‘Maister of the earth’? Reassessing the Monarch-As-Husbandman Metaphor in Shakespeare’s Histories

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article challenges the suitability of the monarch-as-husbandman metaphor in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy in light of the environmental crises of the 1590s and the practical work of husbandry. Analysis of Shakespeare’s engagement with the metaphor typically focuses on Richard II and Henry V, with the former cited as an instance in which bad monarchic husbandry (Richard’s) is overcome by better (Bolingbroke’s) and the latter invoked as a consummate example of good monarchic husbandry in action, with Henry’s victory abroad figured as an act of national husbandry. This article suggests that Shakespeare’s Henry would have been understood as a bad husbandman, reading Shakespeare’s interrogation of the metaphor as a broader criticism of the government’s response to contemporary environmental crises. Putting pressure on the metaphor and comparing Henry’s language of husbandry to actual practice, this article offers a more nuanced understanding of Shakespeare’s engagement with the pressing environmental concerns of his day.