Shakespeare's Richard II

“ What is your substance, whereof are you made
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?”

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 53

Shadow and substance — and the contrast between them — are recurring preoccupations in the works of William Shakespeare. In Richard II these ideas take centre stage and, as Emma Smith observes in her book This is Shakespeare, go on to spread an ‘unquiet legacy’ over the entire sequence of eight plays concerned with Plantagenet monarchs.

The questions raised by the play are fundamental in the context of a hereditary monarchy. Is there a Divine Right embodied in a crowned monarch? Is it best to dethrone an inadequate ruler, or will the ripples from that lead to an even worse situation?

Richard II is thought to have been written in 1595 and is the first of a tetralogy — followed by Henry IV parts 1 and 2 and Henry V — sometimes called the Henriad. The production history of the play is fascinating: possibly the most famous performance was the one commanded by the followers of the Earl of Essex, which took place the night before his failed rebellion and very nearly got Shakespeare’s company into serious trouble.

Given the politically controversial inclusion of a scene portraying the king being deposed, it is perhaps not surprising that after this the original play languished in the shadows for centuries, appearing only in various Bowdlerised versions. The bias against it continued into the eighteenth century with only two productions recorded, although at least one of these – John Rich’s Covent Garden production of 1738/9 – is reported as using the text “in something near a complete form”.

In the nineteenth century the play became a star vehicle, but yet again the text was sacrificed, in this case to Victorian spectacle rather than to radical rewriting. It was not until the early twentieth century that the play was brought back into the spotlight in its original form by leading producers and actors, including John Gielgud, since when it has been regularly produced.

As we read the play in our own turbulent times and the House of Windsor faces bruising internal conflicts, we will consider, amongst other questions, why is this play so interesting to a modern audience and how relevant are the issues it raises to contemporary rulers?

STUDY DETAILS:

• Eight-meeting virtual study (on Zoom) facilitated by Jane Wymark
• Monday evenings, 6.00-8.00 pm (UK), starting 16 January 2023
• Recommended editions: The Arden Shakespeare, ISBN-13 978-1903436332 or Folger Shakespeare ISBN-13 ‏ 978-150114628
• £240.00 for eight meetings