The Petition on the Early English Stage

Petitioning was a common, even essential, practice in early modern governance, involving people from all ranks of society. Especially for commoners, the petition, even though highly scripted, offered a moment of direct communication with those in authority. Petitioning scenes were also ubiquitous on the early English stage. In such scenes, the petition was a special kind of stage property, familiar yet imbued with political significance for commoners and elites alike. This article, moving from typical petitioning scenes in plays such as A Knack to Know a Knave and Nobody and Somebody to the striking scenes in which petitions are torn in The Spanish Tragedy and The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, interprets petitioning scenes as demonstrating a popular politics founded on reciprocal social relations.