P. Hen. The young Prince piteously asks: How fares your majesty? K. John. 'Poisoned,—'ill fare!-Dead, forsook, cast off! Nor let my kingdom's 'rivers take their course P. Hen. O that there were some virtue in my 'tears K. John. The 'salt in them is hot. . . . Faulconbridge enters hastily. O cousin!-thou art come to 'set mine eye. Faul. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, Where Heaven He knows how we shall answer him; (As I upon 'advantage did remove,) Was, in the Washes, all unwarily Devoured by the unexpected flood. . . . The King dies. . . . Salisbury first breaks the silence: Sal. You breathe these dead 'news in as dead an 'ear. My liege! my lord! . . . But now a King,-now thus! And then 'my soul shall wait on thee to 'heaven, Prince Henry sobs his reply: P. Hen. I have a kind soul that 'would give you thanks, And knows not 'how to do it. 2 Model, lifeless figure. but with 'tears. · 3 Defeated. Faul. O, let us pay the time but 'needful woe, But when it first did help to wound itself. And we shall shock3 them. Nought shall make us rue, [Exeunt. END OF KING JOHN. 2 The lately rebellious nobles. 3 Encounter with subduing power. KING RICHARD II. This Play must have been written in 1596: it was published, and acted at the Globe, in 1597, and is included in Meres' list of 1598.2 Several editions followed. During the reign of Elizabeth, the scenes in Parliament, concerning the deposition of the King, were by authority suppressed: but they were restored in the folio of 1623.There was an older play on the same subject; it is now lost, but the analysis of it (in Dr. Simon Forman's Diary) shows that its arrangement at least was different from that of Shakespeare's play. The incidents are taken chiefly from that mine of dramatic wealth-the Chronicles of Holinshed; but the play, though carefully revised by its author, has not proved attractive on the stage; for which, perhaps, it is less adapted than, by its poetical beauties and historical truth, for the School, Study, or Platform It is the only dramatic production of Shakespeare which is not graced by some pleasantry, or blurred by some buffoonery; and is believed to be the first of his "original "Historical Plays. King John died in 1216. The subsequent reigns were those of Henry the Third-Edward the First-Edward the Second,-and Edward the Third. The next reign chronicled in the Shakespeare series is this of Richard the Second. This monarch's father is favourably known in history as Edward the Black Prince: he died in 1376; and in 1377, this son succeeded to the English throne in right of his grandfather, Edward the Third. Crowned at eleven years of age, he had not, by that course of education which is best acquired in the school of adversity, learned to regulate his weak and wayward disposition. The love of the people of England for his father and his grandfather, as well as his own early display of energy and ability,- in quelling the outbreak of Wat Tyler and his infuriated followers,sustained for a time the young King's popularity; till his folly, his pride, his pomp, and his extravagance, - his magnificent pageantries and costly amusements,- for even when the country was desolated by plague and famine, he daily entertained about six thousand persons, and had a retinue of three hundred servants, with a like number in attendance on the Queen-completely alienated the affections of his subjects. His first wife died early; and his marriage to his second wife Isabel, daughter of the King of France, (a girl only nine years of age, although Shakespeare represents her as a noble 'woman,) did not "increase the love of the people." The "farming" of the revenues, and other acts of public and private injustice, aroused the indignant nobility, who either had, or made, new grievances. The King's three uncles, the Dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloster, had, during his long minority, engrossed all power; and, even after his majority, Gloster especially endeavoured to leave his royal nephew only the name of King. Gloster was at last got rid 2 See page 8. of having been put to death in prison by his keepers; not without the connivance of his royal brothers; and, it is believed, by direction of the King, who thus gratified, and, as he thought, 'concealed his revenge. After the murder of the Duke of Gloster, quarrels arose among the nobles who had joined in this conspiracy. The most conspicuous rupture was that between the Duke of Lancaster's son, Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Hereford, and the Duke of Norfolk; and, as this quarrel is intimately connected with the action of this play, and even led to a change in the order of succession, Shakespeare has copiously and judiciously introduced it here. The Characters retained in this Condensation are: KING RICHARD THE SECOND. Uncles to of Lancaster. HENRY BOLINGBROKE, 2 Duke of EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND. LORD WILLOUGHBY. SIR PIERCE OF EXTON. ISABEL, Queen to King Richard. DUCHESS OF York. Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Keeper, Messenger, and Attendants. The Action of the play is sometimes in England, sometimes in Wales. The Time extends over two years: from the banishment of Hereford in 1398, till the murder of the King in 1400. The Scene is a State apartment of the Palace in London. King Richard is before us, with his uncle the aged Duke of Lancaster and other noblemen. The King speaks : K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster, K. Rich. Then call them to our presence: face to face, 2 Or Bullingbrook (as now it is pronounced.) In the folio of 1623, the spelling is Bullingbrooke. 3 Now Albemarle. Now spelt Roos. 5 O. R. band. High-stomached' are they 'both, and full of ire; Bolingbroke and Norfolk enter. K. Rich. Cousin of Hereford, 'what dost thou object Come I, appellant, to this princely presence.- Too good to be so, and too bad to live; The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,— And let him be 'no kinsman to my liege, I do defy him, and I 'spit at him; Call him a slanderous 'coward, and a 'villain ! 3 Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder, Or chivalrous design, of knightly 'trial. K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge? Bol. Look, 'what I speak, my 'life shall prove it 'true : That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles, Besides, I say, and will in battle 'prove, 2 Hot-tempered. 3 An armed glove, a sign of defiance. 4 Pledge. 5 O. R. lewd. |