Necks, Throats and Windpipes in Henry V: Sovereignty Translated
Henry V features a lot of throats, necks and – in French – “gorges”. It is also a play interested in the relationship between sovereign power and capital punishment. These vulnerable body parts are frequently placed within violent acts of translation and exchange: throats cut, strangled and transformed. French gorges are put in the place of English throats as Nym and Pistol trade threats back in England; Pistol offers to refrain from “couper la gorge” if he is given English “brave crowns” in return; the “col” of a French princess is translated into an English “nick”; and Bardolph’s “vital thread” is “cut / With edge of penny cord” in return for stealing “a pax of little worth”. It is in, and through, the “throat” that Henry V represents and interrogates the transactions that pertain to the mechanics of sovereignty.