The Smoke of War: From Tamburlaine to Henry V

Abstract

Early in Tamburlaine Part 1, Marlowe’s protagonist promises that his army’s bullets, “[e]nrolde in flames and fiery smouldering mistes”, will occupy the heavens (2.3.20). Uniting the technological with the supernatural, Tamburlaine is characterised as a warrior who commands the “compasse of the killing bullet” (2.1.41), with the smoky emissions generated by his ordnance complementing his martial ambitions. As Tamburlaine and his rival Bajazeth compete for discursive and material control of the fictional – and theatrical - air, deploying smoke, flying bullets, and airborne contagion, Marlowe’s drama introduces an association between pollution and achievement that Shakespeare would subsequently interrogate in Henry IV and Henry V. While Shakespearean characters such as Hotspur continue to celebrate the fumes of “smoky war” (1 Henry IV 4.1.115), Shakespeare also registers the performative risks of generating environmental pollution: an approach that culminates in Henry V when the title protagonist’s threats conflate bullets with rotting bodies and render the air itself a poisoned weapon that “choke[s]” the atmosphere (4.3.99-108). Analysing both parts of Tamburlaine, Henry VI Part One, 1 and 2 Henry IV, and Henry V, this article explores the theatrical associations between staging battle and the weaponised use of airborne pollutants, reflecting on the implications for contemporary dramatic representations of the martial and aerial environment.