Holinshed (1587)
Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland exists in two main versions, the original edition of 1577 and the 1587 expanded edition. It is this later edition that Shakespeare draws on for much of his work on the history plays including Henry VIII. The Holinshed Project, working with The Early English Books-Online Text Creation Partnership, provides access to both the 1577 and 1587 editions. The project also allows readers to compare the two texts side-by-side.
For the purpose of considering Act Two, scene four in Henry VIII, we will look at the 1587 edition.1 To read through the source material in Holinshed that deals with Katherine’s trial scene, click here. To see how the 1577 and 1587 editions differ in regards to the scene, click here.
The images below include the title page of the 1587 edition and page 907-908, which cover the majority of the source for Katherine’s trial scene.2
- See Annabel Patterson, Reading Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles’ (Chicago: U Chicago P, 1994). ↩
- Raphael Holinshed, The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles (London: 1587). From Early English Books Online, STC 13569, copy from Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. ↩
