Shakespeare's knowledgeable body: Ways of knowing in the Shakespearean body politic

Although the idea of the king's two bodies was not considered politically orthodox, by the Early Modern period the metaphor of the body politic was a familiar way of describing the state. One facet of this metaphor depicted the ruler as the possessor of two bodies---a body natural and a body politic. Another aspect of this metaphor conceived of the monarch as the head of a body politic composed of many members. The state also became a body politic composed of many members but distinct from the body politic of its monarch. This image was so familiar that both Elizabeth I and James I used the peculiar logic of the metaphor to their political advantage---Elizabeth to explain why she would not answer petitions to marry, and James to argue for the unification of England and Scotland. Controversial as the idea of the king's two bodies might have been, this metaphor informs not only early modern political discourse but also popular literature like Shakespeare's plays.;Shakespeare uses the body politic metaphor in Richard II, 1 and 2 Henry IV, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet. In these plays, Shakespeare imagines a body politic that is more complex than the familiar image might suggest. Shakespeare's political bodies possess not only the limbs and head of the traditional image, but also epistemological faculties---the political faculties of the eye, the ear, the conscience, and the tongue. Although not every political faculty is represented in every play, certain of these faculties appear in each of the plays. Moreover, these political faculties contribute to the dysfunction or the health of each of the political bodies of which they are members. In showing the ways in which the political faculties do and do not work together, Shakespeare illustrates the necessity of each of the faculties to the continuing health of the political body. This study of Richard II, 1 and 2 Henry IV, Henry V, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet will demonstrate that Shakespeare conceptualizes the body politic as a complex organism possessing epistemological faculties that are essential to the survival and healthy function of the state.