Shakespeare's Festive History: Feasting, Festivity, Fasting, and Lent in the Second Henriad

Although the festive elements in Shakespeare's plays have been well-noted since the publication of Barber's "Shakespeare's Festive Comedy", there has been a gap in the literature for a study on how aspects of festivity structure the entire four-play sequence of Shakespeare's Second Henriad. Here, the author details how Shakespeare creates historical characters who engineer their supremacy, shore up their popular support, and/or sustain their charisma through manipulation of festive elements, which are found throughout the tetralogy and rooted in the English cultural psyche. The study argues that in the second tetralogy, Shakespeare explores the "politics of festivity" by creating a "festive cycle" that spans through the four plays. In "Richard II", Bolingbroke exploits the politics of festivity to "gain public support and usurp Richard's throne". In "1 Henry IV", Hal in turn uses a similar political method by creating a "Feast of Falstaff", a plan that seems to go awry at the end of the play when Falstaff claims credit for Hotspur's death. With its political value diminishing, the festive mood wanes at the conclusion of "2 Henry IV". In "Henry V", the festivity ends and a more lenten period begins, marked by an introspective mood that lasts up until the Battle of Agincourt, but then feasting returns with Henry's victory and his marriage to Katharine. "Shakespeare's Festive History" makes a persuasive case for the structural and thematic unity of the four plays.