Richard II

By William Shakespeare and Paul Werstine

The authoritative edition of Richard II from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.

Shakespeare’s Richard II presents a momentous struggle between Richard II and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. Richard is the legitimate king; he succeeded his grandfather, King Edward III, after the earlier death of his father Edward, the Black Prince. Yet Richard is also seen by many as a tyrant. He toys with his subjects, exiling Bolingbroke for six years.

When he seizes the title and property that should be Bolingbroke’s, Richard threatens the very structure of the kingdom. Bolingbroke returns with an army that is supported by nobles and commoners alike, both believing themselves oppressed by Richard. This sets the stage for a confrontation between his army and the tradition of sacred kingship supporting the isolated but now more sympathetic Richard.

This edition includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An annotated guide to further reading

Essay by Harry Berger, Jr.

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Nov 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781501128868

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is arguably the most famous playwright to ever live. Born in England, he attended grammar school but did not study at a university. In the 1590s, Shakespeare worked as partner and performer at the London-based acting company, the King’s Men. His earliest plays were Henry VI and Richard III, both based on the historical figures. During his career, Shakespeare produced nearly 40 plays that reached multiple countries and cultures. Some of his most notable titles include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar. His acclaimed catalog earned him the title of the world’s greatest dramatist.

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THE NEW FOLGER LIBRARY

SHAKESPEARE

Designed to make Shakespeare’s great plays available to all readers, the New Folger Library edition of Shakespeare’s plays provides accurate texts in modern spelling and punctuation, as well as scene-by-scene action summaries, full explanatory notes, many pictures clarifying Shakespeare’s language, and notes recording all significant departures from the early printed versions. Each play is prefaced by a brief introduction, by a guide to reading Shakespeare’s language, and by accounts of his life and theater. Each play is followed by an annotated list of further readings and by a Modern Perspective written by an expert on that particular play.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare, as well as many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.

The Folger Shakespeare Library

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is a privately funded research library dedicated to Shakespeare and the civilization of early modern Europe. It was founded in 1932 by Henry Clay and Emily Jordan Folger, and incorporated as part of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, one of the nation’s oldest liberal arts colleges, from which Henry Folger had graduated in 1879. In addition to its role as the world’s preeminent Shakespeare collection and its emergence as a leading center for Renaissance studies, the Folger Shakespeare Library offers a wide array of cultural and educational programs and services for the general public.

EDITORS

BARBARA A. MOWAT

Director of Research emerita

Folger Shakespeare Library

PAUL WERSTINE

Professor of English

King’s University College

at Western University, Canada

From the Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

It is hard to imagine a world without Shakespeare. Since their composition more than four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays and poems have traveled the globe, inviting those who see and read his works to make them their own.

Readers of the New Folger Editions are part of this ongoing process of taking up Shakespeare, finding our own thoughts and feelings in language that strikes us as old or unusual and, for that very reason, new. We still struggle to keep up with a writer who could think a mile a minute, whose words paint pictures that shift like clouds. These expertly edited texts are presented as a resource for study, artistic exploration, and enjoyment. As a new generation of readers engages Shakespeare in eBook form, they will encounter the classic texts of the New Folger Editions, with trusted notes and up-to-date critical essays available at their fingertips. Now readers can enjoy expertly edited, modern editions of Shakespeare anywhere they bring their e-reading devices, allowing readers not simply to keep up, but to engage deeply with a writer whose works invite us to think, and think again.

The New Folger Editions of Shakespeare’s plays, which are the basis for the texts realized here in digital form, are special because of their origin. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is the single greatest documentary source of Shakespeare’s works. An unparalleled collection of early modern books, manuscripts, and artwork connected to Shakespeare, the Folger’s holdings have been consulted extensively in the preparation of these texts. The Editions also reflect the expertise gained through the regular performance of Shakespeare’s works in the Folger’s Elizabethan Theater.

I want to express my deep thanks to editors Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine for creating these indispensable editions of Shakespeare’s works, which incorporate the best of textual scholarship with a richness of commentary that is both inspired and engaging. Readers who want to know more about Shakespeare and his plays can follow the paths these distinguished scholars have tread by visiting the Folger either in person or online, where a range of physical and digital resources exists to supplement the material in these texts. I commend to you these words, and hope that they inspire.

Michael Witmore

Director, Folger Shakespeare Library

Contents

Editors’ Preface

Shakespeare’s Richard II

Reading Shakespeare’s Language: Richard II

Shakespeare’s Life

Shakespeare’s Theater

The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays

An Introduction to This Text

Characters in the Play

Richard II

Text of the Play with Commentary

Act 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 2

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 3

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 4

Scene 1

Act 5

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Longer Notes

Textual Notes

Richard II: A Modern Perspective

by Harry Berger, Jr.

Further Reading

Key to Famous Lines and Phrases

Commentary

Act 1

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 2

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 3

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Act 4

Scene 1

Act 5

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Editors’ Preface

In recent years, ways of dealing with Shakespeare’s texts and with the interpretation of his plays have been undergoing significant change. This edition, while retaining many of the features that have always made the Folger Shakespeare so attractive to the general reader, at the same time reflects these current ways of thinking about Shakespeare. For example, modern readers, actors, and teachers have become interested in the differences between, on the one hand, the early forms in which Shakespeare’s plays were first published and, on the other hand, the forms in which editors through the centuries have presented them. In response to this interest, we have based our edition on what we consider the best early printed version of a particular play (explaining our rationale in a section called An Introduction to This Text) and have marked our changes in the text—unobtrusively, we hope, but in such a way that the curious reader can be aware that a change has been made and can consult the Textual Notes to discover what appeared in the early printed version.

Current ways of looking at the plays are reflected in our brief introductions, in many of the commentary notes, in the annotated lists of Further Reading, and especially in each play’s Modern Perspective, an essay written by an outstanding scholar who brings to the reader his or her fresh assessment of the play in the light of today’s interests and concerns.

As in the Folger Library General Reader’s Shakespeare, which the New Folger Library Shakespeare replaces, we include explanatory notes designed to help make Shakespeare’s language clearer to a modern reader, and we hyperlink notes to the lines that they explain. We also follow the earlier edition in including illustrations—of objects, of clothing, of mythological figures—from books and manuscripts in the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. We provide fresh accounts of the life of Shakespeare, of the publishing of his plays, and of the theaters in which his plays were performed, as well as an introduction to the text itself. We also include a section called Reading Shakespeare’s Language, in which we try to help readers learn to break the code of Elizabethan poetic language.

For each section of each volume, we are indebted to a host of generous experts and fellow scholars. The Reading Shakespeare’s Language sections, for example, could not have been written had not Arthur King, of Brigham Young University, and Randal Robinson, author of Unlocking Shakespeare’s Language, led the way in untangling Shakespearean language puzzles and shared their insights and methodologies generously with us. Shakespeare’s Life profited by the careful reading given it by S. Schoenbaum; Shakespeare’s Theater was read and strengthened by Andrew Gurr, John Astington, and William Ingram; and The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays is indebted to the comments of Peter W. M. Blayney. We, as editors, take sole responsibility for any errors in our editions.

We are grateful to the authors of the Modern Perspectives; to Leeds Barroll and David Bevington for their generous encouragement; to the Huntington and Newberry Libraries for fellowship support; to King’s University College for the grants it has provided to Paul Werstine; to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which provided him with Research Time Stipends; to R. J. Shroyer of Western University for essential computer support; and to the Folger Institute’s Center for Shakespeare Studies for its fortuitous sponsorship of a workshop on Shakespeare’s Texts for Students and Teachers (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and led by Richard Knowles of the University of Wisconsin), a workshop from which we learned an enormous amount about what is wanted by college and high-school teachers of Shakespeare today.

In preparing this preface for the publication of Richard II in 1996, we wrote: Our biggest debt is to the Folger Shakespeare Library: to Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, who brings to our work a gratifying enthusiasm and vision; to Gail Kern Paster, Director of the Library from 2002 until July 2011, whose interest and support have been unfailing and whose scholarly expertise continues to be an invaluable resource; and to Werner Gundersheimer, Director of the Library, who made possible our edition; to Deborah Curren-Aquino, who provides extensive editorial and production support; to Jean Miller, the Library’s Art Curator, who combs the Library holdings for illustrations, and to Julie Ainsworth, Head of the Photography Department, who carefully photographs them; to Peggy O’Brien, former Director of Education at the Folger and now Director of Education Programs at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and her assistant at the Folger, Molly Haws, who gave us expert advice about the needs being expressed by Shakespeare teachers and students (and to Martha Christian and other ‘master teachers’ who used our texts in manuscript in their classrooms); to Jessica Hymowitz, who provides expert computer support; to the staff of the Academic Programs Division, especially Mary Tonkinson, Lena Cowen Orlin, Amy Adler, Kathleen Lynch, and Carol Brobeck; and, finally, to the staff of the Library Reading Room, whose patience and support are invaluable.

As we revise the play for publication in 2016, we add to the above our gratitude to Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, who brings to our work a gratifying enthusiasm and vision; to Gail Kern Paster, Director of the Library from 2002 until July 2011, whose interest and support have been unfailing and whose scholarly expertise continues to be an invaluable resource; to Jonathan Evans and Alysha Bullock, our production editors at Simon & Schuster, whose expertise, attention to detail, and wisdom are essential to this project; to the Folger’s Photography Department; to Deborah Curren-Aquino for continuing superb editorial assistance and for her exceptionally fine Further Reading annotations; to Alice Falk for her expert copyediting; to Michael Poston for unfailing computer support; to Cecilia Lewin for commentary-note assistance; to Anna Levine; and to Rebecca Niles (whose help is crucial). Among the editions we consulted, we found Anthony B. Dawson and Paul Yachnin’s 2011 Oxford World Classics edition especially useful. Finally, we once again express our thanks to Stephen Llano for twenty-five years of support as our invaluable production editor, to the late Jean Miller for the wonderful images she unearthed, and to the ever-supportive staff of the Library Reading Room.

Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine

2016

Richard II.

From William Martyn, The historie and lives of the kings of England . . . (1638).

Shakespeare’s Richard II

Shakespeare’s Richard II represents a momentous struggle in English history, the struggle between King Richard II and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke. Richard is apparently secure on his throne at the beginning of the play. He is, beyond any question, the legitimate heir to the crown of England, which is normally passed from the father to the eldest son. Richard’s father was Edward, the Black Prince, the eldest son of the reigning monarch and a great military hero, who predeceased his own father, King Edward III. Thus Richard, as the Black Prince’s only son, properly inherited the crown directly from Edward III, his grandfather. As rightful monarch, Richard authorizes his rule by invoking in a particularly strong way a tradition of belief that the king is God’s deputy and is accountable to God alone. Challenges to the king’s rule are thus made to appear not only high treason but also blasphemy. Bolingbroke, who is openly mistreated by Richard, seems powerless to oppose Richard’s will.

When the play opens, Richard is seen by many as a tyrant, the opposite of a true monarch. He is believed to have arranged the assassination of his own uncle. He seems to toy with his subjects, exiling one, Thomas Mowbray, for life, and another, Henry Bolingbroke himself, for ten years—reduced, minutes after the banishment is announced, to six years. Richard is blamed for placing his subjects at the mercy of his friends, who grow wealthy at the cost of the people of England. Finally, when he seizes the title and property that Henry Bolingbroke should have inherited, Richard is perceived as a threat to the very structure of the kingdom.

Despite Richard’s tyrannical behavior, he is eloquently defended, by himself and others, as God’s chosen ruler, immune from punishment by any subject. If the crown were to be taken from him by force, then the kingdom, it is said, would be threatened by endless civil war as others entered the bloody competition for the kingship. In the face of this belief in the king’s sanctity, Bolingbroke seizes the occasion of Richard’s invasion of Ireland to return from exile with an army. Bolingbroke’s announced cause is the restoration of his title and property, though he is suspected, with good reason, of aiming at the crown itself. Nobles and commons, thinking themselves oppressed by Richard, rally to Bolingbroke’s cause. Richard’s supporters disperse; his deputy reaches an accommodation with Bolingbroke. The stage is set for a final confrontation between the powerful army commanded by an increasingly unsympathetic Bolingbroke, who summarily executes friends of Richard, and the tradition of sacred kingship that supports the now isolated but more sympathetic Richard in his rule.

After you have read the play, we invite you to read "Richard II: A Modern Perspective" by Professor Harry Berger, Jr. of the University of California, Santa Cruz, contained within this eBook.

Reading Shakespeare’s Language: Richard II

For many people today, reading Shakespeare’s language can be a problem—but it is a problem that can be solved. Those who have studied Latin (or even French or German or Spanish) and those who are used to reading poetry will have little difficulty understanding the language of Shakespeare’s poetic drama. Others, however, need to develop the skills of untangling unusual sentence structures and of recognizing and understanding poetic compressions, omissions, and wordplay. And even those skilled in reading unusual sentence structures may have occasional trouble with Shakespeare’s words. More than four hundred years of static—caused by changes in language and life—intervene between his speaking and our hearing. Most of his immense vocabulary is still in use, but a few of his words are no longer used, and many of his words now have meanings quite different from those they had in the sixteenth century. In the theater, most of these difficulties are solved for us by actors who study the language and articulate it for us so that the essential meaning is heard—or, when combined with stage action, is at least felt. When reading on one’s own, one must do what each actor does: go over the lines (often with a dictionary close at hand) until the puzzles are solved and the lines yield up their poetry and the characters speak in words and phrases that are, suddenly, rewarding and wonderfully memorable.

Shakespeare’s Words

As you begin to read the opening scenes of a Shakespeare play, you may notice occasional unfamiliar words. Some are unfamiliar simply because we no longer use them. In the opening scenes of Richard II, for example, you will find the words complotted (i.e., conspired), exclaims (i.e., outcries), cheerly (i.e., heartily), sprightfully (i.e., full of spirit), regreet (i.e., salute or greet), determinate (i.e., put an end to), and underbearing (i.e., endurance). Words of this kind are explained in notes to the text and will become familiar the more of Shakespeare’s plays you read.

In Richard II, as in all of Shakespeare’s writing, more problematic are the words that are still in use but that now have different meanings. Such words abound in Richard II. In the opening scenes, for example, the word eager is used where we would say sharp or acid, inhabitable where we would say not habitable, unfit for human habitation, the word ill where we would say evil, consequently where we would say subsequently, envy where we would say hatred or malice, champions where we would say combatants, and baffled where we would say subjected to public disgrace. Such words will be explained in the notes to the text, but they, too, will become familiar as you continue to read Shakespeare’s language.

Some words are strange not because of the static introduced by changes in language over the past centuries but because these are words that Shakespeare is using to build a dramatic world that has its own space, time, history, and background mythology. In Richard II Shakespeare creates the courtly and military world of late fourteenth-century England. This is a world inhabited by Lancaster and Gloucester and Hereford, with castles named Flint and Bristow and Pomfret and houses called Plashy and Ely House; it is a world of warders, gages, and pawns; of boist’rous appeals (violent accusations), of careers (charges or encounters), and of royal lists (arenas set up for trials by combat supervised by the king). In this world a character plated in habiliments of war (i.e., dressed in armor) might call another a recreant (i.e., someone who breaks allegiance) or a slander of his blood (i.e., disgrace to his family line), might forbid another to impeach my height (i.e., disgrace my noble standing), or might invoke my scepter’s awe (i.e., the power of my scepter to inspire dread or fear). References to lions and leopards bring into the play traditional hierarchies in the natural world that mirror the social world (the so-called great chain of being) as well as reminders of heraldic emblems on royal and noble shields, and allusions to Saint George (patron saint of England) and Mars (the Roman god of war) give mythological ballast to the play’s military context.

Shakespeare’s Sentences

In an English sentence, meaning is quite dependent on the place given each word. The dog bit the boy and The boy bit the dog mean very different things, even though the individual words are the same. Because English places such importance on the positions of words in sentences, on the way words are arranged, unusual arrangements can puzzle a reader. Shakespeare frequently shifts his sentences away from normal English arrangements—often in order to create the rhythm he seeks, sometimes in order to use a line’s poetic rhythm to emphasize a particular word, sometimes in order to give a character his or her own speech patterns or to allow the character to speak in a special way. When we attend a good performance of a play, the actors will have worked out the sentence structures and will articulate the sentences so that the meaning is clear. When reading the play, we need to do as the actor does; that is, when puzzled by a character’s speech, check to see if words are being presented in an unusual sequence.

Shakespeare often rearranges subjects and verbs (e.g., instead of He goes, we find Goes he, or instead of He did go, we find Did he go). In Richard II, we find such a construction when Bolingbroke says (1.1.36) "Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee (instead of . . . I do turn to thee") and again (at 1.1.78) when he says "Will I make good against thee."

Such inversions rarely cause much confusion. More problematic is Shakespeare’s frequent placing of the object or the predicate adjective before the subject and verb or between the subject and verb (e.g., instead of I hit him we might find Him I hit, or instead of It is black we might find Black it is). Richard’s impartial are our eyes and ears (1.1.119) is an example of such an inversion (the normal order would be Our eyes and ears are impartial), as is his Free speech and fearless I to thee allow (1.1.127), where free speech and fearless is the object of the verb allow. Mowbray’s My life thou shalt command, but not my shame (1.1.171) is another example of a sentence in which the object (My life) is placed before the verb (shalt command). Often in Richard II this kind of inversion appears in combination with subject-verb inversions, as when Mowbray says (at 1.1.54) Yet can I not of such tame patience boast, where the normal order would read Yet I cannot boast of such tame patience.

Inversions are not the only unusual sentence structures in Shakespeare’s language. Often in his sentences words that would normally appear together are separated from each other. (Again, this is often done to create a particular rhythm or to stress a particular word.) The play opens, for example, with a sentence that separates the basic sentence elements from each other with several intervening words, phrases, and clauses:

Old John of Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster,

Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,

Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son,

Here to make good the boist’rous late appeal,

Which then our leisure would not let us hear,

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

(1.1.1–6)

Here the intervening words are bits of narrative information that an audience can absorb as it moves from element to element of King Richard’s basic question: Old John of Gaunt, hast thou brought hither Henry Hereford to make good the appeal against the Duke of Norfolk? Later in the same scene, Bolingbroke speaks in a similar kind of interrupted sentence:

Further I say, and further will maintain

Upon his bad life to make all this good,

That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester’s death,

Reviews for Richard II

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this one. Not sure if this is my second or third reading -- GR says I read it last in Nov. 2014, but I feel like I read it last more recently -- but, again, this is a five star play for me. This time I started with Marjorie Garber's chapter on Richard, from her marvelous Shakespeare After All. Her analysis didn't provide any startling insights, but it added to my appreciation of the way Shakespeare's artistry works in this play. Anyway, I just find Richard fascinating. Sure, he's a dreadful king and a lousy nephew, but he's a wonderful character. So invested in his own performance as flamboyant monarch that when the "script" of events seems to suggest that a tragic fall is imminent, he seizes the role of doomed lord (or, as he often suggests, "Lord") and plays it to the hilt. He reminds me of Hamlet, though not so complex -- self-dramatizing even to the point of his own destruction, self-pitying, and introspective, and he is such a great contrast with Henry. Poet vs. pragmatist. And their uncle, the Duke of York, switching his loyalties from Richard to Henry as it seems expedient, throwing his son over in a red hot minute, acting the "sage counselor" but always putting his own interests first, is marvelous fun! This is one of my favorite plays.The Arden edition of this has excellent notes, and the performances of the actors in the Archangel audio recording are marvelous. I can't recommend Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare After All highly enough, and also, because, of course, plays are meant for watching, the "King Richard II" in the BBC's "The Hollow Crown" and The Royal Shakespeare Company's "King Richard II" with David Tennant, are well worth seeing.

[alcracka · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Richard II is one of my favorite histories, partly because the actual events surrounding Richard's fall offer plenty of drama, and partly because of its sheer beauty. Richard is eloquent to a fault - literally; he'd rather give flowery speeches than actually do anything. But what speeches! You almost forget what a moron he is.

But it's the gardener's soliloquy in III.iv that's actually the prettiest, an extended rant about why he should bother weeding the garden when Richard has let pests overrun England.

It's surprising to me that Richard II doesn't get more attention these days. I understand how Richard III's hilarious villainy and Henry V's blustering violence overshadow it, but this is a rewarding play.

[jasonlf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of most interest as a hint of what is to come in King Henry IV Parts I and II, although still an interest in its own terms, especially for characters like the Duke of York. Richard II begins with the King arbitrating a quarrel by two younger courtiers and ends with one of those younger courtiers, Henry IV, usurping as King. One flaw, at least to my eyes, it jumps from Henry IV returning to claim his lands, and pledging loyalty to King Richard II, to him usurping the throne without ever explaining if his initial attitude was disingenuous, if something changed, or what happened to bring about this transformation.

[ncgraham_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don’t have much to say about this play, mostly because I did not really care for it. Of the dozen or so Shakespeare plays that I’ve actually sat down and read (as opposed to those I’ve seen in performance), this and Twelfth Night are the only two in which I’ve had a difficult time connecting to the characters. In the case of Richard, I’m sure it didn't help that I was coming to it straight off the comedies. While Richard II is one of the English history plays, it is certainly in the tragic mode. Moreover, it is entirely in verse, places great stress on political ceremony, and is virtually devoid of humor. The result is rather solemn and detached. Richard’s wife was a wonderfully pitiable character, and he himself gained in tragic stature during the final acts, but by then it was almost too late for me to care.As an antidote to my indifference, I tried watching the 1978 BBC adaptation starring Sir Derek Jacobi, but I had an even harder time getting into that—and I usually love Jacobi. I suppose this play just isn’t for me, at least not at this stage in my life.

[mstrust · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After Bullingbrooke, Duke of Hereford and cousin to King Richard, publicly accuses Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, of treason, the two Dukes decide to settle their quarrel with a duel. But Richard steps in and banishes them instead, giving his cousin a much shorter sentence, which some would think was done out of love. The truth is that Richard doesn't love Bullingbrooke, and may even be jealous that his cousin is so favored by the people. He just might be plotting to ensure that his cousin never returns to England. When news comes that Bullingbrooke has returned to fight Richard it divides the aristocracy, including the King's own family.This is one of the histories, and it's a mix of accuracy and fiction. There's very little action but constant threats of fighting and the stakes are high: first banishment, then deaths, then a fight for the throne. I don't know about you but I found it enthralling.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm still not a fan of reading plays, and yet as I started to read Richard II, I thought I might maybe revisit plays like Macbeth and Hamlet and read them properly, now I can appreciate them a bit more... so I suppose there's still hope for me yet. I still maintain that plays are understood and appreciated best when performed.

Richard II was, for me, definitely not as compelling as Richard III. The language is still astounding, and I enjoyed reading about the political situation and then applying it while I read the play -- it's interesting in that sense -- but neither Richard II nor Bolingbroke are as compelling as Richard III with his confident villainy.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tough one to rate: without knowing the historical background completely, most things that happen are a little opaque - which makes this particular edition a god-send. Richard's speeches, particularly in the second half, are brilliant.

[jpsnow · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Shakespeare's lesser known tragedies but it also became the first in the series that led to Henry V, et al. It is the tale of a king whose kingdom falls apart and who is eventually dethroned, imprisoned, and killed. It had political significance in its time, such that Elizabeth II compared herself to King Richard. For me, it was not an overwhelming work compared to his other plays.

[jhudsui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like all real literature this is about death. While Dick is not necessarily the greatest king around he is at least smart enough to realize that the collapse of his reign is a chain of events that can only inevitably lead to his murder, as the continued existence of a "rightful heir" is a loose end no usurper can afford to leave lying around. So the play is mostly about him alternating trying to grapple with this fact with constructing daydreams of some "possible escape" (there is no escape). A solid tragedy but does not reach the same heights Shakespeare managed with more sympathetic characters than this guy who is portrayed as moostly the cause of his own problems.

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The first of the Henriad plays, 'The Tragedy of Richard II' covers Richard II's "Jesus Year": The eponymous king was only 32- and 33-years old as the tragedy of his life played out, setting the stage for The War of the Roses. During his 22-year reign, he was spoiled, and he abused the royal prerogative, so his fate should be no surprise; but The Bard paints a portrait of a man who found his humanity before paying the ultimate price.

[valzi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Much better than I expected. I usually dislike Shakespeare's historical plays. This was not dull or silly, but beautiful.

[comfypants · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first proper History I've read, and I'm not really sure I get it. There's probably a lot I'm missing by not having the cultural knowledge Shakespeare's audience had. The fourth act is really great, though - enough so that I like the play.

[katieloucks · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I'm not big into the history plays.

[sweetbriarpoet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I was in high school, I always thought Shakespeare was over-hyped. I read and reread, without understanding WHY someone could be so popular for so long; how could he have changed the world with simple, short plays? But in college, I had a professor who opened my eyes to how truly amazing Shakespeare was as an artist. He basically invented a metaphorical language that captured irony, pun, tragedy, and comedy in almost-flawless storytelling. Richard II, though not my favorite of his plays, is still amazing in the way it captures both political and social fears of the time. I suggest that anyone who is reading Shakespeare for the first time should look up as much history as they can. It is amazing the things you will learn about figurative language and the political force of Shakespeare's plays. Genius.

[girl_detective · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As usual, Shakespeare plays fast and loose with historical detail, relying on several sources for his play. Superficially, the play is about the struggle between Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke. Ultimately, though, I found this a complex and involving character study of a young, inexperienced king, that foreshadows elements of Henry V and many other of his plays.

[trilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Richard spends so much of this play depressed that you'd think he was in The Bell Jar. This play had three stars until "Go thou and fill another room in hell" made me change my pants.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am reading Shakespeare's plays in chronological order.A cruel and childish king robs his nobles to engage in foreign wars. They rebel and depose him easily. He whines about it until he is assassinated. This doesn't sound promising, but it has Shakespeare's most moving poetry yet, and his first serious and largely successful attempt at creating a character with psychological depth. I found it a treat to read, and, like several of the plays I've read, I look forward to reading it again

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Richard II is the first play in the Henriad (second tetralogy). It is followed by the three plays, Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; and Henry V. Shakespeare’s histories have always been his most intimidating works for me. Richard III and Henry V are obviously incredible, but some of the others, like this one, ramble on with so many different names that it can be hard to follow. I decided it was time to just dive in and start at the chronological beginning. The Wars of the Roses play out in eight different works beginning with Richard II; then Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, Henry V, Henry VI Part 1, 2, and 3, and Richard III. This play introduces many of the major players that have a role throughout the rest of those plays. It's about the fall of a king, the shifting of power, unhappy subjects and the plotting that leads to the king’s downfall. There's a beautiful scene between Richard II and his wife in act five. She’s watching he husband lose his power and is heartbroken for him…“But soft, but see, or rather do not see, My fair rose wither: yet look up, behold, That you in pity may dissolve to dew, And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.” I recently saw a film version of this one and it was fantastic. It was such a wonderful portrayal and those individuals will stick in my mind as those characters. Also I saw it at the Old Vic in London and Kevin Spacey played Richard II a few years ago. It was a wonderful performance. I’ve found that Shakespeare works so much better for me in book form if I’ve had a chance to see it performed live first. BOTTOM LINE: A beautiful portrait of the tenuous nature of power and the bittersweet nature of victory. It can be hard to follow because of the sheer number of characters and shifting alliances. If possible I'd recommend seeing a play or movie version before reading it because it's easier to follow the text when you can put a face with the name.“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock;My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jarTheir watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.”

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The tragedy of this is that Shakespeare devoted a whole play to this milquetoast whiner. It would have been more effective, to me, had his story been included as a small part of the Henry IV plays. Neither a great hero or a great anti-hero, I just found the guy to be annoying as hell.

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed Shakespeare's "Richard II." The play has a great plot that is paced well and the language is really accessible in this one. Richard II has quite a few great monologues that made this one a fun read.The play follows the final years of Richard II's reign before he was deposed and eventually killed. Richard makes a series of mistakes, that seem somewhat minor in nature, but together lead to his eventual downfall.

[nosajeel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Of most interest as a hint of what is to come in King Henry IV Parts I and II, although still an interest in its own terms, especially for characters like the Duke of York. Richard II begins with the King arbitrating a quarrel by two younger courtiers and ends with one of those younger courtiers, Henry IV, usurping as King. One flaw, at least to my eyes, it jumps from Henry IV returning to claim his lands, and pledging loyalty to King Richard II, to him usurping the throne without ever explaining if his initial attitude was disingenuous, if something changed, or what happened to bring about this transformation.

[therebelprince · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thick as a brick, the Arden edition of "Richard II" is a sight to behold. It's my first Arden history, and I'm looking forward to more. A play entirely in prose needs a lot of textual analysis, but what makes this particularly wonderful is the depth of the notes on the historical context. To an audience watching this in 1600, the references were as familiar to us as an episode of "The Daily Show", replete with all of the tiny little nuances that we just cannot grasp.

Forker's notes give us detailed quotes from Shakespeare's sources, and spend a lot of time examining the relationship of the text to history. Being of an older generation, many of his thoughts on individual words and grammar are particularly enlightening, although one could argue that readers uninitiated in the particularities of grammar (vocatives, absolutes, etc.) may need to consult a guidebook as they go. Forker commendably sometimes offers alternatives to phrases even when the obvious reading seems likely (or, at least, easy), but he has a frustrating grandfatherly habit of dismissing modern theatrical approaches to the plays when they aren't historically accurate. While I can appreciate his points sometimes, it seems churlish to expect directors of these plays - made, after all, for a populist audience - to prioritise historical veracity even when it would confuse audiences or obfuscate an already challenging text. But anyhow, I digress. That's a minor quibble for what is another sterling edition in this most wonderful of book series.

As with all Ardens, this is for scholars and readers rather than families and actors. Genius work though. We live in an often-terrible world, and yet we near the completion of such an astonishing scholarly project as this. There is hope for us yet.