Richard II

I tend to forget how much fun reading Shakespeare is, he’s a literary genius. His writing is so witty, starting from the writing structure, all the way to the metaphors and reference in dialogue… You’ll even want to stand up and drop a soliloquy when you’re in the heat of a moment.

In this play, Shakespeare uses Richard II to explore what it means to be a human and to have the identity of a King. Richard II is an incapable King and the play is very much concerning his demise. I’m always quite amused by Shakespeare’s wit in writing, the most obscure literary agents are hidden in plain sight. Shakespeare characterizes his actors by the words and style of their dialogue. A central tactic is the contrast of Richard II’s dialogue and Henry Boilingbroke’s - Richard II seems silly and superfluous whereas Henry’s seems much more pointed and tactical.

Richard II is seen as an ineffective monarch through his lengthy dialogues, cited failures with curbing the unrest in England, indecision or ability to take decisive action, and general lack of the people’s favor. In Act III, the gardner makes a metaphorical reference to the Kingdom by referencing how he treats his garden, and how Richard II fails to treat England:

Go thou, and like an executioner, Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays, That look too lofty in our commonwealth: All must be even in our government. You thus employ’d, I will go root away The noisome weeds, which without profit suck The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.

I thought it was funny how Richard II suddenly assumes this ‘tragic’ role of a doomed king, and goes into these monologues about kingship and ruling, and his doomed state, etc… As the play goes on, he gets more and more poetic in his speech implying his lack of control, a direct contrast to Boilingbroke’s more plain verses which imply his straightforwardness and ability to act.

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings; How some have been deposed; some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed; 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 antic sits,

I hadn’t read the historical plays by Shakespeare, so this being my first, it came as a pleasant surprise, and a terrific read. If all you’ve read of his is Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Midsommer’s, etc.. then come back, read his historical plays!