Wooden Head of Henry VIII

The Tower of London has long been both famous and infamous. One attraction that it has been famous for is its collection of arms and armor. When we visited the Tower much of this collection was on display. This includes various suits of armor worn by Henry VIII, a man that put the ‘in’ in famous. Separately, the pictured wooden head and a pair of wooden hands were also displayed. They were once used to supply a likeness of the king, wearing his armor. 

We attended Shakespeare in the park last night. This year’s offering is The Winter’s Tale. This is one of Shakespeare’s so-called problem plays, in that it starts out as a romance, but ends as a comedy. The play is dominated by the king’s irrational fear of his queen’s infidelity and the blind rage and consequential suffering that it precipitates.

Unlike the NYC performance of Julius Caesar, the Saint Louis edition of Shakespeare in the park was not objectively political. Shakespeare could ill afford much political criticism in his literary works. The Tudors did not take kindly to dissent. The best that he could have managed was oblique criticism of the crown. So, maybe Leontes, King of Sicilia served as proxy for someone closer to home or maybe not.