Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in Folly. John Bale's Kynge Johan, written 1538, takes another significant step toward the emergence of the secular history play by specifically naming the historic figures associated with his allegorically named characters. Later in the century, Christoper Marlowe's Edward II (1592) was profoundly influential in the development of the history play. While earlier English history plays tried to incorporate as much information as possible from their sources, Marlowe focused on the events that would contribute to his play from a storytelling perspective. In doing so, he not only provided the link between history and tragedy which would be elemental to later English Renaissance history plays but also set a new standard for effective use of the history play as propaganda. Although the history play evolved in England in a time when theatre in general was often viewed with suspicion, it was held up, even among theatre's critics, as an example of what could be valuable in the art form. A significant factor in the favorable treatment that history plays received was the social function that commentators of the time believed that plays of this genre provided. For Thomas Nash and Thomas Heywood, for example, the English history play immortalized English heroes of the past and created a sense of national pride in audiences. Generally speaking, history plays sought to accomplish the goals of historians using the dramatic medium. In the case of playwrights in Renaissance England, this often amounted to historical propaganda in theatrical form. In assessing the past hundred years of literary scholarship on this English history play, Brian Walsh writes that "the center of gravity for work on the history play has remained the political arena. With few exceptions, scholars have tended to focus on the genre‘s topical relevance for Elizabethan and Jacobean questions of national identity, kingly authority, and the interpellation of subjects. The focus has yielded a number of persuasive links between theatrical representation, the domestic and international expansion of state power, and the very day-to-day operation of Elizabeth’s and James’s governments." In addition to those written by Shakespeare, other early modern history plays include John Ford's Perkin Warbeck, and the anonymous plays Edward III, Thomas of Woodstock, and Sir Thomas More. Shakespeare In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies. The histories—along with those of contemporary Renaissance playwrights—help define the genre of