Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Histories

Part 1—Contexts

Chapter 1—Shakespearean History Play (3)

Genre (3)

  • Histories associated w/ tragedies since both end w/ death

    • Bradley’s distinction b/t historical, pure tragedy

    • Henry V ends w/ marriage, like comedy

  • Aristotle contrasted history w/ poetry

  • History emerges from politics

  • English drama pre-1500s was almost entirely ceremonial+religious

    • Mysteries (biblical dramatizations), miracles (saint biographies)

    • Allegorical morality plays instill Christian doctrines

  • Characteristics of Shakespeare’s histories

    • Expectation of some knowledge of historical events

Truth+Realism (11)

  • Shakespeare addresses history+historiography

  • Places represent social spaces, not geographical locations

  • Shakespeare concerned w/ institutions, esp. court politics

Politics (14)

  • Shakespeare’s histories related to history by offering representations of historical figures+creation of theater out of historical events

  • Shakespeare’s histories address historical process

Historiography (16)

  • Shakespeare doesn’t separate dramatization from commentary

  • Reflections on, not of, past

  • Shakespeare most interested in causation

    • Earlier writers assumed events were divine providence rather than consequence of actions

    • “History is made by the decisions and actions of men and women taken at particular times and in particular circumstances” (18)

  • Supernatural acts primarily as storytelling devices

‘Edification’ (20)

  • Shakespeare’s histories as theatrical essays on political ‘edification’

Chapter 5—Women’s Roles in Elizabethan History Plays (71)

  • Margaret

    • Margaret subject of earliest surviving reference to Shakespearean character+Shakespeare’s work

    • Margaret only character it appear in all 4 plays of 1st tetralogy

  • Joan

    • Most formidable opponent confronted by English forces

    • Most memorable+vividly conceived of all characters in play

  • Margaret enters play as Joan leaves, symbolizing role shift

  • English history play least hospitable to women

    • 2nd tetralogy severely limits roles of women

    • Theme of women as antagonists/negative characterization

      • Level of agency directly related to negativity of characterization

      • Less feminine qualities associated with uniquely female wickedness

      • Strong women unwomanly

  • Women antagonistic to purpose of plays (preservation of historic past)

    • Joan traditional antagonist

    • Margaret anti-hero to antagonist

      • Character doomed from start by consequences of marriage

Part 2—Plays (87)

Chapter 6—Plantagenets, Lancastrians, Yorkists, and Tudors—1-3 Henry VI, Richard III, Edward III (89)

  • Historiographers wanted to know whether kings were good/bad+why

  • “Neither the chroniclers nor the playwrights cared as much about the facts as they did about the possibilities” (89)

Structures+Styles in Early Histories (90)

  • Shakespeare started in middle of story

1 Henry VI—Juxtaposition+Suggestion (90)

  • Interdependence of character+circumstance

2 Henry VI—Story+Episode (92)

  • “Episodes serve as emblems: to complete their meanings, audiences must compare such moments to other actions in the play” (93)

  • Henry’s leadership flawed by inability/unwillingness to act

3 Henry VI—Losers+Winners (94)

  • Most cohesive storyline of Henry VI

  • Henry plays role of victim rather than instigator

  • Richard+Henry face off, neither as king

Richard III—Tragic Pyramid (96)

  • Standard tragic structure

  • No subplots

  • “It is not Richard we mourn for, exactly, but Richard’s tragic defiance of his fate” (97)

    • “Supports historical determinism from outset, not only by dealing with events of known outcome, but also by repeatedly reminding us of what we know” (97)

Edward III—Parallel Lives (98)

  • “Explicit connection b/t Edward’s mastery of his emotions+his success as a warrior” (98)

Language (100)

  • Anaphora: beginning each clause in sequence w/ same word

  • Epistrophe: repeating same word at end of each clause

  • 1 Henry VI least colloquial play

  • Very little prose in early histories

    • None in 1 Henry VI, 3 Henry VI, Edward III

      • 2 Henry VI only has prose due to scenes involving commoners

  • Rhyme used for emphasis

Causes of History (101)

  • “Take destiny seriously as a force in human affairs” (101)

    • “Attitude of these plays toward destiny is not always easy to see” (101)

    • “Associate it [fate] with universal determinism” (101)

      • Universal Determinism: idea that every event is part of chain of causation stretching back to beginning of universe

        • Distinct from fatalism

  • No clear association b/t destiny, morality in Henry VI

    • Fatalism not choice, but result of upbringing

Staging Early History Plays (103)

  • Designed to be performed in public amphitheaters for audiences of 2k-3k people

    • Pictoral scenery

    • Scene changes signified by actor swaps rather than set changes

  • Emsemble plays

Chapter 7—Historical legacy+fiction: poetical reinvention of King Richard III (106)

  • Richard III ultimate exemplum

    • Exemplum: political emblem for human degradation, set against idealized regeneration

  • Shakespeare’s Richard escapes historical boundaries to become stylized, larger-than-life monster

  • Tyrant archetype in mystery plays often plagued by various infirmities, mirroring his crimes

  • Richard becomes physical representation of not only monster but deformed body politic

Vice heritage: histrionics+stage managing of Richard as Vice (112)

  • Vice archetype

    • Other characters: Iago, Aaron, Don John, Falstaff

    • Marks: verbal+physical dexterity, puns, changes of tempo+register, deceit, tricks, shifts from controlled/rational/solemn to passionate/angry/amourous, sacrilegious use of oaths+Scriptures, satire, social climbing, misogyny, self-confidence, arrogant trust in others’ gullibility

Senecan influence+tragic dimension of play (116)

  • Sensational themes

  • Margaret serves as foil to Richard

  • Women in this play serve as synecdoche for all women who have suffered from wars

    • Always appear in 3

      • Alluiion to Furies, Fates, Marys at foot of Cross

  • Ghosts appear to Richard

  • Richard shifts from powerful archetype to pathetic shell of man

    • Despair considered cardinal sin of church

  • Richard allowed stoic death like Senecan tyrants

  • “the play suggests that the tragedy of power is not that it is doomed to fail one day…but that it is bound to crush innocent victims” (122)

Richard III: theatrical+filmic afterlife (122)

  • Cibber’s 1700 adaptation highlighted Richard’s deformity+increased proportion of titular role

  • 1900s reinstated original text, shifted from acting to interpretation+production

    • 1942, 1944 productions overtly compared Richard to Hitler/Nazis

Chapter 9—Richard II: Shakespeare and the languages of stage (141)

  • What is unsaid is almost as significant as what is said

Identity, politics, verbal versatility (142)

  • Highest proportion of key words concerning language of all Shakespeare’s plays

  • Right to speak both as expression+communication explored from beginning

  • Richard enslaves himself+his people by talking+acting as if their interests are unimportant

    • Most powerful voice in the play (commons) never heard

  • All publications during Elizabeth I’s lifetime censored

    • Deposition omitted

  • Elizabeth I identified heavily w/ Richard II

  • 1st considered tragedy, then history, then lamentable comedy

Beyond words: play in performance (147)

  • Generates questions

  • Controversial productions

    • 1973 RSC production enforced division of public+private selves w/i king+expressed tragic affinity b/t Richard, Bullingbrook by swapping actors nightly

    • 2000 Almeida performance considered “history of human mind”

Historical+creative contexts (151)

  • Play about failure

  • 2 major symbolic structural frames: Crusade, garden paradise

    • Both evoked as lost glories

  • Anticipates future plays, esp. King Lear