ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 argues that Renaissance depictions of Human bodily weakness were central to theorizing political life. I trace tropes of Human physical insufficiency from political tracts of the 1590s to the heath of King Lear. These texts contrast fragile Human skin with rugged beastly hide in order to demonstrate that people’s frail bodies bind them to one another. Political life is grounded in the exceptional vulnerability of the Human physique. This apparent distinction between Man and beast, however, elides the dehumanizing strategies implicit in the discourse. The physical accommodations of the polis in the forms of food, clothing, and housing are not available to all people. Crucially, much support and care are provided by servants, and King Lear is particularly interested in the forms of Human life imagined to be without the need of such care. Rather than portraying a binary distinction between insufficient Humans and sufficient beasts, the play continually refers to a third category of dehumanized people—the homeless beggars who exist outside the bounds of the polis. This ideological strategy divides humanity into two groups: those who are fully Human and those who are not-quite-Human in their physical sufficiency. Those people who lack full humanity are therefore suited to support the life processes of weak Humans in need of care.
