‘This Prison Where I Live’: Ireland Takes Centre Stage

Abstract

Although never visibly staged, Ireland plays a critical role in monarchic succession in Shakespeare's histories. Through two complementary offstage phenomena, the ‘spectral’ and the ‘obscene’, this article reveals how Ireland imprisons England. In 2 Henry VI, Ireland's spectral presence provides York with the ideal space from which to foment rebellion and challenge Henry VI. In Richard II, by contrast, Richard heads to Ireland to quell rebellion; however, Richard's trip leads to his enforced abdication. Richard, imprisoned, is caught between an obscene state of exclusion and the spectral world beyond the prison walls: Ireland, crucially, is shown to imprison England's imagination.