Richard II Act 5 – “ I have long been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world…”

Richard II Act 5 – “ I have long been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world…”

In London, Queen Isabel and her ladies, see Richard on his way to the tower. The Queen is upset to see Richard so changed and asks:

“What is my Richard both in shape and mind

Transformed and weakened?”

Richard is truly transformed and sees himself now as a tragic hero in a story that is already told:

“In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire…

and let them tell thee tales

Of woeful ages long ago betid;

And ere thou bid goodnight, to quit their griefs,

Tell thou the lamentable tale of me…”

Knowing his fate is sealed, he asks the Queen to think he is already dead. Northumberland arrives and announces a change of plans and that Richard is now to go to the north of England to Pomfret Castle for the moment. His death is inferred. Now even Richard prophesizes that the wheel of fortune will also turn on Bolingbroke:

"The time shall not be many hours of age

More than it is, ere foul sin gathering head

Shall break into corruption…

The love of wicked men converts to fear…"

The scene ends with the final farewell between the Queen and Richard. It is done in rhyming couplets to accentuate their love and fate. This may be seen to undercut the gravity of the moment of the scene through its overt stylisation, but this device of shared lines combined with rhyming couplets is one that Shakespeare will perfect in his next play ‘Romeo and Juliet’. At this moment in ‘Richard II’, it is dramatically effective:

“ Queen: Then whither he goes, thither let me go.

Richard: So two, together weeping, make one woe.”

At Langley (not the headquarters of the CIA in Virginia, USA but the quieter one in England), the residence of the Duke of York and his wife, York and his wife talk of the triumphant coronation of Bolingbroke in London and compare it to the way that people shouted and threw rubbish at Richard as he was led through London for the last time. A modern audience can’t but draw ironic parallels to both Christ and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on both counts. York is disgusted by the treatment dished out to Richard but he reinforces his allegiance to Bolingbroke (now the new King Henry IV) as the new appointed monarch. York’s son Aumerle enters and while general discussions of the celebrations of the new king ensue, York notices that his son is concealing a letter. York snatches the letter and is horrified to find that his own son and several other noblemen and clergy have conspired a plot to assassinate the new King Henry IV.

York is outraged and his wife the Duchess of York tries to plead on their only son’s behalf. But for York, loyalty to the crown and country comes before loyalty to one’s family. York sets off for London to reveal the plot and condemn his own son. As always, women are shown to be the true survivors in Shakespeare’s world. The Duchess of York tells her son Aumerle to ride faster than his father to London and seek to beg forgiveness from King Henry IV before the Duke of York arrives and the plot is revealed. She infers that the Duke of York may not be a fast rider because she herself “…though I be old…” will “… not be long behind… I doubt not but to ride as fast as York… “ She says that she will also plead Aumerle’s case to the king.

Meanwhile, at Windsor, Bolingbroke, the new King Henry IV, is complaining about the boozing and whoring habits of his son Harry Percy (Prince Hal and later to become Henry V, the greatest of Shakespeare’s heroes and perhaps England’s too) and he sees no hope or future in his son. Having overtaken his father on the road, Aumerle arrives, asks for a private conference with the king and on bended knee asks the king for forgiveness but will not name his crime until he is forgiven by the king. York arrives outside and cries out that Aumerle is a traitor. York enters the room. The king draws his sword thinking Aumerle may be there to kill him. York has decided that king and country are more important than loyalty to family and he accuses his son of treachery. The Duchess arrives outside the room. She enters pleading for her son’s life. York argues his son should be killed as a traitor. We start to see York’s loyalty to crown over family as obsessive and absurd. The Duchess pleads for clemency. The “… happy vantage of a kneeling knee” proves too strong and the king pardons Aumerle but decides that all the other conspirators need to be arrested and executed without trial for their part in the conspiracy. The irony of the parallels of these events and those alluded to earlier in the play are clearly lost on Bolingbroke as he moves on in the next scene to become more and more like Richard II who he has usurped. He even asks his now sycophantic nobles:

“Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?"

His question does not fall only on deaf ears for Exton leaves Windsor Castle to kill the Bolingbroke’s “living fear”, Richard, who lies imprisoned in Pomfret Castle. Exton thinks that Bolingbroke has indirectly asked him to do this.

It is no surprise that we find Richard immersed in self-sophistry and the solace of soliloquy.

“ I have long been studying how I may compare

This prison where I live unto the world…”

Food is brought in but when the keeper will not taste it first, Richard fears it is poison and kills the keeper. Exton finally enters. Richard kills a number of other guards and as Exton kills Richard, Richard curses Exton and reminds Exton that he, “Hath with king’s blood stain’d the king’s own land…” Richard dies. Exton sees his deed as “chronicled in hell” and decides he will take King Richard’s body to Windsor Castle where it belongs.

Back at Windsor Castle, all is not going well for the new king. Bolingbroke (Henry IV) hears of rebels in the northwest and the death of a host of traitors including Lord Salisbury and the Abbot of Westminster. Bolingbroke, against advice, shows mercy on the Bishop of Carlisle. Exton returns with Richard’s coffin:

“Great king, within this coffin I present

Thy buried fear…”

Bolingbroke realizes the gravity of the situation that his own words may have caused the death of a king. He is pleased that Richard is dead but devastated “…That blood should sprinkle to make me grow…” Exton is exiled to “wander thorough shades of night…” while Bolingbroke will now venture to Jerusalem to see if in the Holy Land, he can “ … wash this blood off my guilty hand…”

Shakespeare returns next in ‘Romeo and Juliet’…