“All sorts, all sects, associate me thither”: Robert Johnson and the Music of Henry VIII

Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII contains more references to musical instrumentation than any other text in the Shakespearean corpus. Singers and musicians played a prominent though unnoticed role in the play's exploration of England's religious past and present. This essay argues that Henry VIII uses musical juxtaposition to compare the ecumenical potential in domestic and public forms of devotion. Music flourishes around the play's two queens: Anne Bullen's coronation with choirs singing Te Deum Laudamus immediately precedes Katherine of Aragon's tuneful, masque-like vision of her own coronation in heaven. As Katherine's private musicians play her a solemn deathbed “knell” blending Catholic and Protestant characteristics, they undercut the hegemonic nationalism of Anne's liturgical hymn. The play's meditation on devotion deepens with new evidence, first presented in this essay, that the composer Robert Johnson contributed to its music, including a devotional consort song that served as Katherine's “knell.”