TEXT AND PERFORMANCE General Editor: Michael Scott The series is designed to introduce sixth-form and under graduate students to the themes, continuing vitality and performance of major dramatic works. The attention given to production aspects is an element of special importance, responding to the invigoration given to literary study by the work of leading contemporary critics. The prime aim is to present each playas a vital experi~ce in the mind of the reader - achieved by analysis of the text in relation to its themes and theatricality. Emphasis is accordingly placed on the relevance of the work to the modern reader and the world of today. At the same time, traditional· views are presented and appraised, forming the basis from which a creative response to the text can develop. In each volume, Part One: Text discusses certain key themes or problems, the reader being encouraged to gain a stronger perception both of the inherent character of the work and also of variations in interpreting it. Part Two: Performance examines the ways in which these themes or problems have been handled in modern productions, and the approaches and techniques employed to enhance the play's accessibility to modern audiences. A synopsis of the play is given and an outline of its major sources, and a concluding Reading List offers guidance to the student's independent study of the work. PUBLISHED A Midsummer Night's Dream Roger Warren Antony and Cleopatra Michael Scott Doctor Faustus William Tydeman Hamlet Peter Davison Henry the Fourth, Parts 1 and 2 T. F. Wharton King Lear Gamini Salgado Macbeth Gordon Williams Measure for Measure Graham Nicholls Othello Martin L. Wine Richard II Malcolm Page The Merchant of Venice Bill Overton The 'Ptmpest David L. Hirst The Winter's Tale R. P. Draper Twelfth Night Lois Potter Volpone Arnold P. Hinchliffe IN PREP ARAT ION Much Ado About Nothing Pamela Mason Romeo and Juliet Michael Scott (The Duchess of Malji' and (The White Devil' Richard Cave RICHARD II Text and Performance MALCOLM PAGE M MACMILLAN EDUCATION © Malcolm Page 1987 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1987 Published by Higher and Further Education Division MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG2l 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastern Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Page, Malcolm Richard II.-(Text and performance) 1. Shakespeare, William. King Richard II I. Title II. Series 822.3'3 PR2820 ISBN 978-1-349-08146-2 ISBN 978-1-349-08144-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08144-8 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 7 General Editor's Preface 9 Plot Synopsis and Sources 11 PART ONE: TEXT 1 Introduction 13 2 Richard: Man and King 16 3 Bolingbroke and York 33 4 'Richard II' as History Play 36 5 What Does the Play Mean to Us Now? 43 PART TWO: PERFORMANCE 6 Introduction 48 7 Royal Shakespeare Company, Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson, Directed John Barton, 1973-74 57 8 Stratford Festival, Ontario: Three Actors, Directed Zoe Caldwell, 1979 68 9 Royal Shakespeare Company, Alan Howard, Directed Terry Hands, 1980-81 73 10 Theatre du Soleil, Directed Ariane Mnouchkine, 1982-84 78 11 Conclusion 81 Reading List 83 Index of Names 85 Illustrations will be found in Part Two. 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks are due to the Archives at the Stratford Festival, Ontario and to the Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon for all their help. To JONATHAN, the actor 9 GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE For many years a mutual suspicion existed between the theatre director and the literary critic of drama. Although in the first half of the century there were important exceptions, such was the rule. A radical change of attitude, however, has taken place over the last thirty years. Critics and directors now increasingly recognise the significance of each other's work and acknowledge their growing awareness of interdependence. Both interpret the same text, but do so according to their different situations and functions. Without the director, the designer and the actor, a play's existence is only partial. They revitalise the text with action, enabling the drama to live fully at each performance. The academic critic investigates the script to elucidate its textual problems, understand its conventions and discover how it operates. He may also propose his view of the work, expounding what he considers to be its significance. Dramatic texts belong therefore to theatre and to literature. The aim of the 'Text and Performance' series is to achieve a fuller recognition of how both enhance our enjoyment of the play. Each volume follows the same basic pattern. Part One provides a critical introduction to the play under discussion, using the techniques and criteria of the literary critic in examining the manner in which the work operates through language, imagery and action. Part Two takes the enquiry further into the play's theatricality by focusing on selected productions of recent times so as to illustrate points of contrast and comparison in the interpretation of different directors and actors, and to demonstrate how the drama has worked on the modern stage. In this way the series seeks to provide a lively and informative introduction to major plays in their text and performance. MICHAEL SCOTT II PLOT SYNOPSIS AND SOURCES I. King Richard II listens to a quarrel between his cousin, Bolingbroke, and Mowbray and, as they cannot agree, orders them to duel. The Duchess of Gloucester tries to persuade John of Gaunt (father of Bolingbroke) to revenge the death of her husband at the hands of Mowbray. When Bolingbroke and Mowbray are about to fight, Richard instead exiles both, Bolingbroke for ten years, changed to six, and Mowbray for life. II. Gaunt, dying, laments the decline of England during Richard's reign: as soon as he is dead, Richard seizes his wealth and leaves to suppress a rising in Ireland. The Duke of York, the King's uncle, is made Governor. Bolingbroke returns to claim his father's title. He is joined by Northumberland and several others and York submits. Lacking news from Ireland, the royal army disperses. III. Bolingbroke executes two of Richard's favourites. Richard at last comes back and, after bursts of hope, despairs of his prospects. He confronts Bolingbroke at Flint Castle, and descends to obey Bolingbroke's summons to London. The Queen learns of her husband's fate by overhearing gardeners. IV. Bolingbroke also faces quarrelsome nobles and the Bishop of Carlisle denounces his seizure of the throne, then is arrested. Richard is formally deposed and forced to give the crown to Bolingbroke, now Henry IV. He refuses when Northumberland demands that he read the accusations against him. V. Richard and his Queen sadly say goodbye. Aumerle starts plotting to restore Richard to the throne, but his father, York, discovers this. Aumerle successfully pleads with King Henry for forgiveness. Richard, imprisoned in Pomfret (Pontefract) Castle, is visited by a sympathetic groom, then killed by Exton, who believes Henry ordered this. When Exton presents the corpse to Henry, he exiles him and starts mourning Richard. SOURCES The question of sources is both simple and complicated. The main source, as for Shakespeare's other histories, is clearly Ralph Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), accessible as Holinshed's Chronicles as used in Shakespeare's Plays, ed. Richard Hosley (New York, 1968) and elsewhere, and with other sources in Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, ed. Geoffrey Bullough, vol. III (1960). Shakespeare may well have consulted several other texts, including Hall's earlier Chronicles and the anonymous play Woodstock. See, for example, Kenneth Muir, The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays (1977), pp.46- 66. Shakespeare may have researched with unusual care and then taken pains to harmonise his materials. 13 PART ONE: TEXT 1 INTRODUCTION Richard II begins in the middle: no Chorus, as in Henry V; no explanatory talk among waiting Gentlemen. This could easily be Richard II, Part II, particularly if we know that Richard has already been king for 21 years when the play begins. Instead of any setting of scene and situation, the king is seen presiding while two nobles quarrel cryptically. We cannot tell who is right and who is wrong in the argument, who is lying or whether both are. Our inability to grasp the issues forces our attention on the king, on his way of dealing with troublesome subjects. Does Shakespeare intend to puzzle spectators with this bitter argument about complicity in the murder of the Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle? Or does he assume that the first audiences in 1595 brought knowledge lacking in audiences now? Shakespeare here seems to expect spectators to know that Gloucester was killed, directly or indirectly, on the king's orders and that Mowbray is implicated. Audience members who had seen the anonymous play, Woodstock, probably staged a little earlier, would know all about the murder of Gloucester. When Richard's involvement is finally mentioned by John of Gaunt, 'Correction lieth in those hands/Which made the fault that we cannot correct' [I ii .4- 5], the reference is too oblique to be readily grasped. The problem of adequately informing audiences of the situation at the start was alleviated at the Bristol Old Vic in 1985 by playing the second scene first, spotlighting Mowbray, Bolingbroke and York when they are named. Another difficulty initially is that Bolingbroke is also referred to as Hereford (sometimes 'Herford' in the Quarto and Folio texts, which gives the usual pronunciation as two syllables), Mowbray is also Norfolk, John of Gaunt is also Lancaster and the dead Gloucester is also Woodstock (these