ENG220Y1 Lecture Notes - Mistress Quickly, 3 Women, Carnivalesque
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Henry IV
•“The dead bodies of the Englishmen, being above a thousand lieng upon the ground
imbrued in their own blood... did the women of Wales cut off their privities, and put one
part thereof into the mouths of eveire dead man, in such sort that the cullions hoong
down to their chins; and not so contented, they did cut off their noses and thrust them
into their tailes as they lay on the ground mangled and defaced.”
•Abraham’s Fleming’s account in Holinshed’s Chronicles
•render body grotesque, body as stand for society
•Falstaff, sexual appetite, grotesque
•carnival, particular kind of theatrical ritual, characters play characters they’re not;
inversion of hierarchy (servants play kings and vice versa)
•territorialization and castration of body
•female body; mouth and genitalia thought to be analagous
•ideological silencing of women, women need to be silent, chaste and obedient
•only 3 women in the play
•Mistress Quickly
•Hotspur to Earl of Worchestor “Oh pardon me that I descend so low... did gage them
both in unjust behalf... that sweet lovely rose and plant this thorn...”
•lawfulness of reign undermined
•Prince Henry + Falstaff 2.2
•plot for robbing, “crown”
•Peto, Poins... Falstaff runs away
•2.5 Tavern, Falstaff falsely bragging and Harry reveals it
•undermining nature of truth, oath and identity
•copiousness, repetition dilating body and play
•Falstaff immediately nimble and dexterous in running away and in rhetoric, inventing
new story to fit new facts
•Falstaff “this cushion my throne, this... my crown” juxtaposition to King Henry
•invocation for audience to imagine that props actually majestic
•father and son
•creating worlds through appetite, carnivalesque, change things, engender plots, dilate
narratives... figure of life, mirrored with Shakespeare
•banishment of Falstaff banishes good times and merriness and creative engine
•counterfeit: imitation, forged...
•nature of kingship, lineal succession disrupted
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ENG220
Wednesday, November 30, 2011