#Classic: Richard II

Ben Whishaw

• Author:  W. Shakespeare
• Title: Richard II
  
• Written: 1593
  
• PLOT  Wikipedia
  
• List of Challenges
• Monthly plan
• Classic Club Master list
• Trivia: BBC series The Hollow Crown
  
• Ben Whishaw was awarded BAFTA
• …..best actor prize 2012 as Richard II
  

Quickscan:

1. Love triangles:  None!
   
2. Focus: the king is God’s appointee and above the law
3. Family issue: Richard II steals cousin’s inheritance (Bolingbroke)
4. Richard II: amateur politician, monarch treats England as a possession
5. Henry Bolingbroke Duke of Herford: Machiavellian strategist
6. Betrayal: Bolingbroke returns from banishment
7. …instigates a coup, imprisonment and murder

1. Pivotal scene: Act 4,1 – Richard removes his  crown
2. ” I give this heavy weight from off my head
3. …And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand…”
4. Minor characters with major role….move plot along:
5. Duchess of Gloucester – devastated by loss her husband
6. Duchess of York –  exemplifies love for a child
7. Queen Isabel – exemplifies devotion to husband Richard II
   
8. Setting: England, Wales,
9. …Westminster Hall (Act 4: deposition of Richard II)
   
10. …Castles Flint, Pomfret, Berkeley and Tower of London
    

1. Major theme:  legal vs divine right to rule
2. Minor theme: honor
3. “My honor is my life; both grow in one
4. Take honor from me; my life is done (Act 1)
5. Symbol: hand mirror (Act 4,1) 
6. Richard speaks to images of himself in a mirror.
7. ….then shatters the glass (his identity)
8. Body count: 16

1. Shakespeare mixes fact and fiction:
2. Richard II wife, Queen Isabel, is an adult when she was widowed in the play.
3. Reality: Isabel was a child bride (7 yr) and was widowed at 10 yrs old.
4. Genre: history play used by Elizabethan monarch to legitimize power
5. Shakespeare’s statement: Act 3,2 
6. “I had forgot myself; am I not king?
   Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest.”

Last thoughts:

1. Once you know basic story line….
2. this is a  very readable play
3. …and you learn about British history!
   
4. #MustRead Classic

Watched DVD  The Hollow Crown episode Richard II

1. Act 1, 2: left out  (short scene with John of Gaunt and Duchess of Gloucester)
2. Act 3,1  beheading of traitors Bugsy and Greene (OMG)
3. Act 3, 2 beautifully filmed…Richard II realizes….he’s doomed.
4. Act 3,2  here where you find the title.
5. “…for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king
6. Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits…”
7. Act 3,4 (short garden scene) the queen eavesdrops on the
8. …gardener and hears her husband has abdicated.
9. This scene is more powerful on film than in the play.
10. Act 4, 1: so impressive!
11. The film emphasizes the ‘Christ-like’ image of Richard II being
12. brought to  Westminster Hall in flowing
13. …white robes and riding on a donkey!
14. An emotional Richard II finally hands the “hollow crown’
15. ….over to his cousin Bolingbroke.  (future Henry IV)
16. Reading the play first  then
17. …seeing it on film is absolutely thrilling.
18. Act,5 5: …what a death scene Richard II.
19. This DVD is truly worth you time and money!

Basic story line:

1. Richard II  is called upon to settle a dispute
2. …between his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV)
3. and Thomas Mowbray. (Act 1)
4. Richard II 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. Richard II then  leaves for wars against the rebels in Ireland.(Act 3)
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)
12. Henry Bolingbroke Duke of Herford becomes King Henry IV.