ABSTRACT
Shakespeare's 2 Henry IV focuses on a period of transition between the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403) and the accession of Henry V (1413). This play is intensely preoccupied with illness, disease, and medical metaphors. This chapter focuses on what it means to be sick at home in the context of a Civil War, integrating literary and historical approaches. The sick and the dying seek the comforts of home. In 2 Henry IV, Shakespeare depicts the intimate spaces to which the Earl of Northumberland and Henry IV retreat: the earl seeks the shelter of his home to convalesce; the king seeks refuge first in a bedchamber in the royal apartments and then sanctuary in a special room to die in peace. In contrast, Falstaff, whose health is failing, obtains no such comfort and experiences alienation and displacement. In the domestic spaces of this play, Shakespeare imagines a world in transition, in which home life intertwines with history and disease and decay provide a bridge to a new political order.
