Henry VIII

by William Shakespeare. Arkangel. Paul Jesson as Henry VIII, Jane Lapotaire as Katherine, Timothy West as Cardinal Wolsey, Katharine Schlesinger as Anne Bullen; directed by Clive Brill.

Vicki has been reading me historical novels about Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon, so I actually got this CD book in the hope that she would listen to it (which she didn’t). I haven’t read any of Shakespeare’s histories other than Julius Caesar in the 9th grade. What I found fascinating about this one is that Shakespeare was writing not many years after the events in this play actually happened. Elizabeth I was queen when Shakespeare was alive, and Elizabeth’s mother was Anne Boleyn (Bullen). The play seems to have been written partly as a paean to Elizabeth, especially the last act, which recounts Elizabeth’s christening and includes a very enthusiastic blessing by Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Yet it is interesting to remember that Henry had Elizabeth’s mother executed on a trumped-up charge of infidelity. Shakespeare seems to have gotten around this unpleasantness by portraying both Henry and Anne in a positive light and making Cardinal Wolsey into the villain of the piece. It must have been a challenge!

Musings on today’s workshop

Today I took a workshop on classroom applications of blogging at the University of Maryland (where I work). The instructor, Sharon Roushdy, used WordPress to demonstrate the possibilities and had us create a WordPress blog; so this is mine. I have three other blogs on Blogger, so now I am set to explore WordPress. I’d like to see which host would be better to use for class blogs with students next year.

Here’s what I wrote at the workshop:

“I’m really excited about blogging… and it’s easy to see that Sharon is also! She exudes excitement about it. Her enthusiasm made her talk really fast, so sometimes it was a challenge to follow, even though I have been blogging for a few months already. I am still confused about RSS feeds, but I am less confused than I was, which is good. This is definitely something I want to pursue! I like the features of WordPress and think I just might go with it in the fall, rather than using Blogger again.”

However, I’ve been playing around with the blog and am finding it less intuitive than it appeared when Sharon, who knew what she was doing, was demonstrating it! Well, it’s too early to give up on it, so I will keep trying.