8:38 Richard II

Day 8 of 38:38
Richard II

My history with this play is rather brief. I skimmed it once when I thought I might have an audition for it, about two years ago. The audition didn't happen, so I didn't read the play in more depth. But just from that skimming I was struck into a full stop by the beauty of the line in the first scene "Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood." I read that line, and it literally stopped me in my tracks. I stopped reading just so I could say it out loud. But I don't remember any other impressions from that reading.

Then in 2008 I saw my first production. In London, as part of the RSC Histories Cycle, starring Jonathan Slinger. Oh my. I fell in love with the play. The beauty of the poetry in this play is unparalleled. And that was the production to truly realize how spectacular it was. Jonathan Slinger -- well words are not enough to describe his magnificence. I specifically remember being moved to tears three times during that performance just by the sheer beauty of the verse speaking. I came home and immediately memorized the Let us sit upon the ground speech. Because it's amazing.

Since then I've seen one more production, but unfortunately nothing will ever be able to live up to that first one. Let's face it, Shakespeare has set out an nearly impossible task for the actor playing Richard II -- be weak, whiny, ineffectual, vain, conceited, silly, and still make the audience care about you. Make them care so much that they are heart-broken watching you fall.

Also what fascinates me about R2 and Shakespeare's other early plays are the way he and Marlowe were bouncing off of each other. It's such a shame Marlowe died so young. Imagine what would have happened if Shakespeare and Marlowe were competing for even longer! I highly recommend checking out Tamburlaine, Edward II, and the Jew of Malta, just to see how they compare and contract with Shakespeare's plays. There isn't any positively known order, but Edward II, Richard II, and the Henry VI plays all deal with "weak" kings. In a time where divine providence was still the word, I imagine it was somewhat controversial to stage such ineffectual kings. Not to mention the deposition scene in Richard II and all the trouble that occurred when Essex had the play stage to drum up opposition to Elizabeth. Besides plotting, there are several verbal echoes between Shakespeare and Marlowe (more on that when we hit Henry VI).


One of the common motifs in Richard II seems to be grief and shadows.

In II.2 Bushy says to the Queen
Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which show like grief itself, but are not so.
For sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives, which rightly gaz’d upon
Show nothing but confusion; ey’d awry
Distinguish form: so your sweet majesty,
Looking awry upon your lord’s departure,
Finds shapes of grief more than himself to wail;
Which, look’d on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord’s departure weep not: more’s not seen;
Or if it be, ’tis with false sorrow’s eye,
Which for things true weeps things imaginary.

Then in IV.i
Richard Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,
How soon my sorrow hath destroy’d my face.
Bolingbroke The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy’d
The shadow of your face.
Richard Say that again.
The shadow of my sorrow! Ha! let’s see:
’Tis very true, my grief lies all within;
And these external manners of laments
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortur’d soul;
There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv’st
Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way
How to lament the cause.


And finally, here's what I think is really great about this play is that it is entirely ambiguous.
1. In the first scene is Bolingbroke or Mowbray the traitor?
2. What the hell happened with the Duke of Gloucester?
3. Does Richard abdicate or is he deposed?
4. Are Bushy and Green really weeds and ruining England? Other characters claim they are, but we never really see anything in action.
5. Is Richard commendable or not?
6. Is Bolingbroke commendable or not? Whom are we supposed to be rooting for?
7. Once Bolingbroke takes over, the question from the first scene about what happened with Gloucester comes back. Now Bagot accuses Aumerle, and like the first scene, we still don't know who is telling the truth.
8. How much of a hand did Bolingbroke have in Richard's death?

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Favorite Female Character:
Duchess of York
Favorite Male Character:
Richard II

Laugh out loud:
Aumerle Some honest Christian trust me with a gage! (Though admittedly this laugh is much more potent in performance than on the page.)

Oh, misogyny:
Scroop Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat.

Down with the Patriarchy:

Famous Last Words:
Carlisle Fear not, my lord. The power that made you king
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.

Favorite Moment/Line:

Bolingbroke Further I say, and further will maintain
Upon his bad life to make all this good,
That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death
Suggest his soon-believing adversaries
And consequently, like a traitor coward,
Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood

Richard II For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
How some have been depos’d, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos’d,
Some poison’d by their wives, some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court, and there the antick sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp;
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d, and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and humour’d thus
Comes at the last, and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?