THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 99
Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum
Illustrium (1355–74) (Of the Fates
of Famous Men). The subjects all
suffered a sudden descent from
good fortune to adversity and death.
When Richard calls for a mirror in
which to read his downfall, he may
have been alluding to a popular
English collection of similar tales
called The Mirror for Magistrates,
which included Richard II.
A willing victim?
Clearly, Shakespeare’s character
imagines himself as a victim—of
Bolingbroke, of the inherent nature
of kingship, of fate, and perhaps of
his own flaws. But more important
than the cause of his tragic fall is
the spectacle it makes, to the
extent that Richard has been
accused of “doom-eagerness,”
indulging in fantasies of his tragic
abjection before they have become
a political necessity. For example,
Bolingbroke is ostensibly only
pursuing repeal from banishment
and restoration of inheritance, but
Richard mentions deposition as
early as Act 3 Scene 3, when he
asks: “What must the King do now?
Must he submit? / The King shall
do it. Must he be deposed? / The
King shall be contented. Must he
lose / The name of King? A God’s
name, let it go” (3.3.142–145).
Bolingbroke needs to do little
more than stand there with an
army looking menacing.
Playing the King
The king’s pleasure in wordplay and
his self-indulgent loquacity suggest
Richard as an early forerunner for
Hamlet. Along with Hamlet, this is
one of the few Shakespearean tragic
roles that has been played by women
(most recently by Fiona Shaw and
Cate Blanchett). Such casting can
heighten the contrast between
Richard’s hyperemotionalism,
including a tendency to weep, and
the pragmatism and self-control of
Bolingbroke. Alternatively, casting
a Richard and a Bolingbroke who
look very like one another, or
who share the roles between
them, can also be effective, bringing
out the play’s exploration of what
makes a king.
Some productions have had two
actors play the roles of Richard and
Bolingbroke on alternate nights,
suggesting the arbitrariness of
which man was king, and looking
forward to the Wars of the Roses,
during which power would swing
from the house of Lancaster to York,
and back again. Shakespeare hadA romantic engraving depicts
Richard dying heroically at the hands
of Piers Exton. The manner of Richard’s
murder is not known for certain. It is
possible that he was starved to death.already staged a series of plays on
this theme: Henry VI Parts One,
Tw o, and Three, and Richard III.
In Richard II, he was returning to
an action—the murder of a lawful
king—that would change the
perception of kingship. At the same
time, however self-aggrandizing
Richard appears, the play supports
his argument that to be a king
is inevitably to be the hero in
a tragic cycle. ■