Studio 360

The speech written by Shakespeare that Mr. Gioia read is NOT from any of the 3 parts of Henry VI. It is from Henry the Eighth, Act 3, Scene 2, starting at line 351.

This inaccuracy on the part of a Bush appointee does not surprise me, but it saddens me.

I too was surprised at the misquoting of Shakespeare--and there is some uncertainty as to the authorship of Henry VIII--many think it was co-authored by John Fletcher. It's one of the latest plays attributed to Shakespeare, while Henry the Sixth is one of the earliest.

I was not only surprised but dismayed that the Chairman of the NEA, an avowed lover of Shakespeare and himself a poet, would attribute a speech by Cardinal Wolsey in the play "Henry VIII" to "Henry VI" (without seeming to realize that Shakespeare wrote three Henry VI plays). Wolsey is so inextricably linked with Henry VIII that Dana Gioia's error is baffling. And yes, "Henry VIII" is likely a collaboration between Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Some scholars think that Fletcher wrote the speech Mr. Gioia read.

Thomas Cardinal Wolsey served as Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, from which post he was removed upon losing favor with the king. Sir Thomas More (the subject of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons", in which Cardinal Wolsey also appears) succeeded him.

Moreover, the reign of the second Tudor monarch, what with his six wives and his break with the Church of Rome, is hardly an obscure stretch of English history. It has been treated countless times on stage and screen (large and small), in documentary as well as in fictionalized form.

I trust that Studio 360 will air a correction of Mr. Gioia's blunder.