셰익스피어의 『헨리 8세』는 그의 열편에 달하는 영국 역사극의 마 지막 작품이자 그의 창작활동을 마감하는 마지막 작품이다. 이 극에서 그는 역사극이란 과연 역사적 사실에 근거한 것인가, 아니면 역사극 역 시 그의 다른 작품들과 마찬가지로 허구적인 서사구조에 근거할 수밖 에 없는 것인가 하는 근본적인 문제를 제기하고 있다. 그의 역사극들이 역사적 사실의 ‘역사성’을 탈신화화하는 측면을 보여주고 있다면, 『헨 리 8세』는 역사적 사실을 넘어 역사를 신화의 차원으로 끌어올림으로 써 역사적 사실이 허구와 결코 분리될 수 없는 성질의 것임을 강조한 다. 셰익스피어는 이 작품에서 그의 후기 로맨스 극들이 공통적으로 보 이고 있는 재생의 주제를 강조함으로써 4막까지 계속되고 있는 일종의 비극적 연대기라는 역사극의 성격을 해체하고 있다. 구조적으로 『헨 리 8세』는 로맨스 극과 마찬가지로 비희극의 성격을 강하게 보인다. 역사극과 로맨스 극의 불편한 동거는 세속적 권력과 기독교적 세계관 사이의 충돌로 구체화되고 있으며, 이들 불편한 동거는 작품 전체에 걸 쳐서 반복되는 극적 아이러니를 통해서도 드러난다. 이 작품은 역사적 진실과는 거리가 있으나, 역사적 실재에 의문을 제기하고 있다는 의미 에서 오히려 ‘진실’에 더욱 가까운 작품이다.

Henry the Eighth, the last of Shakespeare's ten English history plays, despite its subtitle, ‘All is true’ represents history as a story of ideal kingship and projected wish-fulfillment. Shakespeare in this play depicts almost simultaneously a sequence of great falls from the fortune's wheel, not in the tragic mode, but rather in the comic sense of ‘complete regeneration.’ Historical sense of reality is over-clouded in the play by the Christian world view regarding life in this world as a passageway to the eternal life in the next. Lord Buckingham, Cardinal Wolsey, and Lady Katherine, who are all from the de casibus tragedy tradition, reconcile themselves with death and leave no tragic sense of life. In order to prepare a stairway to the mythological hi/story of the maiden phoenix, incarnate in Queen Elizabeth and her heir James I, Shakespeare sacrifices the naked and real deaths narrated in his chronological history to the altar of romantic regeneration. Shakespeare contrasts the antimasque of history to the court masque of ideal kingship, which Archbishop Cranmer produces and performs under the guidance of omnipresent King Henry in Act 5. Shakespeare transforms himself from the chronicle-playwright to the mythographer in the latter part of the play. However, he shows the seamy side of his woven tapestry of history in the uneasy cohabitation of a romance and a history in Henry the Eighth. Through his romanticization of history Shakespeare reveals the fictionality of fact and truth, which is ironically debunked in his eye-catching subtitle, ‘All is truth.’

Henry the Eighth, the last of Shakespeare's ten English history plays, despite its subtitle, ‘All is true’ represents history as a story of ideal kingship and projected wish-fulfillment. Shakespeare in this play depicts almost simultaneously a sequence of great falls from the fortune's wheel, not in the tragic mode, but rather in the comic sense of ‘complete regeneration.’ Historical sense of reality is over-clouded in the play by the Christian world view regarding life in this world as a passageway to the eternal life in the next. Lord Buckingham, Cardinal Wolsey, and Lady Katherine, who are all from the de casibus tragedy tradition, reconcile themselves with death and leave no tragic sense of life. In order to prepare a stairway to the mythological hi/story of the maiden phoenix, incarnate in Queen Elizabeth and her heir James I, Shakespeare sacrifices the naked and real deaths narrated in his chronological history to the altar of romantic regeneration. Shakespeare contrasts the antimasque of history to the court masque of ideal kingship, which Archbishop Cranmer produces and performs under the guidance of omnipresent King Henry in Act 5. Shakespeare transforms himself from the chronicle-playwright to the mythographer in the latter part of the play. However, he shows the seamy side of his woven tapestry of history in the uneasy cohabitation of a romance and a history in Henry the Eighth. Through his romanticization of history Shakespeare reveals the fictionality of fact and truth, which is ironically debunked in his eye-catching subtitle, ‘All is truth.’

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Shakespeare, Henry the Eighth, history play, romance, masque, antimasque, ‘truth’