Why do the Capulets bite their thumbs at the Montagues? Why do the Venetians spit upon Shylock's Jewish gaberdine? What is it about Volumnia's act of kneeling t

Why do the Capulets bite their thumbs at the Montagues? Why do the Venetians spit upon Shylock's Jewish gaberdine? What is it about Volumnia's act of kneeling t

Taking a new approach to the metaphor of the political body, this book examines Shakespeare's representation of that body as possessing epistemological facultie

This book provides a sustained, formalist reading of the multiple body parts that litter the dialogue and action of Shakespeare's history plays.

mate Shakespeare’s corpus, and one of the most prominent is the image of the body. Sketched out in the eternal lines of his plays and poetry, and often drawn