97
between Richard and his Queen,
but to his being “corrupted” in a
homosexual sense, in a possible
echo of Marlowe’s Edward II where
the king’s sexual preferences are
more explicitly divisive. Elizabeth
did not have this particular charge
to answer, but her failure to
produce an heir—a consequence of
her refusal to marry—encouraged
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN
ambitions among her powerful
nobles, which would have been
dissipated if the succession had
been clearly determined. ❯❯Richard compares himself to
Phaethon, the youth of Greek myth who
was struck from the skies. The fall is
depicted here by Michelangelo, in an
engraving Shakespeare may have seen.Gaunt’s speech
This royal throne of kings,
this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty,
this seat of Mars,
This other Eden,
demi-paradise,
This fortress built by
nature for herself
Against infection and
the hand of war,
This happy breed of men,
this little world,
This precious stone set
in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the
office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive
to a house
Against the envy of less
happier lands;
This blessèd plot, this earth,
this realm, this England
(2.1.40–50)John of Gaunt’s speech is one
of the most quoted in the
Shakespearean canon, and
was anthologized as early as- Its imagery of England
as walled in by the sea,
protected by Nature, has been
central to constructions of the
nation, as has its imagery of
England breeding warriors
and kings. It provided titles
for at least two British World
War II films: David Lean’s This
Happy Breed (1944) and David
MacDonald’s This England
(1941). That said, the speech’s
jingoism has also undergone
some major reassessment, not
least because “this England”
subsumes within it the
separate nations of Wales
and Scotland. We should also
remember that Gaunt’s speech
is uttered by a man on his
death bed, who testifies to the
ways in which “this England”
has been ruined. It is an ideal
that already does not exist.