Quotes & Possible Essay Questions for Richard II

Quotations:

1. "Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir, / As he is but my father’s brother’s son . . ." Richard II (1.1)

2. "God’s is the quarrel; for God’s substitute, / His deputy anointed in His sight, / Hath caused his death . . ." John of Gaunt (1.2)

3. "A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, / And all unlooked for from your Highness’ mouth . . ." Duke of Norfolk (1.3)

4. "Pray God we may make haste, and come too late!" Richard II (1.4)

5. "This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle, / This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, / This other Eden, demi-paradise, / . . . This precious stone set in the silver sea . . ." John of Gaunt (2.1)

6. "Right, you say true: as Hereford’s love, so his; / As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is." Richard II (2.1)

7. "I do remain as neuter." Duke of York (2.3)

8. "You have in manner with your sinful hours / Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him . . ." Henry Bolingbroke (3.1)

9. "Not all the water in the rough rude sea / Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; / The breath of worldly men cannot depose / The deputy elected by the Lord." Richard II (3.2)

10. "O, call back yesterday, bid time return, / And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men!" Earl of Salisbury (3.2)

11. "O, villains, vipers, damned without redemption!" Richard II (3.2)

12. "For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground, / And tell sad stories of the death of kings . . ." Richard II (3.2)

13. "I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends—subjected thus, / How can you say to me, I am a king?" Richard II (3.2)

14. "Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaeton, / Wanting the manage of unruly jades." Richard II (3.3)

15. "My gracious lord, I come but for mine own." Henry Bolingbroke (3.3)

16. "Now is the golden crown like a deep well / That owes two buckets, filling one another, / The emptier ever dancing in the air . . ." Richard II (4.1)

17. "Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son?" Henry IV (5.3)

Possible Essay Questions:

1. Discuss the BBC’s consciously historical production of Richard II. How does the production reinforce the realism of the play? How does it demonstrate Richard’s tyrannical nature and policies?

2. Discuss Richard II’s struggle to find his own identity.

3. Discuss the tragedy of Henry Bolingbroke.

4. Discuss Richard II’s theory and practice of kingship.

5. Discuss Shakespeare’s view of history. What importance does he assign to individuals? Does he see the history of England as in some sense a family history?

6. Discuss Richard II, not as family history or a story of individuals but as the dramatization of the democratic ideal or the rule of law or both. In this view can Henry Bolingbroke be seen as a pawn who turns inadvertently into a king?

7. Discuss the various Renaissance theories of how to handle a tyrant, giving examples from Richard II and/or Shakespeare’s other plays.

8. Compare and contrast two or three productions of Richard II.

9. Jan Kott in his book Shakespeare Our Contemporary says, "In Richard II Shakespeare deposed not only the king but the idea of kingly power . . . . The King has become a man, the crown has been torn off the head of the Lord’s Anointed. But the world has not been shaken in its foundations, and nothing has changed, not even his own face. So the crown was no more than sham" (47). Agree or disagree and support your position.