Transcript See last 4 sections of lecture 6

Richard II:
From Ceremony to Farce
What happens to Richard in the radically
changing universe of the play where old Chain
of Being values no longer apply?
Richard’s literal, physical descent after
Bolingbroke’s speech:
3.3.61-70, p. 64, to 3.3.177-182, pp. 67-68.
• Richard descends from atop the battlements of
Flint Castle to the “base court.”
The Structure of the Elizabethan Public
Stage:
• New Globe (exterior), 1996
• Sketch of the Swan Theater (by Johannes de
Witt), c. 1596
• New Globe (stage), 1995
• New Globe (heavens), 1996
• Heavenly masquer who might be lowered from
the “heavens” (1605)
• Sketch of Globe (heavens and deux ex machina)
• New Globe (stage and galleries), 1997
The overhanging canopy was called the “heavens”
and the stage represented “the earth.”
What did the yard or pit stand for where the
groundlings stood?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
Street
Hell
Field
Parlor
Slum
On his downward trajectory from his high place as
King, Richard comes to understand “Perspectural"
destabilization:
• He comes to see his ordered universe (ordered by
the old concept of the Chain of Being) as itself a
“mere” fabricated conceit, or maskedness.
• He comes to see himself as mere story, a
“representation,” increasingly open to
interpretation.
• And, in viewing his reign thus awry, he comes to
see the grievous skull in the picture of his ordered
universe (his own mortality); 3.2.144-77, pp. 58-59
Richard loses his sense of stable self, which is
prelude to his losing
• His place (King)
• His name (speaking of himself in the third
person, he says, “Must he lose / The name of
king? A God’s name, let it go” (3.3.144-145, p.
33)
• His very being, as he becomes at the opening
of Act 4, “nothing” (l. 200, p. 81)
– “Ay, no; no, ay: for I must nothing be”
“Ay, no; no, ay: for I must nothing be”
Could someone come up and write out on the
board a possible translation of the first words of
this line?
Possible interpretations of “Ay, no; no ay”:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Yes, no; no, yes
Yes, no; no I
I, no; no, I
I know no I
How sympathetic are you to Richard’s plight?
A) extremely sympathetic
B) very sympathetic
C) moderately sympathetic
D) not very sympathetic
E) not at all sympathetic
In his death-bed speech, John of Gaunt
reproaches the King, nostalgically invoking the old
Chain of Being order: 2.1.1-68 (pp. 28-29)
• This speech belongs to the world of the first
tournament: a ceremonious, static, corporate
world (a chain of being).
What is the significance that in Gaunt’s long death-bed
invocation of the old Chain of Being order, he finally
introduces the verb to his sentence at l. 59: "Is now
leas'd out“?
A) The delayed verb stresses just how long-winded
Gaunt is
B) The delayed verb stresses the destabilizing of
being by its sudden detaching of land from
established identity through “leasing”
C) The delayed verb shows how important it is for
economics to finally enter into Gaunt’s and
Richard’s vision
Ceremony Re-presented
4.1.1-90 (pp. 74-78) clearly evokes the gage
scene that opens the play.
But it is left out of the BBC production.
Let’s enact it: we need 8 volunteers, using books
for gages. Aumerle, Fitzwater, and Surrey need
two books/gages. 
What is Shakespeare's most likely purpose in
inserting this second gage scene at this point in
the play?
A) To show that problems don’t go away
B) To show that a world without order is farcical
C) To show that the de-identification of a world of
“ceremony” results in the institutionalization of
a world of “show”
D) A and B
E) B and C
Conclusion:
• the second gage scene represents the structure of
the first but brings out the element of show
• all men are playing out a political game
• oath-making becomes farce
– And the farce keeps being re-presented, as in the
ridiculous scene put on by the Duke and Duchess
of York for Bolingbroke in 5.3.23-145.
Bolingbroke’s comment about this “show”:
Our scene is alt’red from a serious thing,
And now changed to “the Beggar and the King”
(5.3.78-79)