The Shakespeare Book

98

Father to

Bishop of

Carlisle

RICHARD II

Shakespeare’s play was implicated
in the problems of his Queen when
it was performed on the eve of a
rebellion by the Earl of Essex, who
had fallen out of favor following
failures in Ireland. Supporters of
Essex commissioned the Lord
Chamberlain’s Men to perform the
play at the Globe on February 7,

1601. Presumably the deposition
      scene of Act 4 Scene 1 was included.
      It had been thought too seditious to
      be printed, and was absent from the
      published text until 1608. The next
      day, the Globe audience tried to stir
      up rebellion. However, Essex was
      denounced as a traitor and support
      dwindled. Shakespeare’s company
      was investigated but not punished.

Self-fulfilling prophecy
While Richard II is a history play,
it is entitled The Tragedy of King
Richard the Second. Richard’s

image of himself as “glist‘ring

Phaethon” brings to mind the myth

of the young god’s fall, which has a

tragic beauty to it, as Phaethon falls

from the sky like a star to earth.

The story reflects something

similarly self-aggrandizing in

Richard, whose fall inspires wonder

and whose self-perception is

echoed by other characters. Gaunt

warns that “His rash, fierce blaze

of riot cannot last” (2.1.33), while

Salisbury laments: “Ah, Richard!

With the eyes of heavy mind / I

see thy glory, like a shooting star, /

Fall to the base earth from the

firmament” (2.4.18–20). Richard

seems to be in love with this image

of his own tragic fall and consciously

tries to bring it about. Indeed, this

is one of Shakespeare’s few history

plays with no battle scene,

reflecting the ease with which

Bolingbroke wins the crown. When

he offers to “tell sad stories of the

death of kings,” Richard implicitly

refers to the popular medieval

definition of tragedy, the so-called

de casibus tragedy, derived from

I live with bread, like you;

feel want,

Taste grief, need friends.

Subjected thus,

How can you say to me

I am a king?

King Richard II

Act 3, Scene 2

Richard II

Harry

Bolingbroke

Cousin

Rivals

Bolingbroke’s allies

Harry Bolingbroke v Richard II

Duke of York

Richard’s allies

Duke of

Aumerle

Cousin

Duchess of York Married to

John of Gaunt

Married to

Isabel

Duke of

Norfolk

Earl of

Salisbury

Lord Fitzwalter

Earl of

Northumberland

Lord Ross

Sir Piers Exton

Murders

Richard II

Lord Willoughby

Father to Nephew to

Harry Percy

Son of

Believes he

does bidding of