William Shakespeare - Richard II

This play is a great example of how important self-interest is in human affairs and the primacy of realpolitik. Bullingbrooke is upset about being disinherited while he is in exile but comes back to disinherit Richard of his crown. All the play’s characters talk about the importance of honour (e.g. ‘mine honor is my life, both grow in one, / take honour from me, and my life is done,” Mowbray, I.i.183-4) but are very quick to change sides depending which way the wind is blowing. They also seem to spend a lot of time plotting behind each other’s backs in spite of their professed love of truth! To me, this perfectly illustrates how ordinarily people do what’s in their best interest and then justify their actions with high sounding principles after the fact. No more so than during a time of uncertainty and insurrection.


York is entrusted the kingdom when Richard goes to Ireland but yields to Bullingbrooke without a fight. In practical terms, it seems he has no choice as everyone is on Bullingbrooke’s side by then anyway, he is old and infirm and King Richard is presumed dead in Ireland. As York summarises pragmatically, ‘things past redress are now with me past care’ (II.iii.171). It is odd, however, when he finds his son the Duke of Aumerle plotting to overthrow Henry IV (formerly Bullingbrooke) he condemns him to the king and pushes for his execution (V.iii). This could be interpreted as yet more pragmatism, cementing his position with the new king by proving he’s willing to sacrifice his own son to demonstrate his loyalty. On the other hand, I also wondered if the self-interested solution for most fathers in his situation would have been to save their sons? I found it confusing to see York so relaxed about Bullingbrooke’s insurrection while being so officious about the one his own son is involved in. He even goes as far as say, “Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies, / Or my sham’d life in his dishonour lies: / Thou kill’st me in his life; giving him breath, / The traitor lives, the true man’s put to death.” (V.iii.70-73). This seems almost recklessly hypocritical given he has just betrayed King Richard! It also shows how quickly circumstances could change and how rapidly the concept of ‘honour’ could be reinterpreted. Gaunt may be seen as an exception to this general rule of realpolitik and also an example of the dangers of acting counter to it. He criticises the king on his deathbed and when he dies the King summarily seizes all his assets.


Richard is by far the most vividly depicted character psychologically with numerous speeches and soliloquies on his internal state. His mood is wildly volatile depending on the circumstances and these change rapidly during this period of civil unrest, insurrection and a foreign war in Ireland. He is depicted as a bad king. He is a vain and capricious ruler, subject to flattery, taxes his people excessively, pronounces arbitrary judgement upon them and generally manages the country irresponsibly and selfishy. Gaunt’s deathbed speech (II.i) and the conversation between the gardners (III.iv) give ample evidence of this. In this sense, Richard’s rule can be seen as an example of realpolitik too; his fate can be seen as the fruits of bad and arbitrary government.


There is an echo of this theme of consequences for unjust acts and an ominous prediction about the new Henry IV’s rule in the speech of the Bishop of Carlisle:

I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr’d up by God, thus boldly for his king.
My Lord Herford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Herford’s king,
And if you crown him, let me prophesy,
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act.
Peace shall go to sleep with Turks and infidels,
And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound.
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call’d
The field of Golgotha and dead men’s skulls.
O, if you raise this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child, child’s children, cry against you “woe!”
(IV.i.132-148)

The fact that he is arrested immediately after this speech for capital treason also reinforces the point about realpolitik made by Gaunt’s criticism of the king: telling the truth will be unpleasant and costly if it goes against authority.


Besides plainly being a poor king, Richard is also extremely eloquent and some of the plays' most beautiful lines and striking speeches are found on his lips. When in good spirits, he can be a gloriously proud personification of the divine right of kings. For example, proclaiming “not all the water in the rough, rude sea / can wash the balm off from an anointed king” (III.ii.54-55). On the other hand, he is given to bouts of depression of the opposite extremity. For instance, in the same scene, he capitulates and says, “for God’s sake let us sit upon the ground / and tell sad stories of the death of kings” (III.ii.155-156). Later in the same speech he movingly disavows his divine status and stresses his humanity, “For you have mistook me all this while. / I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, / How can you say to me I am a king?” (III.ii.174-177). These wild swings give support to the idea that he is a mercurial leader but also show how tumultuous the country is during the insurrection. In the end, having had a dim view of Richard’s character and reign, he becomes a sympathetic character not least because of the poetry and lyricism of his words. He yields to Bullingbrooke almost as if it is a relief to him too, “Discharge my followers, let them hence away, / From Richard’s night to Bullingbrooke’s fair day.” (III.ii.217-218), and from then on reflects on himself with both insight and poetry. For example, the simile about a well and two buckets he uses to describe his situation relative to his cousin Bullingbrooke:

Here, cousin,
On this side my hand, on that side thine,
Now is this golden crown like deep well
That owes two buckets, filling one another,
The emptier ever dancing in the air,
The other down, unseen, and full of water:
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high
(IV.i.182-189)

And even more poetically:

Yours cares set up do not pluck my cares
down:
My loss is loss of care, by old care done,
Your care is gain of care, by new care won;
The cares I give I have, though given away,
They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay
(IV.i.194-199)

While on the throne, Richard seems an arrogant and ineffective ruler but once he is deposed his sensitive and articulate poetry turn him into a markedly different proposition for the reader. His final soliloquy in prison recognises his folly and contains my favourite line of the play:

Ha, ha, keep time! How sour sweet music is
When time is broke, and no proportion kept!
So it is in the music of men’s lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To check time broke in a disordered string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now time doth waste me;
(V.v.43-49)

I love the way his deposition and incarceration seem to clear his mind and give him lucidity. He sees the problems that plagued his rule anew, recognises his faults and admits his inability to do so before. His fall and subsequent confession of his crimes in jail seem to totally transform him as a person. He’s no longer indecisive and his psychology no longer swings so wildly between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. This metamorphosis culminates in his fight against the men who come to kill him. Reinvigorated but unarmed, he kills two of them and even impresses his murderer by the valor of his royal blood.

I really enjoyed reading this play and the rhythm of the narrative. The focus on self-interest rings true to me. The transformation of Richard’s character once he has recognised his folly when he was king is a great metamorphosis. He is an extremely varied character, speaks with great poetry and is ultimately highly sympathetic by the end.