The play had an exceptional run of forty nights,
largely owing, it is said, to the popularity it obtained through the
Coronation of George II., which had taken place a few weeks before.

The play was a great favourite of George II. and was in consequence
frequently revived during his reign. On being asked by a grave nobleman,
after a performance at Hampton Court, how the King liked it, Sir Richard
Steele replied: "So terribly well, my lord, that I was afraid I should
have lost all my actors, for I was not sure the King would not keep them
to fill the posts at Court that he saw them so fit for in the play."

In 1744, Henry VIII. was given for the first time at Covent Garden, but
was not revived until 1772, when it was announced at Covent Garden as
"'Henry VIII.,' not acted for 20 years." The Coronation was again
introduced.

Queen Katharine was one of Mrs. Siddons' great parts. She made her first
appearance in this character at Drury Lane in 1788. In 1808 it was again
revived, and Mrs. Siddons once more played the Queen, Kemble appearing as
Wolsey.

In 1822, Edmund Kean made his first appearance as Wolsey at Drury Lane,
but the play was only given four times.

In 1832, the play was revived at Covent Garden with extraordinary
splendour, and a magnificent cast. Charles Kemble played King Henry; Mr.
Young, Wolsey; Miss Ellen Tree, Anne Boleyn; and Miss Fanny Kemble
appeared for the first time as Queen Katharine. Her success seems to have
been great. We are told that Miss Ellen Tree, as Anne Boleyn, appeared to
great disadvantage; "her headdress was the most frightful and unbecoming
thing imaginable, though we believe it was taken from one of Holbein's."
In those days correctness of costume was considered most lamentable and
most laughable. In this production, too, the Coronation was substituted
for the procession. The criticism adds that "during the progress of the
play the public seized every opportunity of showing their dislike of the
Bishops, and the moment they came on the stage they were assailed with
hissing and hooting, and one of the prelates, in his haste to escape from
such a reception, fell prostrate, which excited bursts of merriment from
all parts of the house."

In 1855, Charles Kean revived the play with his accustomed care and
sumptuousness. In this famous revival Mrs. Kean appeared as "Queen
Katharine."

_Irving's Production_

Sir Henry Irving's magnificent production will still be fresh in the