About the work
History play, written around 1613 in collaboration between William Shakespeare and John Fletcher; stylistic analysis attributes more than half of the text to Fletcher. The first documented performance took place on 29 June 1613 at the Globe Theatre — during this staging, a cannon shot used as a stage effect set the thatched roof alight and burned the Globe to the ground. The play was first printed in the First Folio of 1623, under the alternative title All Is True.
Plot
The play depicts episodes from the reign of Henry VIII: the execution of the Duke of Buckingham, the king's divorce from Catherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn, the fall of the once-powerful Cardinal Wolsey, and Anne's coronation by Archbishop Cranmer. It ends with the birth of their daughter Elizabeth and a prophecy of her future reign.
Cultural significance
Thanks to its elaborate stage directions and ceremonial pageantry, the play remained popular on English stages into the late nineteenth century, though it has largely disappeared from the repertoire today; a widely noted production was staged at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in 2010.