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Dear Michael, At risk of blowing my own trumpet (although I guess that is always the more hygenic option...) there is a chapter on Bale's King Johan in my book Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics in the Reign of Henry VIII (Cambridge UP, 1991), although Henry is not known to have attended that one. The play you are thinking of is, I think, the unknown pageant played on 'St John's Eve' 1535 which the Spanish ambassador says Henry travelled thirty miles to see, and having enjoyed it so much, took Anne Boleyn to see it the next evening. There's a brief discussion of that in the book too. Good luck with what you're writing. Best wishes, Greg Walker Professor Greg Walker, Department of English, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK -----Original Message----- From: Michael Winkelman [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 16 October 2002 17:09 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Henry VIII as playgoer? Dear REEDers: I'm writing on Tudor political drama & I remember once coming across an account of Henry VIII riding, perhaps overnight, perhaps two nights in a row, to see a play of some sort. My even fainter memory associates this event with John Bale, but whether the King was going to see a work by the bilious agitprop maker or if it's simply recounted in a book or essay pertaining to Bale, I don't recall. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, I'd love to get a reference, either to the primary account or a mention in modern scholarship. Thanks, Michael Winkelman, visiting assistant professor of English The University of Texas-Pan American.