This was such a chilling, gorgeous piece--I've been trying to get at what it means when the body of the king still contains and signifies kingship, even in attitudes of submission (like death, or lovemaking, or prayer), but I think you've done it better than I ever could. As assimbya said, this is such a tactile story, so delicately and inescapably corporeal--and I love the way that idea of touch is inflected differently for Richard, Henry, and Hal. And I adore how Aumerle works within the story, as the subject permitted to touch majesty but also as the lover and the friend and the partisan ...

... and you know, I'm just babbling now. This was excellent.