Appearances and Disappearances: Henry V’s Shimmering Irishman in the Project to Make an England

Abstract

In presenting his Elizabethan theater-going audience with the Irish character of Macmorris, Shakespeare chose for Henry V one of many “Irish” or Irish-like character possibilities. The appearance of Macmorris, the play’s token or representative “Irishman” and Shakespeare’s only Irish character in any of his plays, is also the disappearance or never appearing of many other representations of Irishness, potentialities Shakespeare rejected and/or perhaps did not consider. For students and scholars of the origins of Irish identity and of English dominance over Ireland, an interesting question is why Shakespeare chose this particular representation, why Shakespeare presented (or re-presented) this Irishman and not any other, for Macmorris is made to signify all of Ireland in the four captains scene of act 3. (His three co-captains on the “All-British Isles team” represent Wales, Scotland, and England.)¹ What does the character mean, when he asks, “Of my nation? What ish my nation?” (3.3.66-67)?² Shakespeare offers a problem, a riddle, but no solution.