The Affective Ecology of Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy

Although written out of order and later revised, the plays of Shakespeare's First Tetralogy show significant continuities of imagery, particularly their depiction of the crises of the Wars of the Roses as a series of meteorological events. This essay reads this system of weather, politics, and feeling as an affective ecology, a "breathing world" that links individual passions, playhouse atmospheres, and political sentiments. Crucial to understanding these relations is the plays' account of rulership and its failures, which centers on "sway," an affective motion of coordination and coherence that governs the movements of both on-stage groups and of the theatrical audience. This attribute is both conspicuously lacking in the indecisive and all-too-easily influenced Henry VI and highlighted by the contrasting rhetorical violence of Richard III, who seeks to cut-off, stop, and smother all those who oppose him. Taken together, the plays build an understanding of the English nation as a deeply interconnected ecology that can function only under the influence of ruler like Henry VII who can bring people and nature back into coordination with each other. P.B.