All is True is Shakespeare's retelling of one of the most defining periods in English history, the marriage and divorce of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

'Men's evil manners live in brass, their virtues
We write in water.'

Henry VIII or All is True is Shakespeare's retelling of one of the defining periods in English history: the marriage and divorce of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Written in the wake of the sudden death of Henry Stuart, King James I and VI's oldest son and heir, Shakespeare's most 'contemporary' history play offers provocative parallels between the Tudor past and Stuart present. The play examines the rise and fall of Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cranmer, and Anne Boleyn, providing both a meditation on history as a narrative dictated by Church and State, and on the tragic lives of those who become collateral damage to greater forces.

The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.

Features

• Shakespeare's retelling of one of the most defining periods in English history
• The play negotiates the ambivalence of truth as dictated by the monarch and the church, and the women who become collateral damage amidst the ambitions of both
• The introduction offers an engaging account of one of Shakespeare's most lavish and yet least known plays, in the context of near-contemporary dramatizations of the life of Henry VIII, including Rowley's When Ye See Me, Ye Know Me (1605)
• Combines fresh, new scholarship from leading researchers with authoritative texts and comprehensive notes in order to offer readers a complete guide to Shakespeare
• Uses the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work
• Presented in modern spelling and punctuation with accessible critical appartus to best aid understanding of the plays and poems

ABOUT THE SERIES

For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

General Editors' Preface to The New Oxford Shakespeare
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of William Shakespeare
ALL IS TRUE; OR, THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF KING HENRY VIII

William Shakespeare

Laura Jayne Wright, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Newcastle University, Edited by Will Sharpe, University of Birmingham, and Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Oxford

Laura Jayne Wright is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University, working on sensory and visionary experience in drama. Her current project, Sounds of Distress, investigates women's screams, moans, and complaints in performance. Her first monograph, Sound Effects: Hearing the Early Modern Stage (2023), examines early modern sound effects and their capacity to unsettle the spatial dynamics of the playhouse.

Will Sharpe is a full-time Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare at the University of Birmingham. He contributed a monograph-length study on 'Authorship and Attribution' to the RSC volume William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays (2013), and edited All Is True: Or, King Henry VIII for The New Oxford Shakespeare (2016). He is a revising editor of the updated Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2015).