Arthur Bourchier

(1863-1927) Arthur Bourchier was born in 1863; he attended Oxford University, where through the Oxford University Drama Society he first became interested in the theatre and Shakespeare. His first professional performance in 1889 was in Wolverhampton as Jaques in As You Like It; at the time he was performing with the company of Lillie Langtry. Bourchier acted in dozens of plays besides his regular roles in Shakespeare, and he played every season; he was still acting as late as 1924,Read more

Henry VIII

I shall fall Like a bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more (3.2). Two stories dominate Henry VIII: the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry‘s powerful advisor, and Henry’s quest to divorce Queen Katherine, who has not borne him a male heir, and marry Anne Bullen (Boleyn). First, the Duke of Buckingham questions Wolsey’s costly staging of a failed meeting with the French king. Wolsey arrests Buckingham and accuses him of treason; testimony from a bribed witnessRead more