Hello and welcome to my review of The Tragedy of King Richard II by William Shakespeare.
I am currently engaged on reading through The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
in the Oxford Compact Edition edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor.
The latest play that I have read is The Tragedy of King Richard II.
The character called Richard II in this play is based on the historical king of that name,
but Shakespeare has for the most part ignored the historical Richard.
So, in this play Richard is a self-centred man and an inept ruler; his fall seems both
deserved and inevitable. Nevertheless, Shakespeare elicits strong sympathy for the fallen king
as he suffers painful psychological trauma before coming to accept his fate.
It is quickly established that Richard is an incompetent king. In Act 1, scene 2 we
learn that Richard, before the play begins, had arranged the murder of his uncle the Duke
of Gloucester, an admired member of the royal family. Furthermore, his ordinary conduct
as king is persistently disastrous. When his ‘coffers, with too great a court And liberal
largesse, are grown somewhat light,’ he turns to extortionate abuses of the public.
And he seizes the estate of John of Gaunt, rightly the inheritance of the exiled Bolingbroke.
This not only stimulates Bolingbroke’s rebellion, but it alarms many other nobles, who fear
that their own holdings may similarly be in jeopardy. Richard’s wrong-headedness is
exemplified by his obstinate refusal to heed the good advice of his uncles Gaunt and the
Duke of York. He delights in ceremony and the trappings of power, and his rhetoric is
windy. Narcissistic and arrogant, he does not rule, he enjoys himself in the role of
ruler. Despite all his boasting, Richard cannot use the power of his position, and Bolingbroke’s
triumph, in deposing Richard, when it comes, is almost effortless.
However, in political decline Richard becomes a more sympathetic character. His speech is
no less extravagant, but now his mannered style is plainly a manifestation of inner
distress. He is a more complex person than he had seemed earlier; in his isolation, he
is intensely introspective and racked with anxiety, alternating between unjustified hope
and exaggerated despair. Finally, imprisoned and due to be killed, he acknowledges that
his own failings have played some part in his fall.
When reading Shakespeare, it is important to remember that what we are reading is a
work of imagination, that we are reading about characters whose lives have been dramatized
for maximum artistic effect. So, Shakespeare has imbued Richard with a
penchant for strong imagery and elaborate metaphor demonstrating an extraordinary imagination
and artistic sense. He is shown as a complex and ambiguous personality. Richard’s use
of poetic language and love of ceremony place him in striking opposition to the prosaic
and practical Bolingbroke. This powerful contrast reflects a basic human conflict between the
doer and the dreamer. It also enhances Richard’s strong symbolic role as the last representative
of the medieval England of Edward III, in which the ethos of chivalry was still dominant.
The passing of this nostalgically romantic period is a major theme of the play, as expressed
in the following famous passage spoken by John of Gaunt on his deathbed who laments
the death of the older, ordered world that he sees is fading away.
John of Gaunt: ‘This royal throne of kings, this sceptered
isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi paradise, This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Feared by their breed and famous by their
birth, Renowned for their deeds as far from home
For Christian service and true chivalry As is the sepulchre, in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s son;
This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world, Is now leased out – I die pronouncing it
– Like to a tenement or pelting farm.’
My rating for this play is A. And I’ll be back soon with another BookTube
video.