“You
take my life when you take the means whereby I live.”
-
Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, 4.1
In Shakespeare’s plays we see
all sorts of characters from different levels of society. There are the common people,
such as Nick Bottom, and then there are people from royal descent, such as
Hamlet and the kings themselves. We rarely see characters out of their
respective contexts, except in As You
Like It, where royal characters such as Duke Senior are exiled. It is
intriguing to think of how our views of these characters change in those rare
times when we do see the glimpses of their personality without the pressure of
a “troublesome bedfellow,” that is the crown (2HIV 4.3.151). The most
definitive features of these characters come in at times when they are unsure
about what they are doing, when they are confused by the situation that they
find themselves in. The most prominent cases of this confusion come from Hamlet and Richard II. As Richard is deposed, he is forced to take on a new
role in life, which leads to his inevitable confusion and his struggle
throughout the play to come to terms with his new role in life. The
responsibilities that these people acquire or lose in the course of the plays
change how they conceive the world around them. Along with the acquirement of
these characteristics, we are also introduced to the inner world of Richard II,
in which we can see how his “royal” personality compares to his characteristics
as a regular citizen.
One of the
biggest role changes occurs when the characters change their roles as royal
entities. In the case of Richard II, this occurs when he is deposed. Richard
loses his power as king and becomes merely a common human being. Hamlet’s story
is the exact opposite in which he is forced to mingle with the grand problems
of the royal family. He is utterly confused with his aim in life and this, in
turn, pushes him to question his existence as a human being. In both cases,
characters start to question how they are supposed to go on living with the new
roles they have adopted in life. After he hands over the crown to Bolingbroke,
Richard II starts questioning himself by saying he no longer knows where he
belongs to. The power that Richard possessed has been swept away from under his
very feet. Richard has fallen out of
context; not only as a character but as a human being. This struggle that
Richard goes through eventually leads to his death.
Richard’s
journey begins long before he hands over the crown. Close to his deposition,
the King opens up to his followers, “For God’s sake, let us sit upon the
ground, / And tell sad stories of the death of kings- / How some have been
deposed, some slain in war, / Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, /
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, / All murdered. For within
the hollow crown / That rounds the mortal temples of a king / Keeps Death his
court; and there the antic sits, / Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
/ Allowing him a breath, a little scene, / To monarchize, be feared, and kill
with looks, / Infusing him with self and vain conceit, / As if this flesh which
walls about our life / Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, / Comes at
last, and with a little pin / Bores through his castle walls; and farewell,
king” (R2 3.2.151-166) At this point in the play, Richard has come to the
realization that he is going to lose his kingdom and that Bolingbroke’s
followers will overpower his army. This speech could very easily be the slow
unmasking of a monarch; it marks the point in which Richard begins his
relatively swift transition from the strongest figure in the country to a
common citizen. Richard incorporates the image of a “hollow crown” into his
speech which serves a starting point for our discussion (156). The image of the
crown is accompanied by “Death”, which, as Richard explains, keeps the crown
his court (158). As he slowly backs away from the crown and takes a more
introspective look at the lives of kings, he comes to the realization that the
idea of kingship is only that: a dream from which Richard has to wake up. It is
not concrete, it is not everlasting and it will have to end one day. This comes
as a huge surprise to the audience because it counters his previous speech in
which Richard depicts himself as “The deputy elected by the Lord” (53). Before
Bolingbroke’s plan is revealed to the audience, Richard is depicted as a strong
man and has complete confidence in his own actions. This confidence is the
first thing he loses. Judging by what we see in these two speeches, the change
in his personality has already begun, long before he has actually given the crown
over to Bolingbroke. His image of the hollow crown is a result of his
realization of how vague and transitory the state of kingship is. Richard understands
that the scene he has created in his head, the curtain behind which he is
hiding is no longer there. His idolization of himself as king and the supreme
ruler doing God’s work on earth has now left its place to the “hollow crown.” The
image of “the Lord” has now been replaced with a more cynical image of “Death,”
a more brooding and dark figure. The idea of Richard being the deputy of the
Lord is completely destroyed with his lines, “Infusing him with self and vain
conceit…” (162). In the general sense, Richard is not so different than Hotspur
in 1 Henry IV at this point; he has
extreme reactions to the events taking place around him. He takes this
ephemeral idea of kingship to such an extent that he even wonders if he ever
really was king: “I live with bread, like you: feel want, / Taste grief, need
friends. Subjected thus, / How can you say to me I am a king?” (171-173).
Richard starts to wonder how he could ever think he was a more grandiose figure
than the rest of the people that surround him. At this point, Richard has
become aware of his futility: “A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey”
(206). The sudden change in imagery from a ‘deputy’ to a ‘slave’ establishes striking
contrast between how Richard views the situations that he is in. Not long ago
was he so flattered with himself and his kingship yet now he sees himself
defeated; he realizes that he is simply a slave to his woe. The imagery of
‘woe’ also comes back later on in the play when Richard hands the crown to
Bolingbroke. This passage introduces us to the first change in Richard’s
temperament: the loss of his confidence and the downfall of the utopic kingship
that he had built in his mind for himself.
As the play
moves on, so does Richard’s transition from king to a commoner. As his
deposition draws closer, Richard is confused by this rapid transient stage in
his life. He begins to question how everything could change so quickly in such
a short amount of time. “Alack, why am I sent for to a king / Before I have
shook off the regal thoughts / Wherewith I reigned? I hardly yet have learned /
To insinuate, flatter, bow and bend my knee. / Give sorrow leave awhile to
tutor me / To this submission.” Richard professes, not being able to understand
life as a common man yet (R2 4.1.153-157). These lines show that he is not able
to grasp the full extent of his adaptation. They also help resurface the
contradictory nature of what is happening to Richard at this point in the play.
The man he refers to as “king” has not been crowned yet. The fact that Richard
stills has the crown and has not officially been deposed, puzzles him. How can
some man call a king to appear before him? This change in dynamics is an
example as to why Richard is unable to adapt to a life without the power of a
king. Richard was born as a part of the royal family, the heir to the throne
and is not used to bowing before people. As clearly stated Richard has a hard
time learning how “to insinuate, flatter, and bend [his] knee” (156). The
religious imagery once again comes into play in this part of Richard’s speech
as he interrogates himself, “Will no man say ‘Amen’? / Am I both priest and
clerk?” and brings back ideas of how Richard sees himself once again (163-164).
As mentioned before, Richard had described himself as “the deputy elected by
the Lord,” as the play has progressed, he has demoted to a priest from a
monarch chosen by God to carry out his will (R2 3.2.53). Even though this new
idea appears in the passage, Richard seems to still have the notion that he, in
fact, is the ‘deputy’: “And yet Amen, if heaven do think him me” (166). These
lines create the image that in the eyes of God, Richard is the rightful king.
With this description, it is relatively easy to see how Richard is still having
trouble trying to let go of his old habits. The lines could also be interpreted
as a final glimpse an ideal world in which Richard still sees himself as the
mighty king. This is where the actual questioning begins as Richard realizes
the ideal world in the previous lines have sublimed, with Richard’s lines “To
do what service am I sent for hither?” (167). When read in context, the lines
appear to be Richard asking why he is being summoned by the king, yet as we
take a look at these words in a larger context, it may mean that Richard is
starting to lose his purpose in life. As the upcoming quotations in the
deposition scene show, Richard is confused with what he has to do with his
life.
The
following deposition scene is the final stage of Richard’s transition and
constitutes his acceptance of the situation that he has found himself in. As
Richard slowly takes off the crown and reluctantly hands it to Bolingbroke, he
brings back some of the images from the previous speeches. The imagery of the
crown comes back as the two characters hold the crown: “Now is this golden
crown like a deep well / That owes two buckets filling one another, / The
emptier ever dancing in the air, / The other down, unseen, and full of water. /
That bucket down and full of tears am I, / Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount
up on high” (172-179). This image that is created by Richard is very similar to
the “hollow crown” as he had referred to before. The “empty bucket” and the “hollow
crown” are two images that work towards illustrating the same idea that if
taken further could reflect more about Richard’s views of kingship. At this
point, Richard starts using imagery that is not suitable for a king: he talks
about how he is full of grief and the bucket is ‘full of tears.’ The idea of
grief, a parallel of woe, is brought back in Richard’s words after he hands
over the crown: “…still my griefs are mine. / You may my glories and my state
depose, / But not my griefs; still am I king of those” (181-183). These lines
provide us with an image that is the opposite of what Richard had once said
thought: “A king, woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey” (R2 3.2.206). The two
lines contrast Richard’s changing views. Whereas once he believed he was a
slave to woe, Richard now holds on to those feeling as the last remains of his
kingship. He has become more mundane and is starting to hold on to some aspects
of life that is suitable for more people than a king: feelings such as grief.
The fact that he has become more the “king of his griefs” rather than a “slave
to woe” shows that he is now adjusting to his new lifestyle and is able to
savor a commoner’s life. Without his power and his kingship, Richard can only
hold onto his earthly feelings and actually starts to realize how important
they are to a common man. He has descended from the throne and lost all power
over the state, yet the power he has over his own feelings gives him the
strength to carry on. Then, he “give[s] this heavy weight from off [his] head”
to Bolingbroke (R2 4.1.194). It is interesting to see how a similar description
of the crown comes back up in 2 Henry IV
as Hal calls it a “troublesome bedfellow,” this time concerning Bolingbroke (2HIV
4.3.152). Richard, even though at first sight doesn’t it seem so, is relieved
that he has to let go of all the stress around being a king.
The
passages following the passing of the crown from Richard to Bolingbroke could
be seen as the climax of both the play and Richard’s transition from king to a
common man. At this point, Richard’s confusion about his role in life surfaces
and can be seen quite easily to any reader. As he retraces the steps of his
coronation in the opposite direction, he slowly breaks the spell of his
kingship. Shakespeare uses some of the old images to mark the exact changes
that Richard has gone through leading up to this point in the play. With the
words “With mine own tears I wash away my balm, / With mine own hands I give
away my crown, / With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, / With mine own
breath release all duteous oaths. / All pomp and majesty I do forswear.”
Richard relinquishes his kingship and delivers it to Bolingbroke on a silver
platter (197-201). Some of the imagery in this speech are repetitions of what
was once said by Richard under different circumstances: “Not all the water in
the rough rude sea / Can wash the balm from an anointed king” (R2 3.2.50-51).
The “balm” that is mentioned in this quote is characterized as strong and
unyielding. Richard believes that it is so powerful that even the waters in the
sea would not be able to wash it away. Yet, it seems that later on in 4.1,
Richard himself has easily undone this balm. This is a precise example of how
Richard has changed throughout the play. The idea that he ends up undoing what
was so strong in his opinion may be one of the reasons why Richard becomes so
unstable towards the end of the play and also his days. This also symbolizes
the loss of power that Richard goes through. Whereas in the beginning the balm
that made him king was so powerful and yet now it just seems weak and futile:
something that can be scratched off with his own tears (not even the tears of a
king, at this point). It is not only the balm that he has to undo with his own
tears but it is also the “pomp” that he has referred to earlier in the play: “…
and there the antic sits, / Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp…” (159).
With the crown given away, Richard no longer has the antic that sits on the
crown and neither does he have the pomp that the antic “grins” at. This can be
considered a relief for Richard in that he does not have some “antic” following
each of his actions as king and mocking him along the way.
After Richard is forced to let
go of his crown, he is then asked to read a letter. During this process, we can
observe how disappointed Richard gets by following his actions throughout the
passage. Even after handing the crown to Bolingbroke, Richard still has some
notion of God and heaven looking out for him. “If thou wouldst, / There
shouldst thou find one heinous article / Containing the deposing of a king /
And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, / Marked with a blot, damned in the
book of heaven.” he declares as to blame it all on Northumberland. One other
mundane feeling that Richard is now holding on to is his anger (R2 4.1.222). He
knows the people that once followed him as a leader have wronged him. At this
point, he still feels like he has the right to be king by a power vested him by
God. Richard refers to this idea by saying that what these people have done is
damned by God and that they will be punished. At this point in the play, the
anger starts to show its face as Richard slowly approaches the end of his life.
Stripped of all he had, Richard feels nothing but contempt towards the people
who have wronged him. He is not so angry at the fact that he has been deposed
but it seems he is more disappointed that he has no allies that are true to
him: “So Judas did to Christ. But He in twelve / Found truth in all but one; I,
in twelve thousand, none” (161-162). He then continues this Biblical allegory
as he tells everyone around him that they are guilty: “Nay, all of you that
stand and look upon / Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, / Though
some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands, / Showing an outward pity, yet you
Pilates / Have here delivered me to my sour cross, / And water cannot wash away
your sin” (227-232). Richard conveys that everyone is equally guilty for his
death as they all have parts to play in it no matter how innocent they may try
to seem. Using these references, he then also repeats to them that they all
will be punished because of their actions. Again, the notion that a divine
being is looking out for the King can be seen in Richard’s comparison of
himself to Jesus. The last line, “And water cannot wash away your sin.” not
only serves to deliver how grave a sin treason is but it also brings back
another imagery (232). In the previous act, it was the balm that could not be
washed away by the waters of the sea and yet now, it is the sins that have been
committed against Richard. This change of context is yet another example to how
Richard views the world now. Once he had held his balm close to him and said
that the balm could not be washed by the waters yet now he claims that the sins
of these people will not be washed away either. This is actually a prophetic
moment for Richard since in the plays that follow Richard II, characters such as Hal and Prince Henry refer to the
sins that they committed against Richard and ask for forgiveness from God on
several different occasions.
Richard’s
speech following this one is one that directly reveals how Richard feels about
losing his crown. After subtly insulting the new king and his followers by
saying that they have all sinned by usurping the throne, Richard reaches the pinnacle
of his anger and frustration and finally lashes out. “Nor no man’s lord!” he
exclaims when Northumberland tries to make Richard read the papers that were
handed to him (245). Then his desperate side comes into light when he starts to
question his existence and his new role as commoner. “Alack the heavy day, /
That I have worn so many winters out / And know not now what name to call
myself!” Richard cries and goes on: “O, that I were a mockery king of snow, /
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke / To melt myself away in water-drops!” (247-252).
Even though it had seemed that Richard had accepted his fate and was at peace
with being a commoner, it seems now that all this has changed and that Richard
is finally expressing his exact anger for the people responsible for taking
everything from him. His life has completely changed and there is no way that
he is now able to adapt to the new way things are going to run for him. Richard
imagines himself as a melting snowman under the widely used image of the “sun
of Bolingbroke” (251). This could also be seen as a foreshadowing of Richard’s
upcoming death in the hands of an assassin. Richard is so lost in his identity
that he does not recognize himself and later on asks for a mirror in which he
could see himself and ends up breaking it. He concludes, “For there it is,
cracked in an hundred shivers. / Mark, silent King, the moral of this sport: /
How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face” just before he is taken away to
prison in which he dies (279-281). Richard breaking the mirror shows us how he
sees himself without the crown: a disfigured, worthless man. He previously
refers to his face in various contexts indicating power: as the sun, as a
governing organ amongst others. These show how he falls from power and what he
has become now. The shattered glass shows his face in pieces, but it reflects
both his unstable mental and physical states, hence the back and forth between
acceptance and refusal of his fate. At this point Richard is distraught, he is
defeated, weak and closer to his deathbed.
It is quite
simple, from what we have just seen, to argue that Richard wishes to die by the
end of his deposition. Having lost everything including his identity, Richard
is only a lost soul. Later on, we see Richard in the prison, at the brink of
losing his mind; he is not able to tell time, and is blaming a horse for all
that has happened. Soon enough he does realize that the horse is not to blame
and apologizes, “Since pride must have a fall-and break the neck / Of that
proud man that did usurp his back? / Forgiveness, horse!” (R2 5.5.88-90).
Richard sees, once again, that everything he owned is now taken away from him
by Bolingbroke. His “fall of pride” has already occurred and there is no going
back for him. In a more Roman sense, Richard has nothing left to do but fall on
his own sword. The scene following is when this finally comes true. Richard
gets to a point where he cannot take this anymore when the keeper says that he
will taste the prisoner’s soup. This is the last drop for Richard that makes
him grasp the full extent of his downfall. “Taste of it first, as thou art wont
to do.” asks Richard to which the keeper replies that he is not allowed to (99).
Richard refuses to take anymore of this new role that he is playing and attacks
the keeper and gets killed in the process. “Patience is stale, and I am weary
of it.” shouts Richard as he has finally had enough of this (103). The final
remark that ends Richard’s journey sums it all up for the reader: “Mount, mount,
my soul; thy seat is up on high, / Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here
to die” (111-112). Richard, on his deathbed, still believes that his soul is
greater than the others and that his kingship is holy. Richard believes that
his regal soul will have eternal happiness and power in the afterlife. This
final image brings back the similar religious images that have been presented
to the reader throughout the play, it shows that, in fact, Richard was never
able to change his ways of living, he was never able to adapt to his new role.
All his questioning was in vain.
Shakespeare
refers to the certain roles cast for people throughout many of his plays.
Jaques’ famous speech includes seven different roles that man takes throughout
his life. For some others, like Richard, there is simply one role. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock
explains, “You take my life when you take the means whereby I live.” Shylock
and Richard are two characters that do not have much in common. Yet, this quote
is a suitable one for the situation that Richard ends up in. Richard has been
stripped of everything: his wife, his kingdom and even his horse. Like most of
the characters in Shakespearean tragedies, Richard, too, ends up being
murdered. His death is different than other characters’ in that it could be
argued that, in fact, Richard wishes to die after losing everything. This does
actually start to make sense when we look at the play as a whole. Throughout
his journey, Richard tries to get himself to accept his loss and to adapt a new
role in life. Towards the end of this journey, he realizes he does not know how
to live life without the power of being the king of Britain. Richard inevitably
fails to adapt to this new life style and ends up dying because, as stated before,
after losing his pride there is nothing left for him to do. Richard’s means of
living have been taken from him and thus, his life.
