King Richard II

The path of the Sun King Richard II; the rise and fall of a kingdom 

The Sun; the ominous light of heaven and earth, is a frequent used symbol in the play for the rise, power and fall of medieval English monarchy.

When Bolingbroke before Flint castle is waiting for King Richard's answer whether the King will withdraw his exile Bolingbroke associates King Richard's appearance and impending downfall with the path of the sun across the sky and how it goes down in the west: “See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east, When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory and to stain the track Of his bright passage to the occident. (3.3.62-67)

King Richard likens himself - whether he has any identity any more - to a snowman melting to water standing before the sunshine of the successor king Bolingbroke: “O that I were a mockery king of snow, Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke, To melt myself away in water-drops!” (4.1.260-262)

In the same scene when he is looking at himself in a mirror, in order to understand who he will be, when he is no longer a King, he rhetorically reflects over his fading sun King images “was this the face That, like the sun, did make beholders wink? // A brittle glory shineth in this face: As brittle as the glory is the face” (4.1.281-288)

When an ally to King Richard says that his warriors have fled due to signs in nature, he associates King Richard's impending fall with a crying decline of the sun, as a shooting star.“Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind I see thy glory like a shooting star Fall to the base earth from the firmament. Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west” (2.4.18-21)

When Bolingbroke lets interrogate one of the lords about circumstances due to Duke of Gloucester's death, one of his allies insinuates that the questioned lord was involved, when he states the lord stood in the sun, e.g. blessed by King Richard II “By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand’st, I heard thee say – and vauntingly thou spaks't it –  That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester’s death” (4.1.36-38)

Metaphors of England as Mother and Garden 

To emphasize that the medieval King Richard is spending England’s wealth, both in economical and moral terms Shakespeare uses metaphors connected to the declining wealth of the nature, of gardening or farming, or predictor's interpretation of ominous signs in nature. The government King Richard has been leading is so unbalanced, it is destroying itself, and it will need some careful tending to come back to its proper state.

We are taught by John Gaunt that England is an “other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself // Is now leased out // Like to a tenement or pelting farm [by King Richard]” (2.1.42-43/59-60).

Returning from the war campaign in Ireland King Richard is told to be dead - due to bad omens in the surrounding landscape and in the sky - and thus all the allied warriors have fled: “The bay-trees in our country are all wither’d And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth And lean-look’d prophets whisper fearful change; // These signs forerun the death or fall of kings // our countrymen are gone and fled” (2.4.8-11/15-16).

The gardeners in the Duke of York's garden are talking in metaphorical terms about the state of  England comparing it to the withering park they are trespassing and how it must be restored. They state “O, what pity is it That he [Richard] had not so trimmed and dressed his land As we this garden!” (3.4.55-57)

Bolingbroke directly – the gardeners indirectly - compare allies to King Richard as parasites destroying a garden that must be plucked away to restore England to a commonwealth: “Bushy, Bagot and their complices, The caterpillars of the commonwealth, Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away. “ 2.4.165-167 // her wholesome herbs Swarming with caterpillars” (3.4.47 )

As Shakespeare associates the land to a mother's womb he stresses furthermore the delicate importance of nursing England's ground the right way. He gives voice to both Gaunt and Bolingbroke, father and son, proud of their linages, to declare reverential love to their native country “This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings” (2.1.50-51) “Then, England’s ground, farewell! Sweet soil // My mother and my nurse that bears me yet!” (1.4.306-307)

“The fresh green lap of fair King Richard’s land” (3.3.47)

The Divine right to the Throne; King Richard II as a prehistoric divine King, Messiah and Christ in the Garden of Eden II, England

Shakespeare uses scenes from Christian biblical canons to emphasize a King's divine right to the throne; the medieval Christian concept of the king as God's representative on earth are based on biblical beliefs, so even King Richard II.

As a representative of the disciples Bishop Carlisle can not support a worldly dismissal of God's anointed. It would invalidate the order of the cosmos created by God and governed by divine law. It would turn England to chaos: “tumultuous wars Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound. Disorder; horror, fear and mutiny Shall here inhabit, and this land be called The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.” (4.1.141-145)

Even the deposition and the sacrifice of a king can be explained in that context, which is heralded by John of Gaunt's mention of a king as “God’s substitute, His deputy anointed in His sight Hath caused his death [Duke of Gloucester] // Let heaven revenge” (2.1.37-40) and Gaunt's speech about an old England as "this other Eden, demi-paradise" (2.1.42) that know lays in ruins, a country which is sold out as a leased homestead due to the impious reign of King Richard. Such a sovereign must be sacrificed in order to cleanse the land from sin and to make a new Kingdom to resurrect. Sir Piers of Exton is the one who, under his own auspices, mechanically fulfil this holy mission in the end of the play as if he obeyed an archetypical vision. He is convinced that King Henry by the utterance "Have I no friend who will rid me of this living fear?" (5.4.1) has given him a command to kill Richard.

In scene 3.4, in the Duke of York's garden the gardeners are talking in metaphorical terms about the state of the country (before his leave for Ireland Richard appointed Duke of York to Lord governor of England) comparing it to the withering park they are trespassing and how it must be restored.  The Queen who overhears their conversation refers to scenes in The Book of Genesis about an England as a second fall of the humanity, due to the temptation of the serpent, Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the paradise.

The body of a King, heavenly and human

Shakespeare's King Richard II is even give voice to the two bodies of Jesus Christ, both God and human. Richard himself emphasizes his being two natures. Richard's rhetorical use of the plural of majesty referring to himself, as “we”, “our” and “ourself” is a symptom of this. But, Richard is aware of his human aspect, and sometimes refer to himself in the first person when he is in control of a situation, of personal and human matters. When he wants to hide himself from God he also bring the first person in use: as Adam in the Garden of Eden, hiding from God because he has sinned (Richard probably ordered Mowbray to murder the Duke of Gloucester).

King Richard must literally split his divine and human descent to leave his mission of God and become an ordinary person, both before God, the successor King and servants.

A first indication is when Richard, occupied by the rebellion, understands, at the coast of Wales just having returned from the war campaign in Ireland, he has little support left, and for a moment he forgets his divinity but he forces himself to gather strength by giving order to himself to regain his  divinity and not “Look not to the ground” (3.2.87).

A second hint is given, when outside the walls of Flint's castle Northumberland not is kneeling before Richard in the sense a servant should sanctify a God's substitute: “how dare thy joints forget To pay their awful duty to our presence?” (3.3.75-76). Richard reflects over this disrespect and tell  him to beware, his “master, God omnipotent, Is mustering in His clouds on our behalf” (3.3.85-86).

When he asks of a mirror during the deposition scene, 4.1, it calls attention very clearly to an audience who gets to see two Richards, the one who reflects himself, and the image of the mirror. Richard transfers his divinity (and royal power) to the looking glass image. The moment he shatters the mirror to the floor he leaves his position as God's representative on earth. When Bolingbroke a moment later calls him “fair cousin” the descension is fulfilled. Now he is just human.

King Richard II as the mortified Christ

When Richard, in scene 3.2, believes he understand that some men of his associates have joined Bolingbroke, he bursts out in accusations of treachery and compares the situation with the Betrayal of Christ, with the Kiss of Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. In scene 4.1 he links himself a second time to Jesus and Judas' betrayal of him; Judas the twelfth disciple who found allegiance with the other eleven in Jesus' crowd. Richard himself finds no support at all among his old allies of twelve thousand valiant men in England which he likens to a biblical army of Israel; he remember how they once celebrated him as their King, but now they have abandoned him.

When Richard, in scene 4.1, faces the Lord's mob, as he perceives it, and shall sign his abdication, he associates the situation with Jesus standing before Pilate who before the people washes his hands free of guilt before the crucifixion of Jesus: “Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me, Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands, Showing an outward pity, yet you Pilates Have here delivered me to my sour cross, And water cannot wash away your sin” (4.1.238-242).

References to the first (recorded) biblical murder: “Cain rose up against Habel his brother, and slew him” (The Book of Genesis, 4:1-8; Bishop's Bible).

To emphasize the gravity of the murder of Duke of Gloucester and the assassination of King Richard, King Henry refers twice to Cain's fratricide of Abel; the first time, as Henry Bolingbroke, he insinuates Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, of being Cain; Mowbray was probably ordered by King Richard who was related to Duke of Gloucester:“That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester’s death // like a traitor coward, Sluiced out his innocent soul through streams of blood // like sacrificing Abel’s” (1.1.100-104)

The second time, as King Henry, he indirectly accuses himself of being involved but cursing directly Exton of being Cain; Exton had interpreted a hint by Henry as an urge (Henry was related to King Richard): “Exton // A deed of slander with thy fatal hand Upon my head // though I did wish him dead, I hate the murderer, love him murdered // [to Exton] With Cain go wander through shades of night” (5.6.34-43)

Even when the Duchess of Gloucester is trying to incite John of Gaunt to avenge the killing of Duke of Gloucester, her husband, his brother and uncle to King Richard, she seems to insinuate a fratricide of biblical proportions:
“Thomas [H/Abel], my dear lord, my life // Is cracked // hacked down // By Envy’s hand [King Richard/Cain] and Murder’s bloody axe // Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine // thou livest and breathest, Yet art thou slain in him // In that thou seest thy wretched brother die // In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughtered” (1.2.16-30)

Holy Regalia

A sovereign's holy regalia are both literally and rhetorically brought to use by Shakespeare to charge that a medieval King's mission is ordained by God. The renunciation of the Crown and simply taking it off, the symbol of the sun and stars; the power of earth, is important in the deposition scene of King Richard II to undress his solemn duty. A King's sceptre is the shepherd's staff Moses and other religious leaders in The Book of Genesis uses as a symbol of their holy leadership: “I give this heavy weight from off my head And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; With mine own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my crown, With mine own tongue deny my sacred state” 4.1.204-209

(In scene 1.3 King Richard interrupts the beginning of the duel between Bolingbroke an Mowbray by ritually throwing down his warder whereupon the Lord Marshal announces “Stay! The king hath thrown his warder down (1.3.18). In scene 2.2 and 2.3 it is announced that Lords former loyal to King Richard have broken their staffs, e.g. before God they have renounced their mission as servants to the King.)

King Richard II, a round character

King Richard II becomes a complex character during the play as he has to stand up for himself. He has to adapt himself both to physical and psychological changes during the end of his life. He must in someway have been aware of his soon upcoming death.

From the picture of a respected and feared King of God's grace to a King who is gradually losing all his support and finally gets brutally murdered by a solitary madman in a dungeon.

The case is preceded by a King who descends as human and has to capitulate to his opponents' rhetorics while forging a new identity and some kind of role preparing to die. A very tricky task indeed.

Queen Elizabeth I on 4 August 1601 allegedly said “I am Richard II, know ye not that?” 

There are some parallels between the historical King Richard II who reigned at the end of the 14th century and the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, circumstances of economic and military art that resembled her England of the time of Shakespeare. The Queen was forced to sell some royal estates and royal monopoly in order to maintain power to keep the kingdom going. A serious rebellion in Ireland took place; England was hit by poor harvests, social unrest and significant unemployment and vagrancy. All factors to bring down a Queen's popularity.

In Shakespeare's play King Richard II, approximately written 1595, is heading for Ireland, to pursue a war. To finance his war and to put down the rebels against the crown he has seized all of the late John of Gaunt's worldly goods. His son Henry Bolingbroke, banished from England by Richard, gets to know this and of course strongly disagree that his inheritance is, in his opinion, stolen. Bolingbroke rounds up an army and invades England in Richard's absence. Noblemen and commoners, fond of Bolingbroke and annoyed at Richard's running of the country, approve Bolingbroke's re entering and join his forces.

Among Elizabethan audiences Shakespeare's play King Richard II earned a reputation as politically subversive. Critics of the time often viewed the play as a delicate annotation on the monarchy. Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I, is maybe trying to use this context to make a point of the administration of England by the Queen. As Richard and Bolingbroke were cousins the Earl was in someway related to Elizabeth I.

The Earl of Essex was politically ambitious, and one of the Queen's committed generals. But as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland he failed completely due to a poor campaign in Ireland during a war in 1599. He loosed his titles and was placed under house arrest. His basic income of the sweet wines monopoly was not renewed by the Queen.

On february the 8 in 1601 the ex Earl Robert Devereux led an subversive action against the Queen and was beheaded for treason a fortnight later. It is said that the day before the rebellion he had let his companions pay Chamberlain's men to perform Shakespeare's King Richard II, maybe to incite and instigate for City of arms the following day. Maybe Robert Devereux was sure to gather people to mock Elizabeth I the same way Shakespeare's Bolingbroke enters the streets of London crowded with cheering commoners with the humiliated and defeated Richard. A very risky task indeed that in fact ended the rebellion's life at the time of Shakespeare.

A couple of months later Queen Elizabeth I, during a meeting with her archivist William Lambarde, associated herself with Shakespeare’s Richard II, maybe reviewing historical documents relating to the reign of the historical King Richard II, with the famous remark, "I am Richard II, know ye not that?" In the same journal the Queen is said to have grumbled about that the play at the time was staged “forty times in open streets and houses".

To citizens and playgoers the play must have been a political comment on the contemporary situation, e.g. it seems that the humiliating deposition scene was lacking the quartos during the time of Elizabeth I, probably due to Master of Revels censorship powers.

The Chamberlain's Men do not appear to have suffered for their suspected association with the rebellions; they even staged a play - scholars don't know which one - for the Queen the day before the execution of the ex Earl of Essex.

Factual accuracy and English History plays 

When Elizabeth I in August 1601 uttered "I am Richard II, know ye not that?" during a meeting with her archivist Lambarde, she surely likened the established factual accuracy in historical documents with Shakespeare's play and the quarto entitled "The Tragedy of Richard II” (lacking the deposition scene); though a tragedy she probably glanced at it as “history”.

For her it was a problem that this comparison was possible; as Shakespeare's King Richard II she mirrored herself in a looking glass and saw herself as the commoners saw her, the masses who were not being literate or not having access to the historical facts she herself had studied. Anyone could likened her to a so called historical character in a play but very few had read the very factual accuracy about it.

Elizabeth died in 1603. When the first folio edition of the play was printed in 1623, it was called “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”; a title more of a factual accuracy than a “tragedy” and listed among “Histories”. Twenty years after Elizabeth's death (and approx. 10 years after Shakespeare's) it was probably political possible and good PR to entitle Shakespeare's King Richard II more as a History play.

“The tragedie of King Richard the second As it hath beene publikely acted by the right Honourable the Lorde Chamberlaine his Seruants.” (Q1 1597)

"The tragedie of King Richard the second with new additions of the Parliament sceane, and the deposing of King Richard. As it hath been lately acted by the Kinges Maiesties seruants, at the Globe. By William Shakespeare." (Q4 1615)

Reference list

Mabillard, Amanda. Shakespeare's Boss: The Master of Revels Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (2013-04-17) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespeareboss.html >.

Parker, Matthew (red.) (1568). The. holie. Bible. [electronic source]. Imprynted at London: ... by Richard Iugge … [Bishop's Bible] <http://classic.studylight.org/>

Shakespeare, William (2002). King Richard II. London: Arden Shakespeare

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Queen Elizabeth I.” SparkNotes.com. 

SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 13 Apr. 2013.