Popular politics in 2 Henry VI : Everyday forms of resistance and hidden transcripts

Abstract

This essay aims to re-evaluate popular politics in 2 Henry VI by adopting James Scott’s concepts of hidden transcripts and everyday forms of resistance as its critical methodology. Shakespearean popular politics is invested not only in the scenes punctuated by the high moment of Cade’s rebellion but also in the scenes which register less spectacular forms of resistance, such as the three scenes concerning petitioners, protesters and pirates. Moreover, Scott’s hidden transcripts invite us to reconstruct the Cade scenes so obviously distorted by Elizabethan censorship and to look for the people’s grievances concealed beneath the surface of their disfigured portraits.