SOURCE: Pearlman, E. “The Life of King Henry the Eighth.” In William Shakespeare: The History Plays, pp. 172-86. New York, N. Y.: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

In the following essay, Pearlman theorizes that despite the prophecy declared by Archbishop Cranmer at the end of Henry VIII which celebrates the perfection of monarchy, the play emphasizes the “fragility, danger, and corruption of human institutions.”

King Henry VIII stands apart from Shakespeare's other history plays in a number of important particulars. In the first place, it is separated from Henry V by the passing of almost a decade and a half (Henry V is generally dated about 1599, Henry VIII in the spring of 1613). During these years, the drama in general and the plays of Shakespeare in particular had undergone enormous changes. In addition, King Henry VIII is separate from the two sequences into which Shakespeare organized his history plays. In this sense...