In *Henry V* and elsewhere, Shakespeare is echoing a larger cultural pattern centering on the body of the horse, a pattern in which the Galenic determinism of climate, region, race, and breed confronted a nascent nationalism based on governance and disciplined management.

In her book The Animal Estate, Harriet Ritvo reminds us that “animal-related discourse has often functioned as an extended, if unacknowledged metonymy, offering participants a concealed forum for the expression of opinions and worries imported from the human cultural arena.” This paper examines one such metonymy in the early modern period; the ani…[Read more]