Uncovers the workings of sovereign power in Shakespeare's history plays This book provides a sustained, formalist reading of the multiple body parts that litter the dialogue and action of Shakespeare's history plays, including Henry V, Richard III, Richard II, King John and the Henry IV plays. With a starting point in literary critical analyses of these dislocated bodies, the book tracks Shakespeare's relentless pursuit of a specific political question: how does human flesh, blood and bone relate to sovereignty? Griffiths advances our understanding of how human bodies are captured by -- and escape -- the grip of political systems. Huw Griffiths is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature at The University of Sydney.