SOURCE: MacKenzie, Clayton G. “Iconic Monsters in Paradise.” In Emblems of Mortality: Iconographic Experiments in Shakespeare's Theatre, pp. 39-64. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000.

In the following excerpt, MacKenzie highlights the unconventional use of the mythic figures of Mars and the Hydra in 1 and 2 Henry IV and Henry V. He suggests that although the struggle between Hercules and the Hydra was traditionally represented as a moral contest between good and evil, allusions to the many-headed monster in the Henry IV plays confound the issue of who is virtuous and who is vicious in the competition for the throne. Similarly, MacKenzie views the references to Mars in Henry V as an interrogation of the idea of the continual regeneration of English heroism.

Henry IV's reign was notable more for its shadowy internal wranglings than for its golden foreign achievements. Even his burial was shrouded in intrigue, with rumors...