Sketching Shakespeare on film and TV

Scholars continue to argue over the Cobbe portrait, but what have the small and big screens taught us about the Bard?

So it's happy birthday, William Shakespeare! (And happy death-day too.) The RSC's annual birthday procession is underway in Stratford and Cobbegate rumbles on, with Stanley Wells admitting he feels "a bit isolated" in his belief that a recently discovered painting is the only lifetime portrait of the Bard. (Plenty more about that here.)

From The Guardian 23 April 2009. Full Article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2009/apr/23/shakespeare-film-tv

My List of Shakespearean Greatest:

Henry V ... Hamlet ... King Lear ... Macbeth

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Why Henry VIII matters - David Starkey tells School Gate

Times Online article http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2009/04/why-henry-viii-matters-david-starkey-tells-school-gate.html#more

It's 500 years since Henry VIII acceded to the English throne, and a major exhibition opens today at the British Library. It is also St George's Day - a fine time to think about England and to ask if it was Henry who first created a sense of English identity.

But back to the exhibition. It is, as Rachel Campbell-Johnston writes, a stunning, wonderful show, full of the most remarkable exhibits. And most marvellous of all are all the documents annotated by Henry himself, either in his inimitable scrawl, or with a pointed finger, his version of an arrow or highlighter.

For example, one cabinet contains a Bible. Here Henry's pointed finger is aimed at the section of Leviticus which says that "no man marry his brother's wife." This, the King felt, made his case when he demanded a divorce: marriage to Katherine of Aragon (who was first married to Henry's older brother, Arthur) was against the Bible. It was against religion and immoral.

But another cabinet reveals more. It displays love letters from Henry to Anne Boleyn. These letters are owned by the Vatican and were probably smuggled there to prove, during Henry's bitter attempts to divorce Katherine, that lust, not religion was the main reason.

Most of us have some knowledge of Henry VIII, even if we know only that he had six wives, or that he was Elizabeth I's father. But he is so much more than that. This exhibition shows the young, chivalrous, well-educated, Renaissance, but conventional prince, and also the reformist, revolutionary King, who, in David Starkey's words, "tore apart the fabric of England." After all, it was he who broke from Rome, setting himself up as the Supreme head of a new, English, Church.

But Dr Starkey has more than that to say about this fiery Tudor monarch, much more, because he feels that Henry VIII is the central figure in English history. "Henry carries out a revolution," he told School Gate.

Dr Starkey points out that it's Henry, not his daughter, Elizabeth, who began to see England in terms of an empire, and says that it was this 16h century monarch who really developed a sense of English national identity.

"He develops this conception of the realm of England as an empire - self-governing," he says. "Yes, this feeds into Elizabeth's reign, but it's Henry who creates the navy which enables her to turn the notion of empire into reality.

"He also carries out a revolution culturally. This is the beginning of the invention of English as a great language, and English literature as a great literature. The key text is the [translation of the] Bible into English, and that takes place under Henry. It's also the first time that a collected edition of Chaucer was published - and he was to be seen as the English Homer or Virgil."

Dr Starkey feels that it was under Henry's rule that England also developed its euro-sceptic tone. "No other country has the debate that we still have, about our position in Europe," he says. "England sees the continent as Henry did, as something exotic and exciting, but also strange and incomprehensible. He was the original Euro-sceptic."

And all this even though of course, none of it was planned. "It all happened by the accident of him falling out of love with his first wife and in love with another woman," agrees Dr Starkey.

Andrea Clarke, the curator of the British Library, has spent two years putting the new exhibitition together. She agrees with Dr Starkey that Henry is "our most important monarch."

"Just look at all of the changes that take place under his reign," she says. "It's the beginning of the England we know today. There's that sense of national identity following the break from Rome, and a true revolutionary period in British history."

So now you know. Henry was not just the huge, scary, gluttonous King we know from popular lore. He was hugely important for England - and for the rest of the UK too. His daughter's heir, after all, was James VI of Scotland.

(The picture above is a detail from King Henry VIII's psalter, which is currently on show in the British Library exhibition. It dates from 1540 and links Henry to King David, and perhaps even to Jesus himself. It was used by Henry for his private prayers - you can see him in the illustration reading the Bible).

Henry VIII: man and monarch is on at the British Library until 6th September.

From School Gate - Times Online article.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Which are the significant events and who are the significant people in forging Singapore's national identity. What is the Singaporean Identity? Did it begin in 1819? 1945? 1959? 1963? 1965? Thereafter? What constitutes the Singaporean Identity?

Is the Singaporean Identity a constant? Ought it be a constant? If it is still evolving today, will there be, one day, a divide between the old Singaporeans and the new Singaporeans? What do we value and treasure most in what we term the Singaporean Identity, the Singaporean Psyche? We Are Singapore - that age old National Song - indeed invokes and evokes strong chest-thumping feelings.