Introduction: The Baroque Body Parts of Henry VI Part Two
The introduction sets up the starting premise of book: that, in the history plays, metaphors involving bodies and body parts always complicate, rather than simplify, any understanding of sovereign power. Founded on recent research into the authorship and revisions of the Henry VI plays, this chapter reveals Shakespeare’s particular contribution to the emerging genre of the history play as one of proliferating complexity. Work on the politics of the baroque in Benjamin and Foucault is used to frame an understanding of the off-kilter figuration employed in the dialogue of these plays. Key examples are taken from the Henry VI part two, where Shakespeare’s contributions to the lengthier Folio text consist almost entirely of the addition of long metaphorical speeches that contest the crown, and characters’ proximity to sovereign power.