Crisis of Communion: Eucharistic Representations in Shakespeare's History Cycle

Eucharistic language and imagery are the connective tissue that unites William Shakespeare's history tetralogies into a coherent whole. Together, they depict England's communal crisis—civil war—as a crisis of Communion; eucharistic sacrilege collapses a sacramental ontology, which in turn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inELH Vol. 89; no. 2; pp. 317 - 343
Main Author Zimmerman, Daniel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01.06.2022
Subjects
Assassinations & assassination attempts
British & Irish literature
Christianity
Critics
Dramatists
English literature
History
Imagery
Modernity
Narrative techniques
Ontology
Religion
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Theater
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Summary:Eucharistic language and imagery are the connective tissue that unites William Shakespeare's history tetralogies into a coherent whole. Together, they depict England's communal crisis—civil war—as a crisis of Communion; eucharistic sacrilege collapses a sacramental ontology, which in turn breaks mechanisms of atonement, fragments society, and corrupts signification. Appropriately, Richmond effectuates England's communal regeneration by restoring this sacramental ontology through real, sincere eucharistic participation at the conclusion of Richard III. This reading challenges interpretations that hold that the second tetralogy unravels the providentialist conclusion of the first, or which treat the plays as discrete episodes.
ISSN:0013-8304
1080-6547
1080-6547
DOI:10.1353/elh.2022.0012