1440300 1623 Shakespeare. Richard II. Title Leaf Plus One Other.
9389.
King Richard II. From the First Folio. 1623.
Title Leaf Plus one other (23-24, 37-38).
The life and death of King Richard the Second [first two pages of the play from the First Folio]. [London: Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623]. Folio, one leaf measuring 8 by 12-1/2 inches. The first page of Shakespeare’s fifth historical drama, King Richard II, extracted from the landmark First Folio (1623), "the most valuable volume in the whole range of English literature" (Grolier 100 19). Likely composed circa 1594 and first published in a 1597 quarto edition, Shakespeare’s Richard II "is essentially the story of a man who loses a kingdom and gains a soul" (New York Times). This is leaf b6 from the First Folio. The First Folio was prepared by Shakespeare’s associates John Heminges and Henry Condell, and published by William and Isaac Jaggard along with the bookseller Edward Blount in 1623. Of Shakespeare’s thirty-nine undisputed plays, eighteen survive solely because they appear in the 1623 Folio, making the book "intrinsically the most valuable volume in the whole range of English Literature" (Grolier 100 19). Fewer than 250 copies of the First Folio survive, and most of those copies are incomplete. Minor restoration to lower edges. An excellent piece.
(23-24)
This fragment comprising the first two pages of Richard the second is significant in that it sets the stage for it as well as the following seven English history plays of Shakespeare’s canon. John of Gaunt has brought his son Henry Bolingbroke (later to be Henry IV) currently the Duke of Hereford to court to make his accusations against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The two men face off against each other and are about to joust when the king throws down his gauntlet and breaks the action off. The king says the two will meet again at Coventry on St. Lambert’s day. Later Henry Bolingbrook will be banished and that will foment his drawing together troops then breaking his exile and deposing Richard the second. and ascending the throne as King Henry IV.
It is difficult to tell from Shakespeare’s text just how much Richard the second was reviled and just how corrupt his reign had become as he confiscated goods and visited a host of wrongs on his subjects. Yet such was the power of the king the power of the monarchy itself and its association of the king representing God’s presence on earth that still Bolingbrook’s assumption of the crown was viewed as wholly improper much as Bolingbrook after being crowned tried to pass laws that number one would banish certain members of the Beaufort family from ever being kings but also would justify his usurpation of the monarchy. Interestingly, Richard the second was more revered after his death and in fact for nearly 2 decades rumors circulated that he was indeed still alive and ready to lead an army back and regain his throne and he had a vast number of followers who were willing to take up arms on his behalf.
(37-38)
This leaf depicts what is probably the most pivotal event of the play: the deposition scene. It was so controversial that it was discreetly excised during the reign of Elizabeth I. Confronted by Bullingbrook, Richard speaks despairingly of the state of affairs saying he will exchange
My subjects for a pair of carved saints
And my large kingdom for a little grave
A little little grave, an obscure grave
Or I’ll be buried in the king’s highway.
He then descends from the battlements of Flint castle to meet Bullingbrook, the scene perfectly dramatizing his descent from power.
Down, down I come
Like glistering Phaeton
The scene then switches to a garden where the queen and her attendant are bemoaning the current state of affairs and waiting word from Richard. They eavesdrop on two gardeners who discuss the state of the garden as a metaphor for the fate of the monarchy. The speak of “the sea-walled garden” being “full of weeds” and “swarming with caterpillars.” When they speak of the deposition, the queen makes her presence known and demands if they speak the truth. The gardener apologetically admits it is indeed true and that Richard’s vanities that make him light” had made Bullingbrook “great.”
Very Good