0:00:08 > 0:00:14"In 1607, London experienced its coldest winter in 40 years.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20"Stalls were built on the frozen Thames, whilst city dwellers
0:00:20 > 0:00:24"played bowls and skated across its frozen surface.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33"But beneath the ice, fish perished..."
0:00:33 > 0:00:35wrote the historian John Stow,
0:00:35 > 0:00:40"..and waterfowl and small birds were found dead upon the shore."
0:00:43 > 0:00:46It was an omen of the difficult years to come.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54The same year, Somerset House here would welcome a new
0:00:54 > 0:00:58and permanent resident, Anne of Denmark, James's Queen.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03The King did not move in with her, the ice would thaw,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05their marriage would not.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10At much the same time, Shakespeare's plays
0:01:10 > 0:01:14began engaging in the themes of fractured royal families,
0:01:14 > 0:01:20dynastic marriages and the loss of royal children.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26From the troubled Sicilia of The Winter's Tale,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29to the magical island of The Tempest,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and the corruption of the court of Henry VIII,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36Shakespeare continued to collaborate with other writers,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39to experiment with lighting
0:01:39 > 0:01:45and music in plays that marked the climax of an extraordinary decade...
0:01:47 > 0:01:52..that gave us the King James Bible, the 5th of November,
0:01:52 > 0:01:58and the beginnings of Britain's Empire, and the future USA.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04A Jacobean decade that left a remarkable legacy,
0:02:04 > 0:02:10a legacy of the king and the playwright, William Shakespeare.
0:02:33 > 0:02:43It is 1610. King James has been on England's throne for seven years.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47He is a complex figure - brilliant but unpopular.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52His dream of union between England and Scotland,
0:02:52 > 0:02:57symbolised by a new flag and a new coin,
0:02:57 > 0:03:02is disliked on both sides of the border, and lies in tatters.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09His debts are rising, and relations with Parliament are strained.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13And his obsession with a young Scottish favourite,
0:03:13 > 0:03:18Robert Carr, is becoming a source of scandal and political instability.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Clearly James is bisexual. He has no problems in his married life,
0:03:24 > 0:03:26he fathers children,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30but, equally, he falls madly in love, it would seem,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32with first Carr, and then with Buckingham,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and doesn't hesitate to show physical affection to them
0:03:35 > 0:03:40in public, and that almost, more than the nature of the relationship,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I think, is what scandalises ambassadors,
0:03:43 > 0:03:45scandalises his court.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47I mean, ambassadors are not naive men,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51they are perfectly well aware of bisexual
0:03:51 > 0:03:53and homosexual relationships,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55but it's a matter of propriety when it's the King.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59And James loses that sense of appropriate behaviour.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08James turns to his children to further his political ends.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13For his son, and heir, Prince Henry,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17and his daughter, Elizabeth, he hopes to arrange
0:04:17 > 0:04:23powerful dynastic marriages to shore up royal authority
0:04:23 > 0:04:25at home and abroad.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Sifting the tone of the times as he always did,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32Shakespeare produces a new play.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39At its heart is a seemingly bucolic royal family that suddenly unravels.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41The Winter's Tale.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02Though The Winter's Tale is included among Shakespeare's
0:05:02 > 0:05:05comedies in the First Folio, it's about as grim as comedy gets.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10It begins cheerfully enough with Leontes, King of Sicilia,
0:05:10 > 0:05:15entertaining his childhood friend, Polixenes, King of Bohemia,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18who's been staying with him for nine months.
0:05:18 > 0:05:24Polixenes is ready to go home, but Leontes wants him to stay longer,
0:05:24 > 0:05:30so asks his wife, Hermione, to work her charms on him, which she does.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Then, in the blink of an eye,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Leontes is thrown into a jealous rage
0:05:35 > 0:05:39which plunges his family and his kingdom into chaos.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Early on, there's no hint of what's to come.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The Queen is proudly pregnant.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54Young Mamillius, heir to the throne, is admired by all.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57King Leontes looks happily on.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Then, all of a sudden, Leontes is convinced that his wife
0:06:03 > 0:06:07is pregnant by his best friend, Polixenes.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12He even doubts the young prince's legitimacy.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Give me the boy.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I'm glad you did not nurse him. Though he does bear
0:06:23 > 0:06:26some signs of me, yet you have too much blood in him.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29- What is this? Sport?- Bear the boy hence, he shall not come about her.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Away with him, and let her sport herself with that she's big with,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35for tis Polixenes has made thee swell thus.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Well, I'd say he had not.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40And I'll be sworn you would believe my saying.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Howe'er you lean to the nayward.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45You, my Lords, look on her, mark her well, be but about to say,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47"she is a goodly lady," and the justice of your hearts
0:06:47 > 0:06:49will thereto add, "tis pity she's not honest."
0:06:49 > 0:06:51You, my lord,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53do but mistake.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58You have mistook, my lady, Polixenes for Leontes.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02I have said she's an adulteress I've said with whom,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is a federary with her,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07and one that knows what she should shame to know herself,
0:07:07 > 0:07:13but with her most vile principal, that SHE'S a bed-swerver.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18The collapse of the court into chaos is rapid.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Leontes sends the pregnant Hermione to prison
0:07:24 > 0:07:28and orders that the baby be cast out to die.
0:07:31 > 0:07:36Disastrously, his beloved son and heir, Mamillius,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40dies of grief over the treatment of his mother.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46And she, we're told, dies of grief soon after.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51The cracking of that world really was so powerful
0:07:51 > 0:07:54and so connected to the loss of the son.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57I'm curious about, in your production, how other characters
0:07:57 > 0:07:59responded to the death of the young boy?
0:07:59 > 0:08:05Well, I suppose it connects to a deep idea in the play about Eden,
0:08:05 > 0:08:09which is that there is mentioned quite often in the early
0:08:09 > 0:08:13part of the play, Polixenes, in particular talks about this,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17this sense of him and Leontes as having been young kids,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20he calls them twinned lambs, there are these young people.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24So, there is a feeling that before the terrible moment, the fall,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28connected by the jealousy, there was a time of innocence,
0:08:28 > 0:08:33and that innocence is for ever lost when Mamillius dies, it seems.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42Through his sexual jealousy, Leontes appears to have destroyed
0:08:42 > 0:08:48all hopes for his succession and legacy, but unbeknownst to him,
0:08:48 > 0:08:55the baby will survive, it is she who will give the royal house a future.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59An echo, perhaps, of James's hopes for his own children.
0:09:00 > 0:09:0716 years pass, Leontes' grief has worn him out.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Then, in an extraordinary scene at the end of the play,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Leontes visits a statue of Hermione,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21which magically comes to life before his eyes.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Shakespeare had never attempted such a bold piece of staging...
0:09:30 > 0:09:33..and he could only do it now
0:09:33 > 0:09:37because in 1608 his company had taken possession
0:09:37 > 0:09:38of a second theatre.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Blackfriars.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46An intimate indoor space, formally home
0:09:46 > 0:09:48to children's theatre companies,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51where the audience was smaller,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55but more upmarket than at the much larger Globe.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57Young writers like John Fletcher,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00who Shakespeare would later collaborate with,
0:10:00 > 0:10:06had been developing an increasingly sophisticated dramatic style there,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09and at London's other indoor stage, St Paul's.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14Located in the former Blackfriars monastery,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17at the heart of the city,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20nothing now remains of the theatre.
0:10:20 > 0:10:26But its ghost lingers in a solitary street sign.
0:10:28 > 0:10:29Playhouse Yard.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Just across the Thames at the Globe though,
0:10:36 > 0:10:39work is about to begin on the construction
0:10:39 > 0:10:42of a replica indoor theatre.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44The first in Europe to be created
0:10:44 > 0:10:47out of the shell of an existing space.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59The Globe's resident academic, Farah Karim-Cooper,
0:10:59 > 0:11:03is immersed in the many questions that the new project is raising.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Farah, I'm really excited to be here today.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Tell me what I'm watching.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17Well, as part of the research for our indoor Jacobean theatre,
0:11:17 > 0:11:19we do practical experiments,
0:11:19 > 0:11:22and this one in particular is interested in the relationship
0:11:22 > 0:11:27between candlelight, cosmetics and costume in the indoor space.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29And what would be the difference between
0:11:29 > 0:11:31the kind of make-up you would use at the outdoor Globe
0:11:31 > 0:11:33and the indoor Jacobean theatre?
0:11:33 > 0:11:36The audience were sitting much more closely to the actors,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39some of them would have been on stage, as we know,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41so we use the same white base.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45On the Globe stage we would paint her much more thick, because people
0:11:45 > 0:11:48wouldn't have been able to see her from quite a distance away.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Indoors you can see very well,
0:11:50 > 0:11:54but we would use on top of that a light dusting of crushed pearl,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57- which is what Amy's doing right now. - Can I see that for a second?
0:11:58 > 0:12:02- So this is real crushed pearl? - It is. It is real crushed pearl.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05In 1616, Thomas Tuke, who wrote the treatise against painting,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09said that the wealthier sort liked to use pearl on their faces.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11- So, this was expensive, then as now? - It was expensive.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Wow. So, what's the effect of crushed pearl?
0:12:14 > 0:12:19The effect is lustre, is the glow, the sort of neo-Platonic glow that
0:12:19 > 0:12:21beautiful women were supposed to have,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and in the indoor theatre space,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27lit with candles, it would bring it out even more in candlelight.
0:12:40 > 0:12:45Ellie Piercy is playing Hermione in that crucial moment in
0:12:45 > 0:12:49The Winter's Tale when the curtain is drawn aside,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51and the statue is revealed.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56A moment that relies completely on visual impact.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00So, Leontes is standing here,
0:13:00 > 0:13:07looking at what he believes to be a statue of his wife.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10He's this close, wants to touch the paint on her face,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15and gets to watch, what to my mind is the most extraordinary scene
0:13:15 > 0:13:19in late Shakespeare, that clearly could only happen
0:13:19 > 0:13:23with this kind of atmospherics for its full effect.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Yeah, absolutely, for its full intensity.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29It's a scene in which Shakespeare uses words about looking,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32marking, beholding over 20 times.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35So, he clearly wants us to focus on her in this moment.
0:13:35 > 0:13:36So, let's find out,
0:13:36 > 0:13:40I always knew that Shakespeare spoke of his audience as auditors.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44Late in his career he called them spectators.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46I can see why you're just drawn into the statue at this point.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Absolutely. Shakespeare really wants you to look at her.
0:13:51 > 0:13:56As the music strikes, and the statue comes to life,
0:13:56 > 0:14:02Shakespeare pulls off a moment of pure theatrical magic.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Leontes steps forward to embrace the living statue,
0:14:15 > 0:14:20and utters the words, "Oh, she's warm."
0:14:20 > 0:14:26And in that moment, somehow, his years of pain are washed away.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34In over 20 years of play writing,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37in which he had written over 30 plays,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Shakespeare had never attempted anything as audacious
0:14:41 > 0:14:43as bringing a statue to life.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47What this experiment made so clear to me
0:14:47 > 0:14:49was that he must've understood
0:14:49 > 0:14:54that you needed the lighting, the intimacy, the music, the make-up,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57the atmosphere that Blackfriars afforded.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Only in this theatre was it possible to create the kind of magic
0:15:03 > 0:15:05that we've just witnessed.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Mamillius, though, the young prince presented
0:15:13 > 0:15:17as the future hope of the kingdom at the start of the play,
0:15:17 > 0:15:19is not brought back to life.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29But his sister, Perdita, is saved by a kindly shepherd,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32grows up in the countryside,
0:15:32 > 0:15:37and in the end marries Prince Florizel, son of Polixenes.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42The rift between the two families is healed,
0:15:42 > 0:15:47the legacy and succession of both kingdoms assured.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02In the real world,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07James's older children had also reached marriageable age.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12For both Henry and Elizabeth, the King still hoped to broker
0:16:12 > 0:16:17grand dynastic unions with European royal houses.
0:16:20 > 0:16:26Henry, now 16, formally became Prince of Wales in 1610.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31A key moment for James's dynastic goals that was
0:16:31 > 0:16:34immortalised in this beautiful deed of investiture.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41It's a gorgeous document, with a great seal attached
0:16:41 > 0:16:44by gold threads and lavish illustrations of a martial quality.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And an extraordinary image.
0:16:48 > 0:16:54One significant both for the royal family and the nation.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00That rarest of images of Henry with his father, King James,
0:17:00 > 0:17:05at the very moment when he's become Britain's king in waiting.
0:17:07 > 0:17:13It marks a rite of passage, as Henry moves from child to adult,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16an adult with very real powers of his own.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25For England's people, it was also a moment of real significance.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32They had been ruled by three childless monarchs in a row.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38Now they had a Prince of Wales for the first time in over 60 years.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46Here at London's National Portrait Gallery,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49curator Catherine MacLeod is putting together
0:17:49 > 0:17:55the world's first major exhibition on the legacy of Prince Henry.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01What can you tell me about this painting?
0:18:01 > 0:18:06Well, what the portrait's about is Henry's wealth, Henry's status,
0:18:06 > 0:18:09all as expressed through material objects,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and especially textiles, which we can easily forget
0:18:12 > 0:18:15were one of the most expensive things that people owned.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17And, of course, jewellery,
0:18:17 > 0:18:22and that's the other thing that's really prominent in this picture,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Henry's wonderful hat jewels, with diamonds and pearls,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30and the brooch that has "HP," for Henricus Princeps.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Then through the window, you can see what we think is
0:18:33 > 0:18:38the garden of Richmond Palace, which was one of Henry's palaces,
0:18:38 > 0:18:44and he had spent, and was spending, a lot of money on designing a fabulous
0:18:44 > 0:18:49garden for Richmond Palace, with all kinds of extraordinary things.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53A giant on a mountain, automata, fountains, caves,
0:18:53 > 0:18:59extraordinary things that really we don't associate with gardens today.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03It was one of the most expensive areas of Henry's patronage.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07So, I think this painting is really about him as a prince,
0:19:07 > 0:19:13a prince of status and wealth and material richness.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Everybody thought he was very promising,
0:19:15 > 0:19:17he seemed to be good at everything,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21he conformed exactly to what people imagined a prince ought to be like.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Do you have a favourite portrait, of these many portraits of Henry?
0:19:25 > 0:19:27Well, I think I have several favourites.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29I think one that sometimes gets a bit overlooked
0:19:29 > 0:19:32because it is not as glamorous as some of the other portraits,
0:19:32 > 0:19:36but it's really interesting, is this print of Henry,
0:19:36 > 0:19:40which shows him in armour to the waist.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The head of Prince Henry is shown in profile,
0:19:43 > 0:19:48which is quite an unusual way of showing somebody at this time.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53And when profile portraits are made at this period,
0:19:53 > 0:19:58they usually refer explicitly to classical portraiture,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01to heads of Roman emperors on coins and medals,
0:20:01 > 0:20:06and that, I think, is being suggested by this head.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09The design of the whole print was made by Isaac Oliver,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12the miniaturist, and there's also a miniature by Oliver
0:20:12 > 0:20:15just of Henry's head in exactly that pose,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18showing his swept back hair and his big aquiline nose,
0:20:18 > 0:20:20a very distinctive profile,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23but in the miniature, Henry wears Roman armour
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and a Roman toga, so he's being explicitly compared to Roman heroes,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29Roman military heroes.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Isaac Oliver, painter to King James,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41and one of the greatest miniaturists of the age,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43was one of the many artists and scientists
0:20:43 > 0:20:45drawn to Henry's new court.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Over 100 books were dedicated to him,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54from a cutting edge work on perspective
0:20:54 > 0:20:58by the French engineer Salomon de Caus,
0:20:58 > 0:21:02who also designed Henry's gardens at Richmond,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05to the first English translation of Homer
0:21:05 > 0:21:09by the dramatist and poet, George Chapman.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14And Sir Walter Raleigh's remarkable History Of The World,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17a book that reflected England's widening horizons.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24And widening they were.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28At this moment, the English were establishing their first
0:21:28 > 0:21:31permanent colony in North America.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Laying the foundations for the Empire, and for the future USA.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43This remarkable letter and map, showing the coast of Virginia,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46and the fledgling settlement of Jamestown,
0:21:46 > 0:21:50testify to the keen personal interest that Prince Henry
0:21:50 > 0:21:52took in the endeavour.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57Peter, I've never seen this map before, what am I looking at?
0:21:57 > 0:22:02You're looking at the first surviving map of the Jamestown colony.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06It was created in 1608,
0:22:06 > 0:22:11and is a copy of a draft map that was sent
0:22:11 > 0:22:15over to Prince Henry by its maker.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18There is Jamestown.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22But that black speck is the first established English colony,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24- permanent English colony, in the Americas.- It is.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27And not only is Jamestown named here, and there's some
0:22:27 > 0:22:28Indian villages with Indian names,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30but it looks like the rivers themselves
0:22:30 > 0:22:33- have been given English names. - They have indeed.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Because here you see "King James, his river,"
0:22:36 > 0:22:44and here, in a tributary, you have "Prince Henry, his river."
0:22:44 > 0:22:46What's amazing to me is that Prince Henry is just
0:22:46 > 0:22:49a teenager at this time.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52Yet both the letter and the map are given to him,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54and directed towards his interest.
0:22:54 > 0:22:55So, he must have been extraordinarily
0:22:55 > 0:22:57interested in exploration.
0:22:57 > 0:23:03This is absolutely true. He was very much in the mood of the age.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10The Virginia venture, though, had bumpy beginnings.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Most of the initial colonists were dead within the first year.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22But in 1609 a fleet, backed by hundreds of English investors,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24set sail to re-supply it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30The ships, though, were hit by a huge storm,
0:23:30 > 0:23:32four made it to Jamestown.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40But one, the Sea Venture, was wrecked on Bermuda, with the death,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43it was feared, of all on board.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51News that was greeted with despair back in London.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Then, in this town of news and gossip,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58came a truly unexpected report.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02The Sea Venture had indeed wrecked off the coast of Bermuda,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05but everyone on board had survived.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Not only that, they had salvaged the ship, built two boats,
0:24:09 > 0:24:13and sailed nearly 800 miles to join their friends in Virginia,
0:24:13 > 0:24:18where their arrival was greeted as nothing less than miraculous.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24One of the passengers, William Strachey, wrote an account -
0:24:24 > 0:24:28A True Repertory of the Wracke of the Sea Venture.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34It was a tale not just of shipwreck and survival,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37but of an attempted coup among the survivors
0:24:37 > 0:24:41that was defeated by those in authority.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48Shakespeare surely read it, and saw its dramatic potential.
0:24:49 > 0:24:56In 1611, he produced a new play, magical, unsettling,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59bristling with the dynastic politics of the time.
0:25:02 > 0:25:03The Tempest.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24'The Royal Shakespeare Company is about to begin
0:25:24 > 0:25:28'rehearsals for a new production of the play.'
0:25:28 > 0:25:32One of the things that Shakespeare was really trying to do was
0:25:32 > 0:25:36to begin by staging a storm.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40'I am thrilled to have been asked to come in to talk to the cast.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42'Something I've had a chance to do
0:25:42 > 0:25:45'for the past few years with the RSC.'
0:25:45 > 0:25:47I'm going to put you in a room,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51much as Shakespeare was in a room at the time he was inspired
0:25:51 > 0:25:56to write this play, so that you can feel how his imagination
0:25:56 > 0:26:01was stimulated, or the juices started to get flowing for him.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04Just feel the storm scene,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08and think about how you are going to create The Tempest.
0:26:08 > 0:26:15A true repertory of the wreck and redemption of this ship.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18St James' day, July 24, being Monday.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23"A dreadful storm and hideous began to blow out from the northeast,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28"which swelling and roaring as if it were by fits,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30"some hours with more violence than others,
0:26:30 > 0:26:32"at length did beat all light from Heaven.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35"For four-and-twenty hours, the storm in a restless tumult
0:26:35 > 0:26:38"had blown so exceedingly
0:26:38 > 0:26:41"as we could not apprehend in our imaginations
0:26:41 > 0:26:44"any possibility of greater violence.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49"Sir George Somers, who was in charge of the vessel,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51"when no man dreamed of such happiness,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54"had discovered and cried, 'land!'
0:26:56 > 0:27:01"We found it to be the dangerous and dreaded island,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04"or rather islands, of The Bermuda."
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Unknown suppressed thing. Yeah, cool. Let's go from the top.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Is it helpful for you? Yeah, go on then.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12Just even for the time...
0:27:12 > 0:27:13Let's just do it, yeah, let's just do it. Fine.
0:27:13 > 0:27:18The storm that opens the play has just happened.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23The teenage Miranda has witnessed it, and is appalled at the suffering
0:27:23 > 0:27:27she's seeing, thinking that her father,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29the magician Prospero, caused it.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33But I would fain die a dry death.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35If by your art, my dearest father,
0:27:35 > 0:27:39you have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46but that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, dashes the fire out.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer, a brave vessel,
0:27:51 > 0:27:55who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Dash'd all to pieces.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00OK, let's just pause there.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04- I think, try, if you can, pulling down the very top.- Yeah.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07I think I'm just thinking storm.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13Prospero tells her how they were washed up here 12 years earlier,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17after he was overthrown in a coup by a treacherous brother.
0:28:17 > 0:28:25My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, I pray thee,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29mark me that a brother should be so perfidious!
0:28:29 > 0:28:34Being once perfected how to grant suits, how to deny them,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38who to advance and who to trash for over-topping, new created
0:28:38 > 0:28:40the creatures that were mine,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44I say, or changed 'em, or else new form'd 'em,
0:28:44 > 0:28:49having both the key of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state
0:28:49 > 0:28:56to what tune pleased his ear, that now he was the ivy which had
0:28:56 > 0:29:00hid my princely trunk, and suck'd my verdure out on't.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Be much bolder, and go, "Right, I'm going to listen."
0:29:03 > 0:29:07'Prospero stage-manages everything in this play.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13'His treacherous brother, Antonio,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16'is among those shipwrecked on the isle,
0:29:16 > 0:29:22'along with the King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, and assorted others.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24'There's treachery and betrayal,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26'just as there was on the Sea Venture.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31'There's colonial politics and deep questions about the nature
0:29:31 > 0:29:35'of leadership that resonate with the tensions of James's regime.'
0:29:38 > 0:29:41It feels like the interest of the play lies
0:29:41 > 0:29:43in the real dirty modern politics.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46It's politics between houses, between countries,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49between families, but it's also colonial politics.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51I mean, colonial in the broadest possible sense,
0:29:51 > 0:29:54not necessarily in a traditional British sense,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57but you have a piece of land, someone has occupied it.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02Now, someone else has occupied it and replaced them and enslaved them.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05Somewhere in the past, there was a point where no-one occupied it
0:30:05 > 0:30:07and so there is a whole series...
0:30:07 > 0:30:10That's politics, that's incredibly political.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16The political tensions in the play, though -
0:30:16 > 0:30:20betrayal, colonialism, the nature of good government -
0:30:20 > 0:30:24are resolved by a dynastic marriage.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32Prospero engineers the joining of his daughter
0:30:32 > 0:30:35with the young Prince Ferdinand.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40We can imagine Shakespeare's audience feeling the echo
0:30:40 > 0:30:44of James's plans for his own children and legacy.
0:30:48 > 0:30:55Shakespeare's isle is a place not just of politics but also of magic.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00To create the atmosphere, he turned to a resource
0:31:00 > 0:31:05in which Blackfriars had long excelled - music.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23The Tempest is rich in songs used not just as interludes
0:31:23 > 0:31:27but as an active part of the narrative.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35It is a song, Full Fathom Five,
0:31:35 > 0:31:40sung by the sprite Ariel, that leads the young Ferdinand to Miranda
0:31:40 > 0:31:45to seal Prospero's all-important dynastic ambitions.
0:31:50 > 0:31:57# Full fathom five thy father lies
0:31:57 > 0:32:02# Of his bones are coral made
0:32:02 > 0:32:10# Those are pearls that were his eyes
0:32:10 > 0:32:16# Nothing of him that doth fade... #
0:32:16 > 0:32:20The words were Shakespeare's but to create the music,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23who better for the King's player to collaborate with
0:32:23 > 0:32:25than the King's lutenist?
0:32:25 > 0:32:29# Hark! Now I hear them. #
0:32:29 > 0:32:34The best court composer in the land, Robert Johnson.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38So, tell me about Robert Johnson.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41He's known as the King's lute player
0:32:41 > 0:32:44because one of his main appointments was to the Court of James I
0:32:44 > 0:32:49and he was really in charge, not only of lute music, but of
0:32:49 > 0:32:53a lot of concerted music and music for plays and dramas as well.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58So that was Full Fathom Five that Matthew sang so beautifully
0:32:58 > 0:33:02and you played. That's one of the great moments in The Tempest
0:33:02 > 0:33:06and I'm curious, when you're playing or thinking about this score,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10what qualities this music has for you?
0:33:10 > 0:33:13I think the main quality is magic.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15I think that's what this song sets up
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and what was needed at this moment in the play.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22I think for the character of Ariel,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25his magic is associated with his voice.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28- It's the perfect play for magical effects.- Absolutely.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30I can just imagine a conversation
0:33:30 > 0:33:32between these two extraordinary artists,
0:33:32 > 0:33:35each one at the top of his game saying,
0:33:35 > 0:33:37"Look, I'm creating this play about magic.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40"We're doing it in Blackfriars and then moving to the Globe.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42"I need something special.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44"Here are some lyrics I've mapped out.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46"Can you create something with this?"
0:33:46 > 0:33:51That's right. I think the crucial thing is that it's a creative team.
0:33:51 > 0:33:52Shakespeare could bring the text
0:33:52 > 0:33:55and Robert Johnson could bring an idea of the melody
0:33:55 > 0:34:00and then they could hand it on to whoever was singing and playing Ariel
0:34:00 > 0:34:04to add some of his own performer improvisation
0:34:04 > 0:34:06or his own vocal magic.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18For some, though, the refinement and theatricality of plays
0:34:18 > 0:34:20like The Tempest and The Winter's Tale
0:34:20 > 0:34:24was all going in the wrong direction.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Ben Jonson, Shakespeare's great rival,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34was no stranger to the rough end of Jacobean life.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36He was a former bricklayer,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39imprisoned for killing a fellow actor in a duel
0:34:39 > 0:34:43and twice jailed for causing offence on stage.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48His play, Bartholomew Fayre, written a few years later,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52was set in the rowdiest annual gathering in London
0:34:52 > 0:34:56and it begins with a sideswipe at Shakespeare,
0:34:56 > 0:35:01dismissing him as one of those "that beget tales and tempests
0:35:01 > 0:35:03"and such like drolleries."
0:35:05 > 0:35:08The play has a terrific opening.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12A crotchety old stage keeper comes on to sweep up
0:35:12 > 0:35:16and he starts to complain that the playwright Jonson
0:35:16 > 0:35:18is out of tune with the times.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23He says, He does not hit the humours. He doesn't know them.
0:35:23 > 0:35:28He has not conversed with the Bartholomew-birds, as they say.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31But, of course, it's Jonson who knows these things
0:35:31 > 0:35:34and not, by implication, Shakespeare.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37The play, for me, is a direct challenge to the Tempest.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41You don't need to send your characters to an uninhabited island
0:35:41 > 0:35:43to show what life is really like.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48Just bring them to a no-holds-barred London fair
0:35:48 > 0:35:53where all humanity is on display, and monstrousness too.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57Bartholomew Fayre was a wild creation,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01first performed at London's Hope Theatre,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05famous for alternating between plays and bear-baiting.
0:36:07 > 0:36:10When Samuel Pepys saw the play many years later,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14he called it profane and abusive.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Jonson, you feel, would have been delighted.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22The two plays, Bartholomew Fayre and The Tempest,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25have a lot to tell us about the sheer range of writing
0:36:25 > 0:36:27and of audience sophistication
0:36:27 > 0:36:30at this, the height of the Jacobean moment.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34Jonson and Shakespeare were both at the top of their game,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38packing them in, taking on the great issues of their day.
0:36:38 > 0:36:42It's striking to me that each would turn to comedy.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45Jonson, sharp and satiric.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48Shakespeare's, dark and philosophical.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56King James himself was part of this high-achieving Jacobean moment.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Yes, there were scandals and political problems
0:37:01 > 0:37:04but he was also an intellectual,
0:37:04 > 0:37:09the most widely published author ever to sit on England's throne.
0:37:09 > 0:37:15An expert philosopher and theologian who left his own literary legacy.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20He took the lead in the creation of a book
0:37:20 > 0:37:23that deservedly still bears his name.
0:37:24 > 0:37:30Commissioned by him in 1604 and finally published in 1611,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33the year Shakespeare wrote The Tempest.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38Here it is, the King James Bible.
0:37:39 > 0:37:45If any object stands for what was best about James's legacy,
0:37:45 > 0:37:46this is it.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50The Puritans had asked for a new translation of the Bible
0:37:50 > 0:37:53and James had obliged, overseeing the process
0:37:53 > 0:37:55that led to what is certainly
0:37:55 > 0:38:00one of the greatest achievements of this age or of any age.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06To create it, the King assembled six collaborative teams
0:38:06 > 0:38:09of the best scholars and theologians in the land.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14Taking as their base text the 40-year-old Bishops' Bible,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18their task was to create a new English scripture
0:38:18 > 0:38:23of unparalleled beauty and theological rigour.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28Here's one example of the magic they were working.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32When they came to the 23rd Psalm in the Bishops' Bible,
0:38:32 > 0:38:37they found, "God is my shepherd, therefore I can lack nothing."
0:38:37 > 0:38:41By the time the various committees had hammered out
0:38:41 > 0:38:46and reforged this line, we come with the King James Bible to
0:38:46 > 0:38:51"The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want."
0:38:51 > 0:38:53It's perfect.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Language that rivals Shakespeare
0:38:56 > 0:39:01and would leave a lasting impression on the English language.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10King James's dynastic ambitions too were taking shape.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18He still hoped to find a high-born European Catholic bride for Henry.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25In 1612, he secured for Elizabeth an excellent match
0:39:25 > 0:39:30to the great Protestant prince, Frederick of Bohemia.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35He arrived in London that October to meet his bride
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and be part of the arrangements for their wedding.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46This really was life imitating art,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50a key moment in James's regime echoing both The Winter's Tale
0:39:50 > 0:39:57and The Tempest, where the marriages of young royals ensured peace,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01prosperity and a satisfying comic resolution.
0:40:05 > 0:40:06But in the real world,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11it was tragedy, not comedy, that lay in wait.
0:40:29 > 0:40:30In late October,
0:40:30 > 0:40:35the 18-year-old Prince Henry went swimming in the Thames.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40By November 5th, when England celebrated
0:40:40 > 0:40:43the seventh anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46the Prince had become gravely ill,
0:40:46 > 0:40:50perhaps with typhoid contracted from the filthy river.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57Doctors were called in to save him but to no avail.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01The next day he was dead.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11For four weeks, his body lay in state at St James's,
0:41:11 > 0:41:17the same palace that 400 years later would be the focus of another
0:41:17 > 0:41:22untimely royal death, Princess Diana's.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31The musical and literary response
0:41:31 > 0:41:35testified to the scale of national grief for the Prince.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41John Taylor's Great Britaine, All In Blacke
0:41:41 > 0:41:44with its black printed pages.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49The great poet John Donne's Elegy on the Death of Prince Henry.
0:41:50 > 0:41:58A funeral poem, Epicede, on an event for which only one word would do -
0:41:58 > 0:41:59"disastrous."
0:42:06 > 0:42:08What do you think the impact was on King James
0:42:08 > 0:42:10and the rest of the royal family?
0:42:10 > 0:42:15The Italian ambassador reported that James,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18in the middle of doing official business,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21would break off and cry out, "Henry is dead, Henry is dead!"
0:42:21 > 0:42:23when it just overwhelmed him.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28Anne was devastated, shut herself in her room.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31There's a real sense of there being a close family there,
0:42:31 > 0:42:35in spite of the fact that they lived in their separate palaces
0:42:35 > 0:42:37and they had their own households and so on.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40There was absolute devastation at Henry's death.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43Also on the part of all the ordinary people.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46There was just extraordinary mourning.
0:42:46 > 0:42:50He had an enormous funeral with 2,000 official mourners
0:42:50 > 0:42:52and people lining the streets.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55In effect, it was the kind of funeral that would have been given
0:42:55 > 0:42:58to a monarch, not to a prince.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01There were parallel funerals, without the body, of course,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04in Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08as well as the main actual funeral in London.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11There are stories of people weeping as the coffin passed.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13It was a terrible moment
0:43:13 > 0:43:17in which everyone's hopes and expectations were gone.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26With the royal family and nation still in deep grief,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31Elizabeth's wedding to her Protestant prince went ahead
0:43:31 > 0:43:33on Valentine's Day, 1613.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41It was a bittersweet moment for the regime,
0:43:41 > 0:43:45captured movingly in Elizabeth's wedding portrait.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50She's still wearing a mourning armband for her dead brother
0:43:50 > 0:43:55and the black brooch carries an image of him too.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04Shakespeare and the King's Men were in attendance
0:44:04 > 0:44:07to provide the entertainment at what must have been
0:44:07 > 0:44:10muted wedding celebrations at the Banqueting House.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15One of the plays performed was The Winter's Tale.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21The bucolic image of the play's happy couple
0:44:21 > 0:44:26represented all that was hopeful in this real-life dynastic wedding.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32Everyone watching, though, must also surely have been thinking
0:44:32 > 0:44:36about the death of the young prince Mamillius, hope of the kingdom
0:44:36 > 0:44:39at the start of the play, just as the death of Henry
0:44:39 > 0:44:43could not but cast its shadow over the whole affair.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56Fate had delivered a tragic blow with the death of Henry,
0:44:56 > 0:45:01softened by the political success of Elizabeth's wedding.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07But just months later, a humiliating divorce trial
0:45:07 > 0:45:13triggered a series of events that would do lasting damage to the King.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17His daughter's wedding was not the first time
0:45:17 > 0:45:19James had played matchmaker.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27Seven years earlier, the joining of two teenagers,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Frances Howard and Robert, Earl of Essex,
0:45:31 > 0:45:36had been designed to heal a rift between two rival noble families.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43It had been an unhappy match and they had spent much time apart.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54In the spring of 1613, Frances filed for divorce
0:45:54 > 0:45:58claiming that the marriage had never been consummated.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07The 21-year-old Essex hotly denied a slur on his manhood -
0:46:07 > 0:46:09what young man wouldn't?
0:46:09 > 0:46:14And so was summoned here, to Lambeth Palace, to answer the questions
0:46:14 > 0:46:18of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his fellow commissioners.
0:46:18 > 0:46:24And what questions! Was he capable of having an erection?
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Had he had sex with his young wife?
0:46:26 > 0:46:30If he couldn't with her, did he think he could with another woman?
0:46:30 > 0:46:34The whole thing must have been mortifying to everyone concerned.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Frances, too, was examined
0:46:36 > 0:46:40to determine whether or not she was still a virgin.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43It was concluded that she was
0:46:43 > 0:46:45though she was veiled at the time,
0:46:45 > 0:46:51leading some to speculate she had pulled the old substitute trick.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Virgin or not, wedding bells rang out again for her
0:47:00 > 0:47:04just six months later. Who did she marry?
0:47:05 > 0:47:09None other than Robert Carr, the King's favourite,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14and probably lover for the last few years.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18They married with the King's blessing, though.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22James even visited them in bed the morning after,
0:47:22 > 0:47:28presenting them with a jewel worth £3,000, a small fortune.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Just like the wedding seven years earlier,
0:47:34 > 0:47:37this was James's realpolitik at work.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42The Howard faction still needed to be held in check.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Who better to plant at the heart of their family
0:47:46 > 0:47:48than his own loyal favourite?
0:47:52 > 0:47:54But unlike The Winter's Tale and The Tempest,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57this story did not have a happy ending.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01Rather, a scandalous one.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05The denouement of this sordid tale would have delighted
0:48:05 > 0:48:08even the most jaded tabloid editor.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11It turns out that two years after the wedding,
0:48:11 > 0:48:16Frances Howard was implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20an adviser to her husband who had opposed the marriage.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Her husband, too, was soon implicated in the plot.
0:48:24 > 0:48:29The two would have faced execution if King James had not intervened
0:48:29 > 0:48:32but they would spend the next five and a half years there
0:48:32 > 0:48:34in the Tower of London.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38Given James's intimate connection with the young couple,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41his involvement in the scandal would do little
0:48:41 > 0:48:44to enhance his standing in the nation.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51In this sharp political world that seemed tainted with scandal
0:48:51 > 0:48:57and chicanery, Shakespeare turned to a younger writer,
0:48:57 > 0:49:02John Fletcher, to collaborate on a play with its own share
0:49:02 > 0:49:06of sex, scandal and divorce - King Henry VIII.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28In revisiting the life and times of Henry VIII,
0:49:28 > 0:49:32a ruler who had redrawn England's religious and political map,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36Shakespeare had a chance to reflect one last time
0:49:36 > 0:49:40on the nature of transformational leadership.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46The play is anything but a celebration.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53The King veers from slippery and high-handed to disloyal and brutal.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58Early on, the Duke of Buckingham is tried and executed,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01protesting his innocence to the end.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Cardinal Wolsey, the King's enforcer,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08is revealed to be a manipulator and a liar.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14At the heart of the play, Catherine of Aragon,
0:50:14 > 0:50:21the King's loyal wife of 20 years, is dragged through a divorce trial
0:50:21 > 0:50:24railing against the lies told against her.
0:50:26 > 0:50:31Henry VIII, although it sounds when we call it Henry VIII
0:50:31 > 0:50:34like a history play, was in fact, it seems, called All Is True
0:50:34 > 0:50:39when it was first performed, which is a wonderfully playful title,
0:50:39 > 0:50:43because not all that's in it is true, and since what the play offers
0:50:43 > 0:50:47is a set of conflicting truths, they cannot all be true
0:50:47 > 0:50:49because they don't actually match each other.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52We hear information from one character
0:50:52 > 0:50:56which contradicts information from another character.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01In a sense, what you see when faced with political engagements
0:51:01 > 0:51:06that are a bit awkward to dramatise, is the dramatist really relishing
0:51:06 > 0:51:09the dramatic moment and making good theatre out of it.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15The play culminates in a great moment of theatre.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20The birth of Henry's daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24A symbol of hope in this troubled regime.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30The scene also looks further forward
0:51:30 > 0:51:35to the reign of Elizabeth's successor, King James himself.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42"He shall flourish," says Archbishop Cranmer,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44"and like a mountain cedar
0:51:44 > 0:51:47"reach his branches to all the plains about him.
0:51:47 > 0:51:52"Our children's children shall see this and bless heaven."
0:51:54 > 0:51:56It sounds like a eulogy
0:51:56 > 0:51:59but given the scandals and problems of the reign,
0:51:59 > 0:52:03Shakespeare's audience must surely have felt a hint of irony, too.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10The play is characterised by a certain political, social
0:52:10 > 0:52:12and cultural unease.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15What was remarkable about Shakespeare's ability
0:52:15 > 0:52:20in that play as in so many, is he was able to produce something
0:52:20 > 0:52:24that couldn't be objected to politically and yet which engaged
0:52:24 > 0:52:29with all sorts of complicated issues that would have encouraged
0:52:29 > 0:52:33the audience to think and reflect on what they were seeing,
0:52:33 > 0:52:34what they were hearing.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37It is at least as much a critical play
0:52:37 > 0:52:40as it is in any way propagandistic.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44It's a very complicated play which doesn't seem complicated
0:52:44 > 0:52:47when you watch it. It seems to be about ceremony,
0:52:47 > 0:52:51about processions, about royal grandeur,
0:52:51 > 0:52:56but all the time it is thinking about the lies that are being told.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00It is thinking about the ways in which Henry tries to cover up
0:53:00 > 0:53:02for his own crassness, his own violence,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06his own unpleasantness and his own weakness.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11The image of the monarch that is represented in that play
0:53:11 > 0:53:12is a very ambivalent one.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25It's extraordinary that ten years in to James's reign,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29Shakespeare's view of monarchy remained so ambivalent.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35It's as if the uncertainties and anxieties that had clouded
0:53:35 > 0:53:39the early Jacobean years had never really diminished.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47By 1614, James's reign was not over
0:53:47 > 0:53:50but his greatest political ambitions were.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54After years of wrangling,
0:53:54 > 0:53:56Parliament refused to grant a massive loan
0:53:56 > 0:53:58to deal with royal debt.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04His most cherished dream, the Union of England and Scotland,
0:54:04 > 0:54:06was now dead in the water.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15Even the triumph of his daughter Elizabeth's dynastic marriage
0:54:15 > 0:54:17turned to disaster.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Her husband was ousted from his Bohemian kingdom
0:54:21 > 0:54:25and the couple spent the rest of their lives in exile.
0:54:27 > 0:54:32Elizabeth became known ever after as the Winter Queen.
0:54:38 > 0:54:41Shakespeare too suffered disaster.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48During a performance of Henry VIII at the Globe in 1613,
0:54:48 > 0:54:52a theatrical cannon misfired.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58The thatched roof caught fire and the theatre burned to the ground.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Shakespeare, King's Man for a decade,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11professional playwright for nearly 25 years,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14would write no more for the stage.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18He would turn to his rural Stratford estate,
0:55:18 > 0:55:23dying in April 1616 at the age of 52.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30He had been the most successful dramatist
0:55:30 > 0:55:33of an extraordinary Jacobean moment.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38His legacy, though, was far from assured.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47But some of the players of the King's Men spent several years
0:55:47 > 0:55:49on a labour of love, saving for all time
0:55:49 > 0:55:54the Shakespeare we know and revere today.
0:55:57 > 0:56:04Here it is, the First Folio of Shakespeare's Complete Works.
0:56:04 > 0:56:0936 plays published in 1623.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15No matter how many times I examine it,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19it's always a huge thrill to turn the pages
0:56:19 > 0:56:22of Shakespeare's First Folio.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25It's one of the greatest treasures of this Jacobean moment
0:56:25 > 0:56:28and of all literary history.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33To understand what's truly miraculous about this volume,
0:56:33 > 0:56:37you need to remember that only half of Shakespeare's plays
0:56:37 > 0:56:40were published during his lifetime.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42If his fellow players had not gathered together
0:56:42 > 0:56:46his collected works, many of his greatest plays -
0:56:46 > 0:56:50Macbeth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, The Tempest -
0:56:50 > 0:56:53would have been lost forever.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01King James died two years after the publication of the First Folio.
0:57:01 > 0:57:07He never rectified his damaged relationship with Parliament
0:57:07 > 0:57:10nor, fatally, did his son Charles,
0:57:10 > 0:57:13whose struggles with England's MPs
0:57:13 > 0:57:17led to civil war and his own execution.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24The fate of his regime has largely consigned King James
0:57:24 > 0:57:27to the dustbin of history.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34Yet the legacy of this brilliant but flawed monarch lives on.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37The King James Bible,
0:57:37 > 0:57:41the fifth of November,
0:57:41 > 0:57:46the vision of a united Britain under the Union Jack
0:57:46 > 0:57:49that finally came to pass a century later.
0:57:49 > 0:57:54He presided over a decade of unsurpassed creativity
0:57:54 > 0:58:01when the work of a dazzling array of writers, artists and composers
0:58:01 > 0:58:06lit up the stages and pages of this remarkable Jacobean moment.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11Above all, a king and a reign
0:58:11 > 0:58:16that fired the imagination of its brightest star,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20William Shakespeare, the King's Man.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27And that star still burns bright.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd