Throughout this play, there is the foreboding sense that Richard II will meet his impending deposition, which could have been easily avoided had he taken to the advice of those around him and turned a deaf ear to his flatterers. But he did the opposite, bringing about his untimely demise. By referencing sequences from the play, audiences can explore the ways dramatic contexts is used in presenting the tragedy that is Richard II deposition.
In hopes to cheer Bolingbroke on his imminent banishment, John of Gaunt suggests to his son to remediate his exile as if ‘the sullen passage of thy weary steps/ Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set/ The precious jewel of thy home return’. Gaunt uses metaphorical imagery in his advice to Bolingbroke, to ease Bolingbroke into the idea that his banishment might just be the setting stone he needs to defeat Richard II. He speaks in ambiguous language, hoping that Bolingbroke would understand his subtle hints, but his son refuses this perspective and insists on being realistic. Gaunt speaks using internal rhymed couplets in an iambic pentameter in saying ‘steps’ and ‘set’ as he knows that his son might be the only hope England has of regaining her freedom from the hands of the ignorant, villainous and callous King Richard. He speaks in this sangfroid poetic manner as he does not want to impose this burdening task on his son, as he is aware, he is in no place to avenge his brother’s death due to the important secret [which is Richard was involved in the death of Gloucester]which is a dramatic irony, that Shakespearean audience already know [as all the actions are based on past events], which looms largely behind the actions prior to this scene and behind the entire play. Gaunt refuses to rise against Richard II’s power not because he fears him, but because he believes he is appointed by God. Treason against the king will therefore be blasphemy against God, and those wronged by the king will be avenged by God.
Bolingbroke, angrily replies his father’s statement with a series of pragmatic utterances, saying ‘O, who can hold a fire in his hand/ By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?/ Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite’ to suggest that his father’s suggestion of him remediating his banishment is absurd. His use of interjection ‘O’ suggest this line was delivered with sarcasm as he paces back and forth about the stage while his father is stood still, because he is furious that he is getting banished over something he had no hand in, and that his father does not appear to be affected by his exiling, but instead Gaunt speaks to him in parables. Then Bolingbroke delves into metaphysical speaking to show his frustration. It could be argued that Gaunt spoke in vague language because he feared speaking against the King will be a sin against God. This was the fear of many people back in the Elizabethan era when this play was first shown. The stage operated via censorship mechanism. Texts which posed a threat to the monarchy, were subjected to examination by Lord Chamberlain, to the extent that writers got penalised for political views that disagreed to the monarchy. For this reason, many writers resorted to allegorical, and fable writing. ‘Richard II was seen as a politically suspect theme. Queen Elizabeth I was often identified with him, and she also identified herself with[as she said, ‘I am Richard II, know ye not that’] since she, too, had an uncertain successor’ and feared she would be deposed. Bolingbroke’s pragmatism is a contrast to Richard II’s poetic self, as he is unwilling and unable to confront the harsh realities of the world around him, but instead resorts to his poetry.
Richard is aware that Bolingbroke is favoured more by the commoners than he is [this is one of the reasons he shortened Bolingbroke’s banishment from ten to six years, as he feared he would anger Bolingbroke’s supporters, thereby inciting his impending deposition], and his account of Bolingbroke’s departure shows the audience the difference between his and his cousin’s interaction with the commoners. Both the onstage and offstage audience learn that Bolingbroke ‘observed his courtship to the common people’, ‘[wooed] poor craftsmen with the crafts of souls’ and ‘[took off] his bonnet to an oyster-wench’. Whether Bolingbroke does this out of an inherent humbleness or out of a devious sense of politics, audiences cannot tell. However, we are assured that Richard’s egotism is not affected as he thinks himself far above such behaviour, as he is the one who speaks the most in this scene showing the social relationship, and power relationship between him and his cousins. Richard still maintains power as he still king and it is important, he maintains his poise and poeticism in his speeches, even if he senses his inevitable deposition, as he stance is based on his divine right as a king. Richard II has gone down in history to be one of Shakespeare’s most poetic characters.
Ure (1958) argues that ‘the purpose of Richard’s speeches on the inviolability of his right, delivered against the background of Bolingbroke’s advancing army and total loss of power, is not to proclaim the Tudor doctrine of majesty… but to tell us that Richard is feeling and move us with the spectacle’. Ure is suggesting that Richard is not giving his speeches because he knows his divine right as a king [meaning he is supported by God], but he gives his poetic speeches to mask his vulnerabilities, as he fears that he will soon be deposed, and his speeches are the only seeming weapon that makes him feel empowered.
In this scene, Richard is addressing the onstage and offstage audience, saying, ‘As were our England in reversion his/ And ‘he our subjects’ next degree in hope’, as if he wants to turn them against Bolingbroke and to his side, as he forebodes himself losing allies [which we see begins to happen in the next scene] and losing his God-given title. He is aware that Bolingbroke is in a position to potentially overthrow him as King of England. He uses the possessive determiner ‘our’ to create the illusion of inclusion of himself and the audience [even though there is an awareness among the respective audiences that Richard cares for no one but himself], isolating Bolingbroke with the subjective pronoun ‘he’ to portray Bolingbroke as cunning man out to steal the throne from the King while he still breathes. Richard’s ideological cunning relies on the fact that when he speaks, his subjects listen.
The world of Richard II is filled with conspiracy, hypocrisy and corruption. It seems inorganic when everyone in the play goes around speaking in carefully constructed verse, taking for instance where Aumerle says, ‘Faith, none for me; except the north-east wind,/ Which then blew bitterly against our faces,/ Awaked the sleeping rheum, and so by chance/Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.’ Aumerle speaks to his cousin in flatterous language veiling the true emotion he felt during the departure of his cousin through his well-constructed iambic pentameter verse. The Shakespearean audience can denote from this statement, that just like Queen Elizabeth who had political favourites, and flatterers who encouraged her wrongdoings. The audiences can tell that Aumerle was saddened by his cousin’s banishment but masked this as the ‘north-east wind blowing bitterly against his face’, so as not to offend the king. Everyone’s [including gardeners and commoners] way of speaking in an ideological network of formal language and constructed blank verse form goes to show that no one can be trusted.
This scene would have been performed in a court room as deduced from the text stating the location as a court. ‘The tragedies also, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, are not rural plays; for loft tragic themes generally required a setting in courts and cities’. This therefore suggest a common setting for a courtroom in Shakespeare’s tragedy plays, which the audience learn to find out towards the end of this scene as Richard decision to go overseas to Ireland while taxing the English and renting out English land. Richard arguably convinces the onstage audience there is no other alternative than to ‘farm [our] royal realm . This decision of his, acted as a catalyst to his upcoming doom. It is evidently unwise for Richard to depart England in such trying times, but his yearn to wreak havoc in Ireland, and his ignorance to harsh realities causes him to depart.
John of Gaunt’s deathbed speech in this scene as gone on to be amongst the most famous of all of Richard II’s speeches and has often been quoted through centuries as a portrayal of English patriotism. Gaunt speaks of England in high praises, saying, ‘This royal throne of kings, this sceptered 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’ that suggest a natural unity within the country, through the comparison of the country to a fertile earth and a protective mother. This natural unity is however being devoured by Richard’s ‘inky blots and rotten parchment bonds’, [causing England] ‘to become a shameful conquest of itself’. This suggest that although England appears safe from war from the outside, she is on the path of being conquered by the internal conflict and corruption caused by Richard’s actions.
Friedman (1976) argues that Gaunt ‘is no disinterested commentator on the glories of England; he is deeply implicated in the question he poses about the preservation or destructions of the national character’. This suggest that Gaunt worries that after his death England will lose her reputation from lesser countries that have come to know her as an ‘England, bound in with the triumphant sea,/ whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege’ , to an England that is threatened in every known area, due to Richard’s taxing schemes, and deteriorating governance.
Richard’s decision to ‘farm [our] royal realm’ , by renting out parts of England carries an enormous weight of symbolic significance. The language of natural unity through Gaunt’s use of metaphorical natural imagery in describing England as a ‘blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,/ this nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings’, suggests that renting our English land poses a threat to the England, and her children, as this concept of renting out land seems to be a curse in Shakespeare’s play. Queen Elizabeth I was known to have rented out English lands to other nations, this decision, many frowned upon, as it is expected of a good kingship, as suggested in many of Shakespeare’s play that a natural, fully merged relationship is to be formed between the monarch, the land, the harvest and its people. Therefore, renting out the land opens England to many vulnerabilities. And references to loss of land should be alert the audience that something ominous is being foreshadowed, and this case, it is the replacement of the king, and probably his death. It is Richard’s ignorance that causes him to ignore Gaunt’s advice and goes on to seize Gaunt’s property like he said in the previous scene, turning Willoughly, Ross and Northumberland against him, as well as his devoted uncle, York, to join alliance with Bolingbroke. By the end of this scene, the audience are made aware of Bolingbroke’s invasion of England.
In conclusion, Richard’s fate can be argued to be already sealed, like Macbeth’s, when his actions to hasten his coronation unravelled a series of unfortunate events. Richard II used dramatic context in the exploration of the series of events that lead to Richard’s deposition.
Bibliography
- Draper, John W., Court vs. Country in Shakespeare’s plays in The Journal of English and Germanic Philogy, Vol.33, No.2 (April 1934) < https://www.jstor.org/stable/27703893?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents> [accessed 2 December 2018}
- Friedman, Donald M., John of Gaunt and the Rhetoric of Frustration in ELH, Vol. 43, No.3 (1976) < https://www.jstor.org/stable/2872416?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents> [accessed 2 December 2018]
- Greenblatt Stephen, Cohen Walter, Gosset Suzanne Howard, Jean E., Maus Katharine Eisaman and McMullan Gordon., ed., Othello in The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd edn (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016), pp. 908-911
- Richard II: Creation of the play in Shakespeare Quartos <https://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/richard2.html> [accessed 2 December 2018].
- Ure, Peter, ed., Richard II in The Arden Shakespeare (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956)