In the last scene of Henry VIII , by Shakespeare and Fletcher, the baby princess Elizabeth is brought onstage for her baptism by Archbishop Cranmer. He prophecies the glories of her exemplary reign: under her benign sway, truth and peace shall flourish, and at her death, “as when/ The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,” there shall arise from her ashes an equally great successor. When Henry VIII was first staged, in 1613, that successor, James I, could have the satisfaction of knowing how right Cranmer was. The baby, of course, says nothing. Without a similar gift of reserve, it is doubtful whether the historical Elizabeth would have survived to inherit the throne.

No one in their senses would have put Elizabeth onstage in her lifetime, but only two years after her death she had been portrayed in Thomas...

 

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