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May 19, 2024

Ready #Classic Richard II

by NancyElin

 

Quickscan:

  1. King Richard is called upon to settle a dispute
  2. …between his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV)
  3. and Thomas Mowbray. (Act 1)
  4. Richard calls for a duel but then halts it just before swords clash.
  5. Both duelers are  banished from the realm.  (Act 2?)
  6. When Richard II banishes Bolingbroke and confiscates his property.
  7. …he begins a chain of events that bring about his own downfall.
  8. King Richard then  leaves for wars against the rebels in Ireland.
  9. Bolingbroke returns to claim back his inheritance. (Act 3)
  10. Bolingbroke forces Richard II to abdicate. (Act 4)
  11. Bolingbroke takes Richard prisoner and lays claim to the throne. (Act 5)

Deaths: 16

  1. Duke of Gloucester (before play starts, his brother John of Gaunt, Duchess of Gloucester, Thomas Mowbray, Bushy, Green, Richard II, 2 armed servants in Pomfert dungeon, Lord Salisbury, the Abbot of Westminster, Sir Stephen Scroop, Bagot, Blunt, Kent and Oxford.

Act 1: palace RII in London  RII-TM-HIV-G

  • Is spotless reputation that away
  • men are but gilded loam or painted clay TM

 

  • My honor is my life; both grow in one
  • Take honor from me; my life is done TM

 

palace Duke of Lancaster (J. of Gaunt)   short G _ duchess of Glousster (widow)

  • Duchess is G’s sister-in-law – D. of Glouster (dead) Duke Ed of York) G’s brothers
  • Duchess is in only one scene….now wants to die b/c G will not revenge DoG’s death

Act 2:  Gaunt dies, RII seizes $$ – goes to ireland – B is on his way to UK ships and soldiers!

 

 

 

 

Notes: History plays  (Tudor and later Stewart dynasties)

  1. legitimize power
  2. popularize image
  3. tool of propaganda
  4. characteristic: dramatic character and WS mixes fact and fiction
  5. WS: explores human character  and the consequences of people’s actions
  6. Backround Henry IV – civil war (rebellion in the north of England)
  7. Northern rebellion (1569-1570) intent on installing Mary Queen of Scots to the throne
  8. Pius V 1570 declared ElizI illegitimate heir b/c of her anti catholic policy
  9. WS’s kings are characterized by what they
  10. …possess and what they do rather than who they are!
  11. King John (Act 2,1) “Doth not the crown of England prove the king?”
  12. Pattern in Henriad: sin — punishment — redemption.
  13. Henry IV (sin) depostion of Richard II
  14. Civil wars (punishment) under Henry IV, V and VI
  15. Henry VII defeats Richard III (redemption) 1485 Battle of Bosworth
  16. and marrys Eliz of York to become FIRST TUDOR monarch.

 

  1. WS adapted history for the theatre to live up to the expectations of Eliz audience.

Examples:

  1. Henry IV part 1: Falstaff:  fat, drunk, comic figure with questionable morals
  2. Reality: Sir John Fastolf was a brave knight an offider in Henry IV’s army.
  3. Henry V: is old enough to marry in the opening of the play.
  4. Reality: Henry V was just nine months old when Henry IV died.
  5. Henry IV part 2: king is described as an old and sick ruler…tired of royal office
  6. Reality: Henry IV was an active king an ruled 10 years after Battle of Shrewsbruy.
  7. Henry IV part 2: Harry Hotspur (act 5,4) dies at Shrewsbury and accuses Prince Henry of robbing him of his youth “O, Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth! “
  8. Reality: Hotspur was in his fifties.

 

 

What is the Henriad?

  1. Henriad is a group of William Shakespeare’s history plays.
  2. Henriad is the group of four of Shakespeare’s plays:
  3. ….Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V
  4. ….with the implication that these four plays are Shakespeare’s epic.
  5. Prince Harry, who later becomes Henry V, is the epic hero.

 

 

 

Richard II

  1. Turning point: Richard II removes his crown:
  2. “Now mark me, how I will undo myself;
  3.  give this heavy weight from off my head.” (Act 4,1).
  4. Richard realizes without his crown…he is nothing.
  5. Kingship will not excuse his human sins…
  6. …which he willhave to pay with the crown.
  7. Cannot bear the burden of kingship…as  see in his on stage histrionics
  8. Act 1: RII is aware of Bolingbroke’s political influence and personal charisma.
  9. RII’s kingship lacks thos rapprt with the common people
  10. RII is a FEUDAL monarch who treats England as a possession.
  11. RII acts as if he is God’s appointee who is exempt form earthly laws and obligatons.
  12. RII comments on B’s strategic political behavoir (act 1,4)
  13. RII calls his subjects SLAVES while B is courteous and adapt at the “craft of smiles”.
  14. Act 2,3 B returns from exile to claim the title of
  15. …Duke of Lancaster (father John of Gaunt…Gaunt is also RII’s uncle)
  16. From Act 2,3  onwards  WS shows Bolingbroke as de facto king!
  17. B behaves like a king and uses royal discorse in his negotions with the rebels.
  18. Act 3,3 Turning point:  Begins an exchange between two political rivals (RII – B)
  19. Bolingbroke arrives at Flint Castle with a royal claim.
  20. Bolingbrokes message conveyed by Northumberland is a ‘conditional threat’ (act 3,3)
  21. Henry (Bolingbroke) threatens RII with military  war unless he acknowledges B’s hereditary rights.
  22. Act 3,3 RII notes B’s position of power but returns a threat via North to Bolingbroke.
  23. RII’s strength is his position de jure king, king by right.
  24. Act 3,2 “Not all the water in the rough rude sea
    Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;
    The breath of worldly men cannot depose
    The deputy elected by the Lord:”
  25. Act 3,3 end:
  26. RII has seen through B’s Machiavellian designs for the crown…there is no need to kneel  : “Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee
    To make the base earth proud with kissing it:
    Me rather had my heart might feel your love
    Than my unpleased eye see your courtesy.
    Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,
    Thus high at least, although your knee be low.”
  27. RII voluntarily yields to the usurper Bolingbroke.
  28. ”
    • Set on towards London, cousin, is it so? (where coranaitons take place)
  29. Act 4,1 The meeting between RII and B in Westminster Hall is a war between two different types of politians:  B= Machiavellian strategist – RII amateur in politics.
  30. Language styles are also different:
  31. B: speaks a highly functonal language geared to dramatic action.
  32. RII: poetic ornamental style of language suitable for recitation, full of verbal wit and metaphor.
  33. (mirror scene….shatters glass Act 4,1). B’s language abounds in rhetorical questions!
  34. During this speech Bolingbroke reamains mute — it is power and action not poetry that are his strong points!
  35. RII “Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,
    How soon my sorrow hath destroy’d my face. ” Bolingbroke replies….
  36. B: “The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy’d
    The shadow or your face.
  37. In other words…the theatrical, fake sorrow and emotions  made him destroy the ‘shadow’ (image) of his face reflected in the mirror.
  38. Sarcastic irony: RII mocks Bolingbroke by calling him king in fact he does not mean it at all!
  39. Sarcasm is more effective than direct criticism:
  40. “There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
    For thy great bounty, that not only givest
    Me cause to wail but teachest me the way
    How to lament the cause.”
  41. Act 5,6 : Bolingbroke with the cunning of a fox  rids himself of Richard his “living fear” with the help of Sir Pierce of Exton. In a hypocritical speech in which he displays remorse at RII’s death and announces his pilgrimageto the Holy Land to atone for his sins. He denies his wicked intentions and blames the murder on the actual murdered, Sir Exton
  42. ” They love not poison that do poison need,
    Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
    I hate the murderer, love him murdered.”

Act 3,2  Richard II: 

  1. Richard’s return from Ireland marks the beginning of his loss of kingship.
  2. Metaphor King: “the searching eye of the heaven”
  3. He see himself as the sun that lights up the world.
  4. He compares his absence in ireland to the arkness caused whent sundeparts to illuminate the lower world (other hemisphere).
  5. The darkness fosters murder and treachery b/c criminials feel moe ecure under the over of night.
  6. Whe the king is away  this is an occasion for robbers to conspire against him. (Irish campaigne 1599)
  7. He claims that the glare of his royal majesty  will cause the rebels faces to blush.
  8. “Shall see us rising in our throne, the east,
    His treasons will sit blushing in his face,
    Not able to endure the sight of day.”
  9. Dramatic irony: Act 3,2 predicts  the king’s fall…..the audience knows this…but Richard is still unaware of what is to come.
  10. Tragic flaw Richard II?  inaction – he naively thinks his kingship will save him from all harm and the king never dies.
  11. Richard II should react quickly when he hears that Bushy, Baggot and Green have been killed at Bristol and Bolingsbroke is a serious threat.
  12. Situational irony (…something entirely different happens from what audience may be expecting). What does Richard do?  Sits on the ground and tells sad stories about the death of kings! (act 3,2)  (speaking to Carlisle, Aumerle and Scroop) “For “God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground 1565
    And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
    How some have been deposed; some slain in war;”
  13. Act 3,3: in Flint Castle Richard’s weakness is proven. Bolingbroke asks the king to descend to the lower court and agree to abdication:
  14. Allusion: ” Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon,
    […] In the base court? Come down? Down, court!
    down, king!  For night-owls shriek where mounting larks
    should sing.
  15. Note: Richard is referring to the fable of Phaethon, son of Helios, who convinced his father to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun, with its mighty steeds, across the path of the sky from east to west

Symbol: crown, sign of power, respect, authority

Pivotal scene: Act 4,1 – Richard gives crown to Bolingbroke ” I give this heavy weight from off my head And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand…” (abdication)

Act 4,1 – Richard speaks to images of himself in a mirror then shatters the glass (his identity).

Message: King loses ability to make a distinction between  his  natural self and his royal self.  His kingdom is reduced to a cell in Pomfert Castle. Richard enters on stage as Richard-the-King and will perish as Richard-the-Man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry VI:

  1. He has every intention of applying Machievilain tactics as king but is too painfully human to be given the chance to “learn to govern better”in the play.

 

WS described the present through the past.

  1. Richard II could be a representation of Elizabeth (monarch die with heirs)
  2. Henry V’s French campaigns could relate to  Elizabeth’s Irish campaign (1599) let by Essex.

 

 

The first part of the ‘Henriad’, continued with the two parts of Henry IV and concluded by Henry V¸ William Shakespeare’s Richard II is a history play dramatizing the rebellion of Henry Bolingbroke, that would eventually see him made King of England. This Penguin Shakespeare edition is edited by Stanley Wells with an introduction by Paul Edmondson.

‘Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king’

Banishing his cousin, Bolingbroke, King Richard II prevents a dispute from turning bloody. But Richard is an arrogant and despotic ruler, prone to tyranny and vanity, who listens only to his flatterers. As favour turns against him and Bolingbroke returns to reclaim his land, Richard is humbled and grieved to see that the throne given to him by God might be taken from him by men.

This book contains a general introduction to Shakespeare’s life and Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to Richard II, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), many of which are regarded as the most exceptional works of drama ever produced, including Romeo and Juliet (1595), Henry V (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606) and Macbeth (1606), as well as a collection of 154 sonnets, which number among the most profound and influential love-poetry in English.

If you enjoyed Richard II, you might like Henry IV Part I, also available in Penguin Shakespeare.

‘We go to Shakespeare to find out about ourselves’

Richard II (1377-99) came to the throne as a child, following the long, domineering, martial reign of his grandfather Edward III. He suffered from the disastrous combination of a most exalted sense of his own power and an inability to impress that power on those closest to the throne. Neither trusted nor feared, Richard battled with a whole series of failures and emergencies before finally succumbing to a coup, imprisonment and murder.

Laura Ashe’s brilliant account of his reign emphasizes the strange gap between Richard’s personal incapacity and the amazing cultural legacy of his reign – from the Wilton Diptych to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales.

 

 

 

 

Quickscan:

  1. Lovers:  Ophelia and Hamlet
  2. Focus: revenge – the obsession to avenge can drive one mad
  3. Family issue: Uncle kills Hamlet’s father and marries his mother (yikes!)
  4. Plot twist: ghost of King Hamlet wants revenge. Triggers entire play!
  5. Hook: Ghost in Act 1…all acts end with cliffhangers!!
  6. Genre:  Revenge play
  7. Pivotal acts:  Act 3 and Act 5
  8. Soliloquies:  7 spoken by Hamlet
  9. Tragic flaw Hamlet: overthinks everything! “To be or not to be…” (Act 3, 1)
  10. Villian: Claudius manipulative, ruthless
  11. Ophelia: weak character compared to Desdamona!
  12. Minor character who plays major role: Laertes
  13. Symbol: poison (weapon, manipulation and madness)
  14. Motif: spying (eavesdropping) to seek truth)
  15. Spies: Hamlet, Horatio, Reynaldo, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, King Claudius
  16. Victims: Queen, King, Ophelia, Hamlet, Laertes
  17. Shakespeare’s statement: “What a piece of work is man!” (Act 2, 2)
  18. Setting:  Elsinore Castle, Danish coast, graveyard
  19. Major themes:  revenge, madness. death. appearance vs reality
  20. Minor themes:  ambition, corruption
  21. …”Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”  (Act 1, 4)
  22. Body count: 9
  23. King Hamlet (before play starts)
  24. Queen Gertrude
  25. King Claudius
  26. Polonius
  27. Rosencrantz
  28. Guildenstern
  29. Ophelia
  30. Laertes
  31. Hamlet
  32. The only main character left
  33. …standing at the end is Horatio,
  34. …who is usually seen sitting on the ground,
  35. …cradling Hamlet’s corpse.
  36. So technically, he’s not standing.
    1 drowning
    2 beheadings
    1 simple stabbing
    2 simple poisonings and
    3 aggravated stabbings (poisoned blade/some poison)
  37. Now that’s what I call a tragedy!

 

 

 

A history play alternating between the high drama of court life and the earthy comedy of the Boar’s Head Tavern in Eastcheap, William Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I is a masterful drama of a prodigal son rising to meet his destiny. This Penguin Shakespeare edition is edited by Peter Davison with an introduction by Charles Edelman.

‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’

Prince Hal, the son of King Henry IV, spends his time in idle pleasure with dissolute friends, among them the roguish Sir John Falstaff. But when the kingdom is threatened by the rebellious Earls of Northumberland and Worcester, and their allies, the fiery Welsh mystic Owen Glendower and the Scottish Earl of Douglas, the prince must abandon his reckless ways. Taking arms against his opposite number, the volatile young Harry ‘Hotspur’ Percy, he begins a great and compelling transformation – from irresponsible reprobate to noble ruler of men.

This book contains a general introduction to Shakespeare’s life and Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to Henry IV Part I, a chronology, suggestions for further reading, an essay discussing performance options on both stage and screen, and a commentary.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 38 plays (the precise number is uncertain), many of which are regarded as the most exceptional works of drama ever produced, including Romeo and Juliet (1595), Henry V (1599), Hamlet (1601), Othello (1604), King Lear (1606) and Macbeth (1606), as well as a collection of 154 sonnets, which number among the most profound and influential love-poetry in English.

If you enjoyed Henry IV Part I, you might like Henry IV Part II, also available in Penguin Shakespeare.

‘The finest, most representative instance of what Shakespeare can do’

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