History Plays Final

Question 1

Narrative Prosthesis

Answer 1

Disability Pervades as an opportunistic metaphorical device.

Question 2

Psychomachia

Answer 2

Medieval tradition of non-individualized characters representing a singular emotion on stage. (Richard as Vice)

Question 3

Mimesis vs. diegesis

Answer 3

Mimesis is shown on-stage, Diegesis is told (actions are off-stage)

Question 4

Boy players

Answer 4

4 boy players for female parts, 10-21 years old

Question 5

Sumptuary laws

Answer 5

Laws dictate clothing, fabric externalizes social class but demonstrates that social class is not innate.

Question 6

Deus ex machina

Answer 6

Contrived plot device, brings clunky resolution (i.e. Richmond in R3)

Question 7

Tetralogy

Answer 7

Means 4 distinct plays

Question 8

Humoral Body in H4

Answer 8

Melancholic = Henry 4
Phlegmatic = Falstaff
Sanguine = Hal
Choleric = Hotspur

Question 9

Palace vs. Tavern

Answer 9

Palace = nobility, verse, order, duty, obligation, Henry 4
Tavern = commoners, prose, pleasure, passion, revelry, Falstaff

Question 10

Chain of Being

Answer 10

God, man, woman, child, beast

Question 11

Early modern actors + company

Answer 11

35 plays a year, and 12-15 actors per company.

Question 12

Grand mechanism

Answer 12

Circularity of history; deflates individual victory.

Question 13

Tudor myth

Answer 13

Richard III emphasizs R3 over Richmand/H7.

Question 14

Locus vs. pleatea

Answer 14

Locus = upstage, highly ranked characters (H4)
Platea = downstage, lower class characters. Non representational space. (Falstaff)

Question 15

Falstaff’s fatness

Answer 15

Represents grotesque body, carnivalesque

Question 16

Grotesque body

Answer 16

Porous, leaky; connected to female reproductive body (menstration, pregnancy, lactation). Open, protuberant, never contained.

Question 17

Honor

Answer 17

Hall attempts to cultivate honor via gratuitous violence; bloodshed as signifier of honor. Falstaff demonstrates honor is an arbitrary concept; intangible and insignificant. Honor can be deceiving, manipulated.

Question 18

Special Effects

Answer 18

Thunder machine; black, yellow, and red smoke; gunpowder and cannon balls; fireworks

Question 19

Chorus in Henry V

Answer 19

Audience’s mentor for theatrical experience. Asks them to use imagination. Encourages audience to consider theatrical experience and intimate view of Henry V.

Question 20

Warfare as conquest

Answer 20

Enslavement of higher reason by base bodily appetites; subjugation of superior to inferior. Women portrayed as objects of sexual conquest. Rape is associated with military invasion.

Question 21

Patriotism

Answer 21

Henry V (Hal) uses it to dignify sexual conquests, defines as band of brothers with gender distinctions but no social class markers.

Question 22

Epilogue in Henry V

Answer 22

Uses strategic opacity to gloss over war crimes. Suggests war to create peace. Invites audience to promote additional performance.