Since this encounter with fat, which already induces self-reflection, is placed within a second self-reflecting metatheatrical structure, the scene constitutes a protracted rendering of the protocols of rhetorical representation: it estranges Falstaff's substance that readers and theatregoers usually understand as "the old fat knight" into its rhetorical parts. While this scene is supposed to allow Prince Henry an opportunity to "practise an answer" before he meets his father King Henry IV, in actuality, the question of how to interpret Falstaff's fat body takes center stage. This article argues that the "play extempore" in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 is a privileged site for "crip estrangement," a phenomenon that occurs in Shakespearean drama when a normate character encountering disability is featured within a metatheatrical structure.
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