I watched the first hour of Richard II yesterday afternoon. I didn’t like it much, lots of men shouting at each other about honour and right and preparing for war. I wasn’t sure about Jacobi’s slightly camp performance but apparently there’s historical backing for that. A picture of an effeminate, weak man, blithely exploiting the land and the landowners with no regard for the rights of others, his authorisation being his absolute right as monarch. And there as Gielgud delivering the ‘sceptred isle’ speech – fascinating to have it in context, which is that England is going to the dogs. (History is so boring, really. People have been saying how great England is and how it’s falling apart for ever, apparently.)
Then I read the rest of the play, and today watched (most of ) it.
“Pray, let’s sit down and speak of the deaths of kings” - what a line! I thought Jacobi’s performance wonderful in this. Richard moves between his rage that his kinghood should be so mistreated and a sad acceptance of his humbling – these aspects continue to war in him. Unless I missed it, there’s no suggestion that he thinks his own behaviour any reason for his current position, no suggestion of regret.
March 9, 2010 at 15:08 |
I thought King John seemed more aware of the part he played in his own downfall, but I wonder if Richard II didn’t have a few little glimpses. There were those lines he utters when trouble was right outside his door:
“Oh God, oh God, that ere this tongue of mine,
That layd the Sentence of dread Banishment
On yond prowd man, should take it off againe
With words of sooth…”
But then, perhaps it could be that he was wishing the problem away rather than taking responsibility for his actions.