power by a treacherous brother.
Living alone with his bright, unspoiled daughter, he attains, by
intellectual labour, to a power over destiny. Like the wise man of the
proverb, he learns to master his stars. He uses this power nobly to put
an end to ancient hatred and old injustice.

The minor vision of the play is a study, often very amusing, but deeply
earnest, of the coming of the fifth part civilised to the mostly brutal.
In Shakespeare's time, men like the quite thoughtless and callous
Stephano and Trinculo, the "sea-dogs" who manned our ships, and of whom
Raleigh wrote that it was an offence to God to minister oaths to the
generality of them, were "spreading civilisation" in various parts of
the world. Shakespeare, looking at them gravely, saw them to be,
perhaps, more dangerous to the needs of life, to wisdom, and to unlit
animal strength than the base Sebastian and the treacherous Antonio.

The exquisite lyrics, and the masque of the goddesses, show that the
taste of the audience of 1610-11 needed to be tickled. Times had changed
since the lion-like and ramping days, eighteen years before, when
"Jeronimy" was a new word, and Tamora a serious invention. The man who
had changed the times was thinking, like Prospero, that he had "got his
dukedom," and that now, having "pardoned the deceiver," he might go to
Stratford to enjoy it.

_King Henry VIII_, or _All is True_.

_Written._ 1611-13 (?)

_Produced._ (?)

_Published_, in the first folio, 1623.

_Source of the Plot._ Holinshed's _Chronicles_. Hall's
_Chronicles_. Foxe's _Book of Martyrs_.

_The Fable._ Act I. Two of the scenes in this act are by
Shakespeare. In the first, Cardinal Wolsey contrives the attainting
of his enemy, the Duke of Buckingham. In the other he procures to
bring Queen Katharine into disfavour.

Act II. In this act, Buckingham is beheaded, the King shows favour
to Anne Bullen, and Queen Katharine is brought to trial. It is hard
to believe that Shakespeare wrote any part of this act. He is often
credited with the third scene, apparently on the ground that though
it is bad it is still too good to be by Bacon.

Act III. In this act, the King shows Wolsey that he has discovered
his plottings. About half of the second scene (all the masculine
part of it) is by Shakespeare. The rest (very beautiful) is by
Fletcher.

Act IV. Anne Bullen is c