Topics on Richard 2. 
Due March 15. 

Write a 5-10 page paper on one of the following topics. All sources (from the text, from the course packet, from handouts, for web sites, or from outside reading) should be appropriately documented.

1. Discuss the following quotation: "History as the ceaseless self-activation of human beings runs its course between the many-sidedness of the self and the one-sidedness of prevailing systems" (Wolfgang Iser, Staging Politics: The Lasting Impact of Shakespeare's Histories, trs. David Henry Wilson [New York: Columbia University Press, 1993] 110). Consider the quotation both as an account of the historical movement(s) represented in Shakepeare's Richard II and as a description of the dilemmas of its central characters.

2. What are the alternative ideas of the sources of a monarch's authority that are present in Richard II or suggested by it? To what extent were those sources also important for Elizabeth I? Consider the various explicit or implicit views of the authority of the monarch as expressed in several works and by various characters in those works.

3, 4, 5, 6. Various incidents in Shakespeare's play were reported differently by at least one of his possible sources: (3) the dispute between Bolingbroke and Mowbray; (4) the return Henry Bolingbroke to England from his exile in France; (5) the surrender or capture of Richard after his landing in Wales; (6) the death of Richard. Discuss one of those incidents as it is treated in Shakespeare and his sources, and suggest the possible significance of the differences.

7. Commoners (for example, citizens of London) play a major role in most of versions of Richard's story we have read, whether merely in being disrespectful to Richard when he is brought back to London or in encouraging Henry to return from France and win the throne. Discuss the various roles that commoners play in different versions of the Richard story and the various attitudes of historians (and playwrights) towards him.

8. At the other end of the hierarchy, God is invoked as the source of political power, but there are various ways of interpreting divine will as it manifests itself in the workings of history. Can one argue that Bolingbroke's usurpation of the throne is an offence against the divine order? Can one argue that Richard's fall is a divinely ordained punishment for Richard's sins? (Gaunt, after all, tells the Duchess of Gloucester that only God can avenge the murder of her husband.) Consider the role of God in Ricardian and Elizabethan politics, as treated by Shakespeare and several of his sources.

9. Henry's problem, after his capture of Richard, was how to establish his own right to succeed as King. How does he do it, both in the sources and in the play? What do his efforts suggest about the sources of political power?

10. Queen Isabel was about ten years old when the events represented in the play took place, yet she seems to be represented as an adult old enough to have a passionate and even sexual relationship to her husband. Why did Shakespeare (and Daniel) make this change? Discuss her roles in Shakespeare's play, in Daniel's poem, and in history.

11. Mary Stuart seems to resemble several of the characters in Shakespeare's Richard II, and significant events of her life parallel some of the actions of the play. Discuss the significance of these correspondences. To what extent can we think of Shakespeare's play as about Mary, and what message about her does it send?

12. In what respects was Elizabeth I like (and unlike) Shakespeare's Richard II? How might she have seen herself as resembling him, or seen that others might see a resemblance? What bearing might these connections have had on her authority as monarch or on efforts to replace her?

13. In what respects can we think of Shakespeare's play as one that serves to support Queen Elizabeth (in short, as a highly sophisticated piece of propaganda)? Alternatively, in what senses can we see it as a distinctly subversive play? (Choose one alternative or the other or both.)

14. Is Henry Bolingbroke a positive or negative character-and according to whom? Discuss his treatment in Shakespeare and the various historical and literary sources we have read. Do not simply argue your own opinion (why you think he was good or bad) but consider carefully the various factors that are involved in coming to a judgment, as well as the various judgments that are made or implied in the works that discuss him.

15. Imagine three members of the audience watching the Lord Chamberlain's Company performance of Richard II (probably by Shakespeare) at the Globe Theater on Saturday, February 7, 1601. One is a loyal supporter of Queen Elizabeth and disturbed by the rumors that the Earl of Essex will attempt to attack the court; another is a neutral observer, vaguely aware of tensions between Elizabeth and Essex, but not (at least until he walks into the theater) aware of any plot against her; a third is aware of Essex's plot and plans to join it the next day. How would these audience members understand and respond to the play, and why?

16. Say everything there is to be said about the garden scene of Richard II (III. iv), the one scene of the play for which there is no equivalent in any of Shakespeare's sources. Discuss what the gardeners have to say about the policies of Richard (and possibly, by implication, about the policies of Queen Elizabeth). Discuss the significance of the metaphorical and poetic language that they use. Discuss the fact that their conversation is overheard by the Queen. In what ways is "statecraft" the central subject of the scene?

17. Analyze the importance of Gaunt's famous speech about England (II. i. 31-680, considering it both as a statement about England at the end of the fourteenth century and as statement about England at the end of the sixteenth. (Richard II was probably performed seven years after the Spanish Armada, and amid fears that a further armada would be launched.) What similarities and differences would a contemporary audience be likely to find between the present state of the country and England as described by Gaunt?

18. What are the advantages of hindsight? Shakespeare, Holinshed and Daniel wrote about Richard II from the perspective of two-hundred years, but Jean Froissart's account is virtually contemporary with the death of Richard. Look at chronological perspective in Froissart, Shakespeare, and one other writer.

19. Shakespeare collapses a series of events that took about 18 months in real time into a much shorter period--even if we assume, as we should, that there is a gap of time after each act. What are the dramatic effects of this collapsing of time? What are its implications for the play's treatment of history?

20. Virtually all of the authors we have read make or imply moral or political ideas that seek to transcend the particular situation of Richard, that make him into a universal model. Discuss the relationship of the historical to the universal in Shakespeare and at least one other author.

21. For Shakespeare, a major crime committed by Richard is his takeover and redistribution of Lancaster's property after the death of Gaunt. (See, especially, the argument against it made by the Duke of York in II.i.186-208.) But is this event given similar prominence in other accounts? What is the dramatic and ideological significance of emphasizing it?

22. Discuss the relations between monarchs and their advisors in cases of Richard and Elizabeth. Both Henry and Essex blame the monarch's advisors for the problems of the reign, but is this accusation just? Do advisors become, in effect, scapegoats for the errors really committed by the monarch? To what degree are the tensions between advisors and others seeking power a matter of class rivalry as well as political rivalry? To what extent does Elizabeth's treatment of her advisors echo that of Richard?

23. One of the strong impressions we get from Shakespeare's play is that once he becomes king, Bolingbroke in effect becomes a duplicate of Richard. What are the similarities in Shakespeare's play, and what is their significance? Do we have a similar sense of duplication in any of the sources we read, or is the connection unique to Richard II?

24. Loyalty seems a particularly important quality in Daniel's treatment of Richard (and disloyalty seems a particularly serious offense). Compare the treatment of loyalty and disloyalty by Daniel to its treatment by Shakespeare. What are the characters loyal to and why? What is the political importance of loyalty?

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