt condemnation of “the evil persons who surround him,” one hears echoes of Shake- speare’s Katherine who is, for one brilliant act of the play, one of the playwright’s most passionate and articulate female creations. Other characters, familiar from
Shakespeare, are also represent- ed. Fat old Cardinal Wolsey, the self-enriching arch-minister of Henry’s early years, is present in the form of an unflattering por- trait, with thick, sensuously repel- lent red lips. And the king’s jester, Will Sommers — very likely the “fellow in a long motley coat” mentioned in the play’s prologue — is seen in a 17th-century en- graving, wearing . . . a long mot- ley coat. Most remarkable, though with perhaps the most tenuous con- nection to the king, are the Gold- en Gospels of Henry VIII. Legend says they were presented to Hen- ry by Pope Leo X, when Henry was still in favor with the church and had earned (through his con- demnation of the reformer Mar- tin Luther) the sobriquet Defend- er of the Faith. Schwarz says there’s significant doubt about whether they were indeed given to Henry by the pope, but little doubt they came from Henry’s li- brary. The book, dating from around 980 and borrowed from the Mor- gan Library, is an extraordinary
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LARGER THAN LIFE: A portrait of Henry VIII is one of the many remarkable items of the monarch on display in “Vivat Rex!”
item. Its vellum pages were dyed with berries to various shades of purple, then hand-lettered with gold print. It is a thousand-year- old book, still in prime condition. “My sense is that was pulled out of a monastery in the dis- solution, that is my best guess,” Schwarz says. The “dissolution” was the clos- ing down of the monasteries after Henry’s breach with Katherine precipitated a larger breach with the Catholic Church. This radical break, so often attributed to Hen- ry’s lechery and self-interest, was in the end immensely valuable to England and the English-speak- ing peoples. And as the exhibition demonstrates, while Henry’s mo- tivations were amply mixed, he was also intellectually engaged in the formation of a new, more modern Christianity, a faith built upon actual knowledge of scrip- ture rather than obedience to a distant, dogmatic and medieval church. As in all things, Henry would be inconsistent even in that, be- coming more religiously conser- vative in his later years, as he also became more cruel and imperi- ous. Centuries later, his behavior could still inflame Charles Dick- ens, who called him “a blot of blood and grease upon the His- tory of England” in a copy of his “A Child’s History of England,” on display. And Henry’s break with the church would lead to blood- shed and misery for many in Eng- land, clearly seen in books on dis- play that have been censored for religious purposes. But Henry’s impetuous deci- sion freed his country from the culturally and intellectually ener- vating hegemony of the pope, with results that last to this day. American freedom of religion, of- ten in peril but still holding de- spite aggressive attacks, is incon- ceivable without this first rup- ture. And last month, when Pope Benedict XVI visited England, it was only the second trip by a pope in 500 years — and it took an ex- ceptional summoning of English hospitality to overcome deep re- sistance to the idea.
If he had been merely larger than life — and by the end of his days, he was as large as they come — Henry would be an intriguing but not essential chapter in his- tory. The mythologizing of the king, from Shakespeare to the be- loved 1970 television miniseries (“The Six Wives of Henry VIII”) to the Showtime drama “The Tu- dors,” which ended its run this past June, underscores some- thing beyond celebrity. Henry changed the world. The Folger ex- hibition, part of a series of public programs, lectures and seminars devoted to the Tudor monarch over the coming weeks, demon- strates how he did it.
kennicottp@washpost.com
Henry helped to transform court life in England from a glorified thugocracy to a system centered on the cult of the king.
Vivat Rex! at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201
East Capitol St. SE, is on display through Dec. 30. Admission is free. The Folger is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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