Henry VIII: Betterton as Henry VIII

Henry VIII has always been one of Shakespeare's most popular and successful plays because of its spectacular production values, which have invited contempt from supercilious critics, who tend to assert the play was partly written by John Fletcher, Shakespeare's successor as the King's Men's playwright. Following the tradition that Sir William Davenant claimed he had learned from Shakespeare's own Henry, the actor Lowin, Betterton sustained the Tudor period dress carefully, as shown in this engraving. Note the downstage curtain. HMR