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Shakespeare's History Plays Robert B. Pierce Shakespeare's History Plays The Family and the State $.75 SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORY PLAYS THE FAMILY AND THE STATE By Robert B. Pierce The concept of the family as a microcosm of the state dates back to antiquity. It was revived in the Renaissance, when it became a common sen­ timent in the literature of Elizabethan England and provided William Shakespeare with a pub­ lic basis for his art. Mr. Pierce systematically examines the nine history plays of the 1590s in the approximate sequence of their composition. He discovers in them a constant elaboration and rich develop­ ment of the correspondence between the family and the state into an ever more subtle and effec­ tive dramatic technique. Through a careful analysis of the language, characterization, and plots of the chronicles, Mr. Pierce demonstrates how the family served as an analogue of those grave events that marked the turbulent reign of King John and the subsequent terrible century of civil strife and wars with the French that haunted the imaginations of En­ glishmen more than a hundred years later. At times, he finds, Shakespeare depicts the family as a miniature of the kingdom, and the life of the family becomes a direct or ironic comment on the larger life of the commonwealth. At others, the family is inextricably bound up in a political situation by means of characters who are por­ trayed both in their public roles and as members of their families. No dramatist treating of those persons and events that are the stuff of the chronicles could avoid depicting the family; for kings and princes are necessarily fathers and sons, husbands and brothers. But Shakespeare's special contribution is to make the language and episodes of family life relate closely to the political themes that in­ formed his drama — themes that, for his audi­ ence, were not mere abstractions but real issues (Continued on back flap) SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORY PLAYS The Family and the State Of THE FAMILY AND THE STATE Robert B. Pierce OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 1971 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 73-157047 Standard Book Number 8142*0152-0 Manufactured in the United States of America To my mother, Edna B. Pierce TilU of Contents Preface ix I. Introduction 3 II. The Henry VI Plays 35 III. Richard III 89 IV. King John 125 V. Richard II 149 VI. The Henry IV Plays 171 VII. Henry V 225 VIII. Conclusion 241 Index 257 'Irefacc HAVE tried to avoid two pitfalls in the following I study, one of pursuing a hobbyhorse at the expense of Shakespeare's plays and the other of bogging down in the conflict whether or not the history plays embody Tudor orthodoxy. On the first of these, I have chosen to write about the theme of the family because it seems important in the plays and because it cuts across the normal critical lines between language, characteriza­ tion, plot, and theme. I have studied the relationship of the family to the political themes of the history plays, thus isolating one significant part of Shakespeare's dra­ matic craft and of his development during the 1590s. (I have omitted Henry VIII from my study because it comes so much later and is significantly different in theme and dramatic technique.) I have tried to keep my subject clearly in mind lest the discussion lose focus and become impressionistic commentary on the plays in general. At the same time I have avoided quoting every occurrence of the word "father" and have sought to relate the dramatic significance of the family to a broader view of the plays. ix PREFACE Seeing Shakespeare's histories as orthodox is no longer itself orthodox, as perhaps it was during the first years after John Dover Wilson's The Fortunes of Fal­ staff and, above all, E. M. W. Tillyard's Shakespeare's History Plays. Since I share much of Tillyard's view in particular, I seem to be open to the standard charge of "turning the plays into moral homilies." Let me pro­ test now that I do not see the purpose of the plays as inculcating anything. They hold the mirror up to na­ ture, a quite sufficient task for any drama. They do not teach that political order is a good thing nor that wives should obey their husbands, though they do assume these truisms of Renaissance orthodoxy in much the same way as they assume that kindness is better than cruelty. Although the argument has gotten very com­ plex—in particular, because of that useful term am­ biguity—many recent critics want us to see a Shake­ speare who is bitterly pessimistic about the course of history and who sternly disapproves of the strong rulers among his characters, especially Henry V as both prince and king. The first of these views seems to me truer than the second, though even there I detect no modern- style existential anguish behind the grim portrayal of a century of "carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts." At any rate, my critical purpose is to study a dra­ matic motif, not to contribute directly to this ongoing argument. I refer to specific points at issue only where other critical readings seem to me to distort the dra­ matic significance of the family. In one way, however, my study is relevant to the central issue. Many critics make use of a familiar distinction between public and private virtues, granting the former but not the latter PREFACE to Prince Hal, for example. If the family is an impor­ tant motif in the way I describe it, that seems to be a powerful argument against such dualism, at least in any simple form. Still, my first concern is to show that the motif of the family is present and important; only secondarily do I try to make political and moral in­ ferences from it. Since I do not see the eight history plays on the fifteenth century as an epic cycle in Tillyard's sense, I have avoided searching for subtle links among them. Clearly they are not autonomous entities in the same way as Macbeth and King Lear; in particular, the Henry VI plays and the Henry IV plays have a close connection among themselves. Still, each was presuma­ bly written to be played alone on one afternoon and therefore to a different audience from even its nearest companion. Hence it is rash to make too much of such conceivable parallels as that between Hotspur's mar­ riage and Henry Vs. Shakespeare's language calls for some recollection of earlier historical plays in the later ones, especially of Richard II in the Henry IV plays, but I seldom go beyond the connections that he spe­ cifically makes. There is no solution to the problems of documenting other criticism of Shakespeare. I have tried to indicate some at least of my major sources by footnotes, though the absence of any reference indicates neither my un­ familiarity with a critic nor my dismissal of him; and a disagreement on detail may be my only reference to someone who has taught me much. I have no doubt failed to read many fine studies and have misunder­ stood others; I can only hope that these errors have not xi PREFACE seriously weakened my conclusions and that the paucity of footnotes has discreetly veiled my ignorance. By no means all of my obligations are to printed sources. I am especially grateful to Herschel Baker, who sponsored and guided the doctoral dissertation out of which this book comes; to Alfred Harbage, who also read it at that stage; to David Young, who has since provided encouragement and intelligent advice; and to Oberlin College for a grant that allowed me to dredge many a learned quotation from sermons and courtesy books in that Mecca of scholars, the British Museum. Quotations from Shakespeare are from the admirable New Arden texts when they are available. For Richard III, which is not yet published in that series, I have used the original Arden edition. Part of Chapter VI has appeared in a slightly different form as "The Generations in 2 Henry IV," Twentieth Cen­ tury Interpretations of Henry IV, Part Two, ed. David P. Young (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1968), pp. 49-57. xn t9ft SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORY PLAYS The Family and the State The good prince ought to have the same attitude toward his subjects, as a good paterfamilias toward his household—for what else is a kingdom but a great family? What is the king if not the father to a great multitude?—Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince 1 INTRODUCTION F man stands at the center of drama, in Shake­ I speare's history plays it is public man, man as ruler, courtier, warrior, or citizen. We may see love and friendship and the intimacies of private life, but they are secondary to a panoramic view of public events. The reign of King John and the civil wars of the fif­ teenth century come to dramatic life in all their turbu­ lence and suffering in the nine history plays that Shakespeare wrote just at the end of the sixteenth cen­ tury. Implicit in the events and explicit in the speeches of the characters are some of the timeless issues of public life. A humanist in at least this broadest sense as he deals with history, Shakespeare seeks guidance for the present in the events of the past. Yet he is first of all a dramatist; unlike the historian Edward Hall and the poet Edmund Spenser, he is inclined to drama­ tize the events and issues without drawing an explicit moral.1 In short, his plays are not didactic, but they are political drama.
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