Being at
Greenwich,
After
your highness had reproved the duke
About
Sir William Blomer,--
Surveyor
King Henry The Eighth Act
I, Scene ii Line 191
And then the surveyor gets interrupted by King Henry. The eighth.
King Henry the Eighth. That is to say, the eighth Henry. We’ve spent quite a
bit of time on Henrys IV, V, and VI because between them Will wrote six plays.
He skipped over number seven, and wrote just one on the eighth Henry, and it was to be one of Will’s last plays.
Remember now the Henry the Eighth was the father of Queen Elizabeth and that
Elizabeth was alive when Will did about half of his writing (she was dead and
buried when he wrote Henry the Eighth). So Will had to be careful and probably
would not have used her father as a subject for one of his plays while she was
still alive. All those other Hanks were a few generations back, and thus a
little safer as play fodder. Not that he didn’t have to be a little careful
about them as well.
So today’s line is from the Surveyor who is being questioned
by Henry about the Duke of Buckingham. Now I’m not sure what politics are going
on here, but I believe the Surveyor is the guy who takes care of Buckingham’s
estate. So he’s got some info for the king about what Buckingham’s been up to.
And I don’t think the king’s particularly happy with old Buck. In fact, I think
that Buck might be making an early exit from this play. But I’m not sure. I
guess you could up and read the play yourself if you want to find out.
This, believe it or not, is the top of the brick wall that surrounds the back yard of Buckingham Palace. And while the palace is not named after the Buckingham referred to in today's line, I'm going to nonetheless consider it relevant for today's pic. And I'm also going to say that the surveyor of this Buckingham estate has got quite a job on his hands.