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Richard II - Act 2

#135: Dec. - Jan. 2015 (Fiction)
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Richard II - Act 2

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Richard II, Act 2

Please use this thread for discussing Richard II, Act 2.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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The second act opens in Ely house, where the dying John of Gaunt hopes the King will soon arrive so he can regale him with advice. Gaunt tells York that the King will pay heed because words from a dying man "enforce attention like a deep harmony." But Gaunt pretty much ends up just pissing the King off and, after Gaunt dies (offscreen), and under protest from York and others, the King seizes Gaunt's "plate, his goods, his money, and his lands" to help pay for the war effort in Ireland.

Shakespeare really compresses the action in this play, but there seems a glaring problem with events here. Just after the King confiscates Gaunt's land, we learn that Henry has already launched an army with eight tall ships and three thousand men. Indeed, Henry has been waiting for the King to leave for Ireland before launching his attack. I thought that this was the impetus for Henry's attack all along, to recover his rightful inheritance. But Henry can't know that the King has disinherited him yet, can he? It just happened. Anyone else confused by this?
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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geo wrote:The second act opens in Ely house, where the dying John of Gaunt hopes the King will soon arrive so he can regale him with advice. Gaunt tells York that the King will pay heed because words from a dying man "enforce attention like a deep harmony." But Gaunt pretty much ends up just pissing the King off and, after Gaunt dies (offscreen), and under protest from York and others, the King seizes Gaunt's "plate, his goods, his money, and his lands" to help pay for the war effort in Ireland.

Shakespeare really compresses the action in this play, but there seems a glaring problem with events here. Just after the King confiscates Gaunt's land, we learn that Henry has already launched an army with eight tall ships and three thousand men. Indeed, Henry has been waiting for the King to leave for Ireland before launching his attack. I thought that this was the impetus for Henry's attack all along, to recover his rightful inheritance. But Henry can't know that the King has disinherited him yet, can he? It just happened. Anyone else confused by this?
That does seem to be a glaring historical anachronism Geo.
He's not tied to history but drama I suppose.
John of Gaunt is portrayed as a philosophical optimist, always trying to see the bright side of things, as in his advice to Bolingbroke on how to view his exile.Or I suppose more accurately, how to make the best of a bad job.
Now he hopes his swan song to Richard will have the desired effect it's gravity and sincerity deserve,and will cause Richard to reconsider his course of life for the better.
The duke of York though has no such illusions,and Gaunt in the end dies disappointed and expecting the worst, and finally parts from Richard breathing imprecations against him.
Richard now for the last time repeats the defining misrule of his life, by seizing the fortune and lands of the late Gaunt for his Irish war and implementing another round of heavy taxation.
I think this is what Gaunt means by speaking of England as being leased and Richard as landlord not king.No one really owns their land but hold it so long as they cough up the taxes to Richard.
It's a big issue for Gaunt.Any other ideas about what Gaunt means by this leasing?
We have Gaunt's romantic vision of England the sceptred isle and other Eden, contrasted with how he sees it sold to hock by Richard and his policies.
Great language and imagery from Shakespeare here which is really the beating heart of all his work.
Richard inquires finally of Nothumberland concerning Gaunt; "What says he?" To which Northumberland replies; "Nay,nothing: all is said, His tongue is now a stringless instrument; Words,life and all,old Lancaster hath spent."
I think it's this kind of descriptive ability, as in this simile, which is marks out Shakespeare as a great writer.
Last edited by Flann 5 on Tue Jan 06, 2015 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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Flann 5 wrote:. . . Richard now for the last time repeats the defining misrule of his life, by seizing the fortune and lands of the late Gaunt for his Irish war and implementing another round of heavy taxation.
I think this is what Gaunt means by speaking of England as being leased and Richard as landlord not king.No one really owns their land but hold it so long as they cough up the taxes to Richard.
It's a big issue for Gaunt.Any other ideas about what Gaunt means by this leasing?
Thanks, as always, Flann. I think Bevington discusses the leasing issue either in the intro or in the annotations (of the version of the play that I'm reading). But this is a big deal, another "defining misrule" in Richard's reign. (I like how you phrase that.) Basically, the King is taking a percentage of the land leases to fund his various wars and other lavish expenditures. Sort of borrowing the money now and having to pay it back later at its full value. The King is basically running up his debt, kind of like most of our American presidents have done since Reagan.

I believe Gaunt makes a reference somewhere that the King is spending more now in peacetime than his predecessors did during war. The King himself says they are forced to "farm our royal realm."

Richard II: We will ourself in person to this war:
And, for our coffers, with too great a court
And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
We are inforced to farm our royal realm;
The revenue whereof shall furnish us
For our affairs in hand: if that come short,
Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;
Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich,
They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold
And send them after to supply our wants;
For we will make for Ireland presently.
Act 1.4

John of Gaunt: This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm
Act 2.1

Asimov explains that medieval kings were generally cash-starved anyway, and that Shakespeare maybe exaggerates Richard's spendthrifty ways. He says that the King usually receives revenues from his own royal estates and from customs dues. But funding wars was very difficult in the best of times, and kings sometimes were forced to declare one of their rich subjects a traitor so that he could confiscate his estates.

But though Henry is banished, he was never declared to be treasonous. And so what Richard does is illegal and very wrong. York tries to tell him not to seize Gaunt's estate, but the King does so anyway.

Asimov also resolved my question about how Henry could launch all those ships and armies before learning that he has been disinherited by the King. In fact, some time has passed between when John of Gaunt dies and when Richard leaves for Ireland. Shakespeare covers a lot of history so that everything seems to happen all at once. That some time has passed between these events is probably more obvious on stage or in film.

Here's Asimov:
In the play it all seems to happen at once—John of Gaunt's death, the King's departure for Ireland, Bolingbroke's move. Actually . . . John of Gaunt died in February and the King departed in May. Bolingbroke made his move at the beginning of July 1399.
So Henry would have had plenty of time to hear about the King's dastardly deed and would have had time to assemble armies and wait for him to leave for Ireland before making his move.

Asimov has an interesting aside about Bushy, Bagot, and Green. Sounds like a law firm, doesn't it? I'll post that next.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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geo wrote:Thanks, as always, Flann. I think Bevington discusses the leasing issue either in the intro or in the annotations (of the version of the play that I'm reading). But this is a big deal, another "defining misrule" in Richard's reign. (I like how you phrase that.) Basically, the King is taking a percentage of the land leases to fund his various wars and other lavish expenditures. Sort of borrowing the money now and having to pay it back later at its full value. The King is basically running up his debt, kind of like most of our American presidents have done since Reagan.

I believe Gaunt makes a reference somewhere that the King is spending more now in peacetime than his predecessors did during war. The King himself says they are forced to "farm our royal realm."
Thanks Geo,
I was perplexed about the leasing problem.
Bevington as I recall does mention the taxation. The blank charters were particularly resented.If I recall right,the king could sell the right itself to collect these revenues and blank meant just that.The collectors could arbitrarily decide how much to demand and presumably got a cut for themselves.
Curiously, Richard was untypical of the Plantagenet kings in not waging war in mainland Europe. His making peace with France was particularly unpopular with the knights and barons, who it seems gleaned considerable wealth by these wars.
Presumably this was through the loot gained in conquest and taxing of conquered peoples.
A big gripe for Gaunt is that Richard waged war on his own royal relatives and not the hated French which Gaunt sees as a glorious thing in their history.
And historically Bolingbroke spent his brief exile in France where a coup took place, and the new regime disregarded the peace treaties with Richard and facilitated Bolingbroke's return to England in order to stir up trouble for Richard.
Not that he needed much help here as Richard did a good job of raising trouble for himself.
Last edited by Flann 5 on Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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Flann 5 wrote:A big gripe for Gaunt is that Richard waged war on his own royal relatives and not the hated French which Gaunt sees as a glorious thing in their history.
And historically Bolingbroke spent his brief exile in France where a coup took place, and the new regime disregarded the peace treaties with Richard and facilitated Bolingbroke's return to England in order to stir up trouble for Richard.
Not that he needed much help here as Richard did a good job of raising trouble for himself.
That was John of Gaunt's lament that England has made "a shameful conquest of itself." It's a beautiful speech:

This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!
Act 2.1

Later, York lists Richard's list of injustices, including this interesting tidbit . . .

. . . the prevention of poor Bolingbroke
About his marriage . . .
Act 2.1

I believe Flann has mentioned the long history between Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke already. At one time Henry had been the honored guest in the French court and was negotiating a marriage contract with a cousin to the French king. I doubt this was a case of true love, but merely Henry maneuvering himself into a beneficial alliance. Asimov says that it was in Richard's best interest to prevent this marriage, which would give Bolingbroke a close connection to the French monarchy. So he hastily sent an envoy to France, demanding that the marriage not go through.

You can easily see that Henry has long been a thorn in Richard's side, and vice versa, and with that historical context we can understand Richard's motivations for stopping the duel and banishing Henry. Presumably the Elizabethans were more familiar with this history. Bolingbroke is never far from being able to claim the throne based on lineage, and clearly is politically ambitious as well. Shakespeare perhaps breezes past Henry's ambitious nature in order to highlight Richard as the clear villain.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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geo wrote:You can easily see that Henry has long been a thorn in Richard's side, and vice versa, and with that historical context we can understand Richard's motivations for stopping the duel and banishing Henry.
I sort of wonder why Richard didn't allow the duel between Mowbray and Bolingbroke to go ahead. Mowbray being a seasoned soldier it's not unlikely he would have killed Bolingbroke and that would have been the end of any threat to the crown from him.
Still Richard's reign is so bad that sooner or later he likely would have been deposed anyway.All events seem to conspire with Bolingbroke for his successful and relatively bloodless revolution,at least in the beginning.
Richard can only blame himself for the mass defections to Bolingbroke's cause. There seems to be a blurring between the primal and subconcious and the tangible realities in Act two.
Richard is still king, but before a shot is fired everyone seems to sense his reign is over. Bushy,Bagot and Green the court politicians, see the stark military realities and know their goose is cooked.
Richard's wife the queen is filled with nameless foreboding which soon is given concrete reality by the news she gets of Bolinbroke's landing with an army.
The Welsh army loyal to Richard are waiting for his return and rumour of his death is enough for them to abandon the cause.
The Welsh captain articulates a primal fear grounded in portents he sees of the fall of kings. Not all entirely irrational.In the mix of celestial and natural things there's also this; "Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap.The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,the other to enjoy by rage and war."
The Earl of Salisbury recognises that the cause is lost without the Welsh army but as though infected by the Welsh captain's primal thinking chimes in with; "Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,Witnessing storms to come,woe and unrest."
At the start of Act three, Richard in similar vein conjures the earth of his kingdom to fight for his divine right,somewhat unintentionally humourously at times, as when he calls on "heavy gaited toads" to cause his enemies to slip on them.
All is lost for Richard but what effect will this humiliation have on him personally?
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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Just to tie up the the question of the 'leasing' of England which all the characters resent so much.

When Richard says:
"We will ourself in person to this war:
And, for our coffers, with too great a court
And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light,
We are inforced to farm our royal realm;"

The key line is the last one - Richard is referring to tax farming, a system where the king was able to get his hands on a fixed sum of money in exchange for handing the right of taxation over to private individuals, who were called tax farmers. It was very useful for the king, especially when he was in financial difficulties, and also for the tax farmers, who used to tax the people several times the normal tax rate and keep the extra. It wasn't so good for the punters though.

This was one of the causes of the French Revolution. In the 17th and 18th centuries tax farmers became immensely rich in France. In fact the Ferme Générale (the corporation of tax farmers) built a very elaborate and much-hated wall around Paris just before the revolution, not designed like most city walls to protect the city, but rather to limit entry to Paris to a few carefully patrolled gates where the tax farmers could exact exact tolls and customs from all who passed.

The tax collecting contracts were leased out to the tax farmers - this is what Gaunt is referring to when he speaks of England being "leased".

I suspect the Earl of Wiltshire, who we never actually see but whose name is continually mentioned in connection with nefarious activities, was the main tax farmer.
In Sc 1 of Act 2, Ross says:
"The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm."
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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We have Gaunt's romantic vision of England the sceptred isle and other Eden, contrasted with how he sees it sold to hock by Richard and his policies.
Great language and imagery from Shakespeare here which is really the beating heart of all his work.
Yes, this is Shakespeare at his patriotic best - I'm going to quote from it as it's one of his most famous speeches and I want to point out a technique he uses in it - he uses repetition in a way that creates an emotional response in the reader or listener.

"This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

It's the kind of speech you think Winston Churchill might have made. In fact one of Churchill's best known speeches copied its structure from this speech, as well as echoing its strong patriotism and sense of defending an island realm.
"...we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"

youtube Churchill's speech
the key part starts at I:16, though the whole segment makes interesting listening.
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Re: Richard II - Act 2

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I sort of wonder why Richard didn't allow the duel between Mowbray and Bolingbroke to go ahead. Mowbray being a seasoned soldier it's not unlikely he would have killed Bolingbroke and that would have been the end of any threat to the crown from him.
Yes, I wondered this too - either way he would have got rid of one of them for good, and with a bit of luck it might have been Bolingbroke. Could have saved him a lot of trouble
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