“Could Not All this Flesh Keep in a Little Life?” George IV, Falstaff, and Hal

ABSTRACT

This paper compares the varying cultural treatments of three famously fat individuals: the Prince Regent, the actor-manager Stephen Kemble, and Daniel Lambert, who was known simply for his weight. It also examines how the Romantics appropriated Shakespeare’s beloved “whoreson round man,” Sir John Falstaff, to express their hopes and fears for the Prince Regent’s reign as George IV. In political cartoons and criticism of the period, the Prince Regent incarnated both Prince Hal and Falstaff. Other literary texts, such as the anonymous 1808 novel, The Royal Legend, treat Shakespeare’s Falstaff plays, medieval history, and Romantic realpolitik as contiguous with each other and interchangeable. Contributing to the growing academic and literary field of “fat studies,” I bring insights from fat studies to bear on Romantic lives, writing, visual culture, and medicine.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Alfred Bader and the Banting Research Fellowships for funding my time in the Queen’s University English Department, and also to thank my Queen’s colleagues: Dr. Cathleen McKague (now at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto) for discussing an early draft and making sure that “the Shakespeare bits made sense,” Professor Shelley King (Queen’s University) for her wide-awake reading of a later draft and sound advice on images, and Dr. Gwynn Dujardin (Queen’s University) for a revealing conversation about Prince Hal. I would also like to thank Professor Gary Dyer (Cleveland State University) for urging me to include Lord Byron. Dr. Alvan Bregman and Ms. Jillian Sparks, MLIS, do a brilliant job of connecting every scholar at Queen’s with the treasures of the WD Jordan Rare Books Library, including Life in London. I would also very much like to acknowledge Dr. Julie Murray (Carleton University), Dr. Lauren Gillingham (University of Ottawa), and Dr. Lucy Morrison (University of Nebraska at Omaha), the outstanding editors of this issue; despite the accelerated schedule, they have never sacrificed quality of criticism or encouragement of their authors to speed. I owe a great debt to Dr. Joanne Rochester (University of Saskatchewan) for her marvelous coverage of the Henriad in my undergraduate Shakespeare class. Finally, with all my heart, I would like to thank both of the Georges in my life.