Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the faculty of Humanities 2011 Katie Pritchard School of Arts, Histories and Cultures 1 Contents List of Abbreviations and Illustrations 3 Abstract 4 Declaration 5 Copyright 6 Introduction 7 Critical Contexts of Illegitimacy and Shakespeare’s British Plays 9 Chapter 1: Early Modern Illegitimacy and the Nation 18 Illegitimacy in Early Modern England 19 Legitimate Nations: History and the ‘British Play’ 34 Chapter 2: Shakespearean Illegitimacy 46 Illegitimacy and Social Movement 47 Illegitimacy and Inheritance 57 Illegitimacy and the Nation 68 Chapter 3: Metaphorical Illegitimates 82 Defining Metaphorical Illegitimates 84 Metaphorical Illegitimates in the First Tetralogy 85 Metaphorical Illegitimates in the Jacobean ‘Histories’ 103 Chapter 4 : Illegitimacy and the Law 120 English Authority and Legal Individuality in King John 127 King Lear , Inheritance and the Common Law 131 Henry VIII , Absolutism and the Civil Law 141 Chapter 5: Political Legitimation 154 Political Smears 154 Legitimating Appearances in Richard II 170 Chapter 6: Performing Legitimacies in the Henriad 192 Performing Legitimacies in Henry IV 193 National and Dynastic Legitimation in Henry V 206 Conclusion: Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays 221 Bibliography 226 Word Count: 85,683 2 List of Abbreviations Abbreviations ed., eds, editor, editors edn. Edition n. note F Folio Q Quarto s.d. stage direction MS Manuscript ELH English Literary History ELR English Literary Renaissance OED Oxford English Dictionary Oxford John Jowett, William Montgomery, Gary Taylor and Stanley Wells (eds), The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (2 nd edn., Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) RQ Renaissance Quarterly RSC Royal Shakespeare Company SEL Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 SS Shakespeare Survey SQ Shakespeare Quarterly TLS Times Literary Supplement Biblical quotations are taken from the King James Authorized Version, 1611 List of Illustrations Figure 1 Rabbit and Duck optical illusion 31 Figure 2 Old Lady or Young Woman 31 Figure 3 Two Faces and a Vase 32 3 ‘Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays’: Abstract ‘Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays’, presented to the University of Manchester in 2011 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Katie Pritchard, demonstrates how Shakespeare participates in an early modern ‘discourse of legitimacy’ as described by Robert Zaller. This thesis, however, proposes an interrelated discourse of illegitimacy that is of equal importance to the discourse of legitimacy. A continuum or spectrum of legitimacy values is hypothesised, and seventeenth century optical illusions known as the curious perspective are used as a visual model that defines the inseparable nature of illegitimacy and legitimacy. Illegitimacy was a state traditionally defined as restrictive, and stereotyped as stigmatised by historians. Examination of the situation of early modern illegitimates in England, however, suggests a more inclusive attitude to illegitimates than has been previously acknowledged. The plays under discussion are under studied as a group; the thesis examines the British-set history and romance plays, defining them as ‘British plays’. This is because one of the central implications of the discourse of (il)legitimacy is that it forms an evaluation of nationhood in early modern England and Britain. Using recent reconsiderations of national identity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this thesis identifies a strong national sentiment in Shakespeare’s drama. The change from an Elizabethan English monarchy to a Jacobean British one instigated a reconsideration of what national identity might entail, using the discourse of legitimacies and illegitimacies to evaluate this developing concept. ‘Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays’ identifies how these discourses also link to other related themes in the British plays. The concept of sovereignty, as the thesis title suggests, is strongly linked to ideas of legitimacy and illegitimacy, with examples of the discourse used in this context drawn from Shakespeare’s works and a wider range of texts. Identification of the sovereign with national allegiance, to a certain degree, links these themes, yet Shakespeare also dramatises an independent national sentiment in the British plays, revealing developing nationhood onstage. National sentiment also infuses another area in which the discourse of (il)legitimacy is used by Shakespeare; the legal debates of the era are reflected in the British plays; a contemporary conflict between common and civil law, and the aim of many lawyers to rediscover an ancient constitution of Britain, especially in the area of patrilinear inheritance, is acknowledged throughout in Shakespeare’s use of legitimacy images and metaphors. As ‘metaphors’ suggests, illegitimacy is an increasingly conceptual issue in the thesis. Shakespeare uses ideas of illegitimacy to inform many areas; in particular a kind of validity or truth. A chapter on metaphorical illegitimacy demonstrates how illegitimacy and legitimacy language is suggestive of other issues. The invalidity of a usurped kingdom, a false kingship, is negotiated through illegitimacy discourses in Richard II , as the attempt to validate leadership in the second tetralogy is articulated with a discourse of totalising masculine legitimacy. ‘Legitimacy, Illegitimacy and Sovereignty in Shakespeare’s British Plays’ works within a contextual framework to locate the language and concepts Shakespeare dramatises in a wider environment, reflecting the issues of law, sovereignty and nation that existed in early modern English and British society. 4 No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 5 Copyright Statement i. 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This thesis locates interpretations of illegitimacy and legitimacy in a wider context of sovereignty and national sentiment in Shakespeare’s work. While issues of sovereignty have frequently been an area in which literature and history coincide, the traditionally accepted view that national sentiment began during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries has recently been radically revised. 1 In Shakespeare’s history plays, the development of an English nationhood can be identified, and tensions between Englishness and emergent Britishness under James I are reflected by Shakespeare’s later work. The plays articulate current tensions, social milieu and major political topics of the era, frequently engaging with contemporary discourses of sovereignty and nationality. As the British play genre 2 evolves with the changing concepts of nation in early modern England and Britain, the motif of (il)legitimacy evolves with it. Initially, true legitimacy is unattainable, something performed by politically aware sovereigns. Increasingly however, the plays postulate a kind of legitimacy that is attainable, though it is continually under threat from external forces. The following chapters identify Shakespeare’s use of illegitimacy and legitimacy motifs, tracing links to themes