ABSTRACT
Manhood was associated with values such as reason, temperance, sobriety and good governance, the external signifier of which was the well-groomed beard of “formal cut” sported by Jacques’ ‘Justice’ in As You Like It. Attaining positions of political prominence was contingent upon relationships with women; becoming a husband was an essential part of achieving manliness. However male dominance over women was repeatedly shown to be perilous for men. Plays suggested that heterosexuality deviated from manly prescripts, and lovers on the early modern stage are often mocked by their homosocial fellows. The second part of the chapter builds on this assertion and uses the theories of Judith Butler and Jacques Lacan to argue that Hamlet, Macbeth, and Coriolanus are perpetually in the process of becoming men in the plays that bear their names. Significantly, for such canonical roles, their bearded status is often unclear and I argue that this is important for understanding the assumption of sexed identity more generally: entry into the symbolic order of adult manhood is predicated upon a set of bodies which must be excluded, those of woman, children, and animals. However, the extent to which manliness is dependent upon not being such bodies reveals manliness itself to be a hoax.
