Jane Shore's Political Identity in Thomas Heywood's Edward IV

Abstract

This article argues that Jane Shore, Edward IV's mistress in Thomas Heywood's history play, The First and Second Parts of King Edward IV, becomes a figure of chronical history through the way her speech acts of petitions and pardons are read as politically efficacious. In separating her performative speech from her identity as a woman, commoner, and mistress, Jane transcends both her moral and social status in ways not seen in the ballad or dramatic traditions that predate Heywood's play. Instead, Jane's words achieve a political authority even beyond those of the king, effacing her former status and recrafting—and perhaps limiting—her identity in the process.