Kollegienhaus, lecture theatre 001
Organizer:
Prof. Dr Ina Habermann
Shakespeare in London: City and Playhouse
- Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety (HV 3.2.12-13).
Standing in a battlefield in Harfleur, France, Henry V’s Boy expresses a longing for the comforts of home and the safety of a city alehouse. At the end of the play, the Chorus imagines Henry’s triumphant return from France to England’s capital city:
- How London doth pour out her citizens,
The Mayor and all his brethren in best sort,
Like to the senators of th’antique Rome
With the plebeians swarming at their heels (HV 5.0.24-27)
In this way, while the opening Chorus of Henry V may ask the audiences to let their ‘imaginary forces work’ (HV Pro. 18) and transport themselves to France, the play itself provides regular reminders of the real city just outside the ‘wooden O’ (HV Pro. 14) of the playhouse. In this lecture, I’m going to demonstrate the ways in which London was universal to Shakespeare and how it is everywhere in his work. In order to make this argument, I will examine the social, cultural and practical context into which Shakespeare’s plays were written, examining both city and playhouse to see the urban influences at work in the canon.
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