Skin of an Innocent Lamb: Shakespeare, Sacrament, and the Absence of Sin in Early Modern Literary Criticism

Abstract

The critical fields of early modern English literature and religion define the term “sacrament” as a range of linguistic, didactic, and metaphorical moves. However, studies of sacramental rhetoric in Shakespeare and others fail to tie linguistic sacramental features to relevant, Reformed, historical notions of personal, answerable sin. This essay responds by considering how Shakespeare reflects on sin, confession, and literary expression through his Henry VI plays. Shakespeare employs the form of the book to stage his characters’ confessional struggles, offering rich articulations of literature’s interactions with sin and the sacramental practices syncopating the lives of readers.