Part 8 (1/2)

Very similar inferences are to be drawn fro Richard II,” which in some respects is his e says: ”I know of no character drawn by our great poet with such unequalled skill as that of Richard II” Such praise is extravagant; but it would have been true to say that up to 1593 or 1594, when Shakespeare wrote ”King Richard II,” he had given us no character so coe overpraised the character-drawing probably because the study of Richard's weakness and irresolution, and the pathos resulting from such helplessness, must have seemed very like an analysis of his own nature

Let us now exaht it casts on Shakespeare's qualities There was an old play of the same title, a play which is now lost, but we can form some idea of what it was like from the description in Fored over twenty years of Richard's reign, whereas Shakespeare's tragedy is confined to the last year of Richard's life It is probable that the old play presented King Richard as ines him We know that in the ”Confessio Aiance to Richard: for he cancelled the dedication of the poeland, too, the author of the ”Vision of Piers Plowman,” turned fro to ill-advised youth It may be assumed, then, that tradition pictured Richard as a vile creature in eakness nourished crime Shakespeare took his story partly from Holinshed's narrative, and partly either from the old play or froan to write the play he evidently intended to portray Richard as even more detestable than history and tradition had presented him In Holinshed Richard is not accused of the es him with it, or rather makes Gaunt do so, and the accusation is not denied, much less disproved At the close of the first act we are astonished by the revelation of Richard's devilish heartlessness The King hearing that his uncle, John of Gaunt, is ”grievous sick,” cries out:

”Now put it, God, in his physician'sof his coffers shall make coats To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars

Coo visit him: Pray God we reed and cold cruelty decked out with blasphe attributed by Shakespeare to the worst of his villains But surely some hint of Richard's incredible vileness should have come earlier in the play, should have preceded at least his banishbroke, if Shakespeare had really ht

In the first scene of the second act, when Gaunt reproves hi In the very sa Gaunt's money and land, and Richard retorts:

”Think what you will: we seize into our hands His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands”

But when York blames him to his face and predicts that evil will befall him and leaves him, Richard in spite of this at once creates:

”Our uncle York, Lord Governor of England; For he is just, and always loved us well”

This Richard of Shakespeare is so far, I submit, almost incoes and threatens; when blamed by York much more severely, Richard rewards York: the two scenes contradict each other Moreover, though his callous selfishness, greed and cruelty are apparently established, in the very next scene of this act our syives him She says:

”I know no cause Why I should welco farewell to so sweet a guest As my sweet Richard”

And from this scene to the end of the play Shakespeare enlists all our syht-about-face on the part of the poet?

It appears toto present the vile and cruel Richard of tradition But midway in the play he saw that there was no eot out of the traditional view If Richard were a vile, sche, heartless murderer, the loss of his crown and life would merely satisfy our sense of justice, but this outcome did not satisfy Shakespeare's desire for emotion, and particularly his desire for pathos, [Footnote: In the last scene of the last act of ”Lear,” Albany says: ”This judgement of the heavens, that makes us trely he veers round, says nothing more of Richard's vileness, lays stress upon his weakness and sufferings, discovers, too, all manner of amiable qualities in him, and so draws pity fro is that while Shakespeare is depicting Richard's heartlessness, he does his work badly; the traits, as I have shown, are crudely extravagant and even contradictory; but when he paints Richard's gentleness and amiability, he works like ahimself

It was natural for Shakespeare to sy when he wrote the play, young enough to remember vividly how he himself had been led astray by loose companions, and this formed a bond between them At this time of his life this was Shakespeare's favourite subject: he treated it again in ”Henry IV,” which is at once the epilogue to ”Richard II” and a companion picture to it; for the the to unworthy coh the treatment in the earlier play is incoot, and Green, the favourites of Richard, are not painted as Shakespeare afterwards painted Falstaff and his followers But partly because he had not yet attained to such objective treatment of character, Shakespeare identified hi of Richard isand pathetic than anything in ”Henry IV”

As I have already said, froent, and leaves England, Shakespeare begins to think of himself as Richard, and fro with the unhappy King At this point, too, the character-drawing becoland, he is given speech after speech, and all he says and does afterwards throws light, it seems to me, on Shakespeare's own nature Let us mark each trait First of all Richard is intensely, frankly e, sland, and is full of hope ”The thief, the traitor,” Bolingbroke, will not dare to face the light of the sun; for ”every broke has in his pay,” he cries exultantly, God hath given Richard a ”glorious angel;Heaven still guards the right” A moment later he hears from Salisbury that the Welshmen whom he had relied upon as allies are dispersed and fled At once he becoht of pride and confidence he falls to utter hopelessness

”All souls that will be safe fly from my side; For time hath set a blot upon my pride”

Aus froain He cries:

”Awake, thou sluggard 's name forty thousand names?”

The next moment Scroop speaks of cares, and forthwith fitful Richard is in the dunation and sadness, and the pathos of this is brought out by the poet:

”Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?

Greater he shall not be; if he serve God We'll serve him, too, and be his fellow so

Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend; They break their faith to God, as well as us

Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay; The worst is death, and death will have his day”

Who does not hear Ha in this memorable last line? Like Hamlet, too, this Richard is quick to suspect even his friends' loyalty

He guesses that Bagot, Bushy, and Green have broke, and when Scroop seems to admit this, Richard is as quick as Hamlet to unpack his heart ords: