The Shakespeare Book

50 TITUS ANDRONICUS

DRAMATIS Titus names The wedding Marcus discovers
PERSONAE Saturninus emperor of parties go to the Lavinia with her
Rome, but they quarrel. tongue and hands
Titus Andronicus forest to hunt.
Celebrated military hero Saturninus marries cut off.
of Rome, conqueror of the Tamora, who promises to
Goths, father of 25 sons take revenge on Titus for
and one daughter.
killing her son.
Tamora Queen of the Goths,
later married to Saturninus; 1.1 2.2 2.4
mother of Alarbus, Chiron, Act 1 Act 2
and Demetrius.
2.1 2.3
Saturninus Emperor of Rome
and husband of Tamora. Aaron advises Chiron and Demetrius
Chiron and stab Bassianus to death,
Aaron A Moor in Tamora’s and then rape Lavinia.
service; also Tamora’s lover Demetrius to satisfy Aaron frames two of Titus’s
and a self-professed villain. their lust for Lavinia
sons for the crime.
Demetrius and Chiron in the forest.
Malevolent sons of Tamora.
S aturninus and Bassianus The weddings of Saturninus and
Lavinia Titus’s only daughter, quarrel over who should Tamora and Lavinia and Bassianus
betrothed to Bassianus. become Emperor of Rome. are celebrated with a hunt. Aaron
Marcus tells them that the hero, finds Chiron and Demetrius
Bassianus Saturninus’s Titus Andronicus, is also a arguing over their love for Lavinia,
younger brother and the candidate, but Titus uses his and tells them to use the occasion
husband of Lavinia. influence with the people to name of the hunt to rape Lavinia and
Saturninus emperor. Saturninus murder Bassianus. He plots to pin
Marcus Andronicus offers to marry Titus’s daughter the crime on Titus’s sons, Martius
Titus’s brother. Lavinia as a reward, but Bassianus and Quintus. Chiron and Demetrius
insists that he is betrothed to her. kill Bassianus and throw his body
Lucius One of Titus’s sons, Saturninus is angry and decides to into a pit. They rape Lavinia. Aaron
later banished from Rome. marry Tamora instead. She makes leads Martius and Quintus to the
peace between the new emperor pit, into which they fall. Saturninus
Martius and Quintus and Titus, but secretly vows to take discovers his brother’s body and
Titus’s sons, later framed revenge upon the whole family. has Quintus and Martius arrested.
for Bassianus’s murder.

Mutius One of Titus’s sons,
accidentally killed by Titus.

Young Lucius Lucius’s son.

Publius Son of
Marcus Andronicus.

Sempronius, Caius, and
Valentine Relatives of the
Andronicus family.

Aemilius A Roman noble,
who acts as a herald and
a messenger.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 51

Lavinia uses Ovid’s Titus, now Lucius threatens to At the banquet, Titus
poem Metamorphoses apparently driven hang Aaron and his feeds Tamora a pie
mad, seeks divine child but Aaron promises
to tell her family to divulge his secrets. baked from her
that she was raped. justice. sons’ flesh. Tamora,
Titus, and Saturninus

are all killed, and
Lucius becomes
emperor of Rome.

Act 3 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.3
3.1 Act 4 4.4 Act 5

4.2 5.2

Titus cuts off his hand Tamora orders that Lucius is returning to Tamora, disguised
in an attempt to save his her newborn child Rome with the Goth troops. as Revenge, invites
with Aaron should be Tamora promises to persuade
sons, but Aaron has killed because it is Titus to stop the attack. Titus to hold a
tricked him and sends black. Aaron kills the banquet at his
back his sons’ heads. nurse who brings it house. Titus slits
the throats of
to him and saves Chiron and
the child. Demetrius.

Titus’s son Lucius reveals that he child is black, Tamora wishes it Titus, dressed as a cook, presides
has been banished, and sees the killed. Aaron plots to swap it for over the banquet at his house. He
mutilated Lavinia. Aaron tells Titus a white infant, and to have the kills Lavinia in front of his guests,
that if he, Martius, or Lucius will latter’s parents bring up his child. saying that she had been raped
cut off his hand and send it to the by Chiron and Demetrius, both of
emperor, his sons’ lives will be When news arrives that Lucius whom have been baked in the pie
spared. Titus sends his own hand, is returning with Goth troops, the guests have been eating. He
which is returned to him, with the Tamora promises to persuade Titus stabs Tamora, and Saturninus kills
heads of Martius and Quintus. to call off the attack. In disguise Titus. Lucius then kills Saturninus.
as Revenge, with Demetrius and Marcus and Lucius tell the Roman
Lavinia writes the names of Chiron as Murder and Rape, she people what has happened and
her attackers in the sand. Marcus, visits Titus whom she thinks does Lucius is named emperor. Aaron
Titus, Young Lucius, and Lavinia not recognize them. She asks him is sentenced to death. Saturninus,
swear an oath of vengeance. to invite Lucius to a banquet, Titus, and Lavinia are interred in
where she will bring Saturninus their family tombs, but Tamora is
The Nurse brings to Aaron an and the Empress. Tamora leaves denied any funeral rites. ❯❯
infant—his child with Tamora— her sons with Titus, who kills them.
and tells him that because the

52 TITUS ANDRONICUS T itus Andronicus is Escalating violence
perhaps best known for Perhaps most horrifying is the
IN CONTEXT its extreme violence. It moment when Tamora realizes that
features at least five stabbings, she has consumed the flesh of her
THEMES two throat slittings, and one hand own children, but cannibalism is
Revenge, fatherhood, amputation—and this is only the an idea that resonates throughout
motherhood, lust, madness violence that happens onstage. It the play. One of the challenges of
does not include the rape and revenge tragedy is how to exceed
SETTING mutilation of Lavinia. the initial crime. Titus’s main
Late Imperial Rome act of revenge against Tamora
The play was probably written for destroying his family will
SOURCES in collaboration with George Peele, be murder. Why should he also
No direct sources are known, who is thought to be responsible require that she devour her sons?
but Shakespeare may have mainly for the first act. It was
drawn on the following: undoubtedly influenced by One explanation is his need
8 CE Ovid’s Metamorphoses. theatrical fashion, and may have to punish her sexual appetite by
A copy of the poem is used recalled Peele’s The Battle of turning it into a kind of monstrous
on stage in the play. Alcazar (c.1591), in which severed feeding, “bid[ding] that strumpet,
heads appear in a banquet, or the your unhallowed dam, / Like to the
1st century CE Thyestes, a hand-chopping scene in Selimus earth swallow her own increase”
gory revenge story by Roman (c.1592), by Robert Greene and (5.2.190–191). But the play is also
playwright Seneca. Thomas Lodge. The play’s violence pervaded by a kind of maternal
has been called gratuitous—to the dread, where the mother is an
13th century Gesta extent that critics used to deny that all-consuming figure, against
Romanorum, an anonymous Shakespeare could have written it. whom the male child must
collection of fictionalized However, the violence has deeper struggle to define himself. This
Roman legends and myths. political and cultural meanings. fear emerges in some unlikely
places. For example, the pit into
LEGACY Demetrius and Chiron are soon which Martius and Quintus fall
1594 The first recorded to be baked into pie in this 2006 (with dead Bassianus at the
performance is in January, production of Titus Andronicus at bottom) is hailed: “What subtle hole
at the Rose Theatre, London. the Globe Theatre, London, with is this, / Whose mouth is covered
The play appears in print in Douglas Hodge in the lead role. with rude-growing briers / Upon
February of that year.

1850s American actor
Ira Aldridge plays Aaron in
a heavily adapted version. It is
the only 19th-century revival.

1923 The unexpurgated
version of the play is staged
at the Old Vic, London, for
the first time in 250 years.

1987 Deborah Warner’s uncut
production for the Royal
Shakespeare Company brings
out the full horror of the play.

1999 American director
Julie Taymor casts Anthony
Hopkins as Titus in a film
adaptation of the play.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 53

A nobler man, a braver warrior, Titus himself shapes what Tamora Aaron
Lives not this day within becomes by making her first-born
the city walls. son, Alarbus, a sacrifice. Tamora’s Aaron is an early villain in
Marcus Andronicus accusation, “O cruel, irreligious Shakespeare, the forefather of
piety!” (1.1.130), is hard to argue Don John in Much Ado About
Act 1, Scene 1 with. Titus and Tamora are both Nothing (pp.154–61), and Iago
driven to violence through their in Othello (pp.240–49).
whose leaves are drops of new-shed sense of shame: Titus kills his son,
blood / …A very fatal place it Mutius, in a rage at being defied in The monstrous glee he
seems to me” (2.3.198–200, 202). In front of the Emperor; Tamora vows shows at his own villainy
this way, the play anticipates the revenge against Andronicus for links him to the comic Vice
literal feeding that the female making a queen kneel to him. Both of the medieval morality play,
mouth will perform at the end. characters represent a challenge but he has become a much
to the core Roman values Titus more troubling figure in
Roman values is supposed to embody, implying modern times because of the
A mother figure is absent among that there are dangerous tensions connection that he makes
the Andronici clan. The mother of between them, not least between between his evil and his
Titus’s 26 children is dead, and personal honor and family loyalty. ethnicity. In particular, his
there is no mention of a wife for wish to “have his soul black
Lucius. Nevertheless, disturbing Rome itself fulfils its reputation like his face” (3.1.204) might
parallels emerge between father for ingratitude when it banishes seem to justify long-held
and mother, Roman and Goth, one of Titus’s sons and condemns associations of blackness
which complicate the roles of both two others to death, ignoring his with devil-worship, treachery,
Titus and Tamora. Titus has buried pleas for mercy. By making Tamora and lust. The ease with which
20 sons before the play begins, all devour her sons, Titus could be Aaron assimilates himself into
killed in wars, and his first action seen as forcing her to act like Rome suggests that he can
in the play is to place a coffin in the the ungrateful city. But although convincingly assume Roman
family tomb. In the original staging, Tamora’s body may be cast beyond values—he can read Latin
the trapdoor would probably have the walls at the end, the anxieties texts better than Chiron and
been used to signify the tomb, and tensions she represents will Demetrius, and he is more
and also the pit in Act 2—thereby remain at the very heart of Rome. ■ paternal than Titus. But he
creating a sinister likeness remains a difficult figure for
between these spaces. At the start Hark, villains, I will grind modern productions. Julie
of the play we discover that Titus is your bones to dust, Taymor’s 1999 film Titus was
“surnamèd Pius” (1.1.23). This was accused by critics of simply
a title associated with Aeneas, one And with your blood and updating its racial stereotypes
of the founders of Rome. It signified it I’ll make a paste, by identifying Aaron with the
the best Roman values of honor, contemporary “supercool
piety, and familial loyalty. And of the paste a coffin hipster,” “sexual athlete,”
I will rear, and “nihilistic gangster.”
By contrast, Tamora is described
as all that is un-Roman: promiscuous, And make two pasties of
treacherous, and bestial. And yet, your shameful heads,
Titus Andronicus

Act 5, Scene 2

MADE GLORIOUS

SUMMER

BY THIS SON

OF YORK

RICHARD III (1592)



56 RICHARD III

DRAMATIS Richard describes the At court, Richard Although Clarence
PERSONAE transition from war-torn past angers Queen believes that his brother
to Edward’s present sunny Richard loves him, he is
Richard, Duke of Elizabeth and her murdered in prison
Gloucester Later Richard III. reign, and confides to us family by accusing by Richard’s assassins.
his destructive plans. them of ambitious
King Edward IV and
George, Duke of Clarence plotting.
Richard’s brothers.
1.1 1.3 1.4
Duchess of York Act 1
Their mother.
1.2 1.3
Queen Elizabeth
Wife of Edward IV and mother Richard woos Lady Old Queen Margaret
of Edward, Prince of Wales, Anne across the coffin of curses the whole
Richard, Duke of York, and her father-in-law, Henry VI.
Princess Elizabeth. court, predicting that
Richard will bring
Edward, Prince of Wales each of them down.
and Richard, Duke of York
Young sons of Edward IV and T he long and bloody civil her father-in-law, Henry VI.
Queen Elizabeth. war between the houses Then Richard plots against family
of York and Lancaster has and friends. He engineers the
Duke of Buckingham ended with the murder, in prison, imprisonment and death of his
Trusted confidant who assists of the Lancastrian King Henry VI. brother Clarence, news of which
Richard to the throne. Edward IV of York now reigns, and sends his eldest brother, King
England can rejoice in peace. This Edward IV, to an early grave.
Lord Hastings Lord is what Edward’s brother Richard
Chamberlain to Edward IV. tells us at the opening of the play. Helped by the Duke of
He then invites us to watch as, Buckingham, Richard sends
Lord Stanley Earl of Derby with devious skill, he takes the Edward’s sons—the young
and stepfather to Richmond. throne for himself. Edward V and Richard, Duke
of York—to the Tower of London.
Rivers, Grey, and Dorset Initially, we are intrigued When their mother’s family objects,
Queen Elizabeth’s brother, and by Richard’s daring. He woos he has her male relatives executed.
her sons by her first marriage. and wins Lady Anne as she All of this is predicted by Henry
escorts the funeral procession of VI’s widow, old Queen Margaret
Queen Margaret Widow
of Henry VI, the last of the
Lancastrians, who prophesies
against the House of York.

Lady Anne Widow of Henry
VI’s son, Edward.

Henry, Earl of Richmond
Stepson to Stanley, and later
Henry VII.

Tyrrel An assassin employed
by Richard.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 57

The young princes arrive Buckingham Richard tries to persuade At the Battle of
in London to learn that presents a pious, Queen Elizabeth to let him Bosworth Richard is
Richard has imprisoned modest Richard to marry her daughter; she killed by Richmond,
their uncles and they are who takes the crown
to lodge in the Tower. the citizens of pretends to agree. and promises peace.
London. Richard
feigns reluctance

to accept the
throne.

Act 2 3.1 3.7 4.4 5.6
2.1 Act 3 Act 4 Act 5
3.4 4.1 5.5

King Edward Richard accuses Anne learns that Richard and Richmond
attempts to reconcile Hastings of treason Richard has declared are visited by the
and has him executed ghosts of Richard’s
Queen Elizabeth’s himself King when
family and his own, but without trial. she, Elizabeth, and the victims as they sleep.
Richard destroys this Duchess are prevented Richard tries in vain to
with news of Clarence’s from visiting the princes
execution. King Edward persuade himself
dies soon afterwards. in the Tower. he’s not a villain.

who, filled with grief, haunts the Clouds gather for Richard as his Queen won’t change sides. On the
palace and in vain warns everyone surviving friends and enemies join eve of the Battle of Bosworth, both
against Richard. forces. Buckingham deserts him to Richard and Richmond dream of
assist an invasion force from France the ghosts of Richard’s victims,
Richard now seeks the support led by the Earl of Richmond. As who promise Richmond fortune and
of London’s citizens in making Richard moves from London to curse Richard as a traitor, murderer,
himself king. Their silence shows challenge Richmond, his progress and villain. Richard wakes
public unease at Richard’s ambition is interrupted by his mother, the sweating and tries to dismiss
but Buckingham stage-manages Duchess of York, and Queen their words. But the voice of his
this into approval and Richard Elizabeth who condemn him. He conscience declares him guilty.
takes the crown. Denied access tries to turn this to his advantage When they meet in battle Richmond
to her sons, Queen Elizabeth fears by persuading the Queen to let him kills the unhorsed Richard. Finally,
the worst. Once he’s on the throne, marry Princess Elizabeth, now that Richmond promises that he and
Richard tells Buckingham he Anne, too, is dead. Their encounter Elizabeth will bring England the
wants his nephews dead. When is a powerful one and Richard peace and prosperity that Richard
Buckingham hesitates, Richard believes he has won. But the described at the start. ❯❯
orders Tyrrel to kill them.

58 RICHARD III R ichard’s opening speech Are you drawn forth among
sets the stage by moving a world of men
IN CONTEXT us from the wintry horrors
of the battlefield to the summer To slay the innocent?
THEMES holiday that peace has brought, Clarence
Murderous villainy, “Now is the winter of our
ambition, loss, retribution discontent / Made glorious summer Act 1, Scene 4
by this son of York” (1.1.1–2). Only
SETTING Richard’s discontent remains.
15th-century London and Mocking the idle courtly life in a
Leicestershire tone that is increasingly ironic, he
resolves to let his dissatisfaction
SOURCES darken Edward IV’s sun-filled reign.
1st century The tragedies
of Roman playwright Seneca. Politics and the past climbers—“silken, sly, insinuating
Richard is a more subtle operator jacks” (1.3.53). He then blames them
14th–15th centuries The in this fourth play of Shakespeare’s for his plots—the imprisonment of
figure of Vice in morality plays; Henry VI tetralogy than he was in his brother Clarence and Lord
the cyclical pattern and biblical part 3. Where once he would have Hastings—and accuses them of
parallels of the mystery plays. used violence, now he manipulates having ambitious designs on the
court in-fighting and the self-interest new young king. This allows him to
c.1520 Thomas More’s of ambitious men. Shakespeare play the kindly uncle and lodge the
History of King Richard III. gives him the cunning of a two boys in the Tower of London.
Machiavel, and reinforces this by Shortly afterward he has Rivers,
LEGACY moving most of the bloodletting Dorset, and Grey executed.
1590s Date of the first off-stage—although not every
performance is unknown, but modern director keeps it there. Such a swift rise to power
five reprints of the text by 1623 relies on the collusion of others.
suggest the play was popular. Queen Elizabeth was a widow Buckingham, Catesby, Hastings,
who married Edward IV after the Bishop of Ely, even Richmond’s
1700 Colley Cibber’s refusing to be his mistress, much to stepfather, Stanley, may not be
adaptation dominates the his family’s disgust. Richard plays duped by Richard, but they all
stage until the late 1800s. on class consciousness, setting up stay silent about what they know.
her brother and two young sons
1955 Laurence Olivier’s Old by her former marriage as social
Vic production is, for some,
the definitive Richard III. I am determinèd to Settling history’s account
prove a villain To a degree, Richard’s plotting
1963–64 Peter Hall and brings down those figures who
John Barton’s RSC adaptation And hate the idle pleasures were disloyal to the House of York
makes Richard, portrayed of these days. during the civil war. Most of this
by a boyish Ian Holm, the Richard is predicted by old Queen Margaret,
dysfunctional product of a the widow of Henry VI, who appears
bloody feud. Act 1, Scene 1 anachronistically at court to call
down vengeance on those who for
1985 Antony Sher’s spiderlike so long set brother against brother.
Richard uses his crutches to She conveniently forgets her own
dominate this RSC production. role in the fighting, as Richard
observes, but she sets out a pattern
1991 Richard Eyre’s National of retributive vengeance that echoes
Theatre production set the history’s script; one that we watch
play in 1930s England where Richard go on to fulfill.
a fascist Richard, played by
Ian McKellen, is a vengeful,
mutilated war veteran.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 59

Apart from Margaret, no one at doubts and fears, and Anne reveals English actor Laurence Olivier
court speaks out against Richard’s that he’s long had “timorous played Richard as an alluring, Satanic
acts. But in the London streets the dreams” (4.1.84). With his first jester in the 1955 film adaptation. He
citizens do. The first half of the careful words as king he tries to was often shot in close-up, malevolently
play is confined to a London share responsibility for the coup confiding to camera.
that Richard clearly regards as with Buckingham: “Thus high by
his domain. But the commoners thy advice / And thy assistance is and this puts their double-act
represent a wider audience King Richard seated” (4.2.4–5). under strain. Just when Richard
whose judgment Richard’s clever But Buckingham grows suspicious needs help from his self-interested
performance can’t control. Another friends, confined as he now is at the
part of this audience comprises the Would you enforce me to center of the action, he finds himself
women—Anne, Queen Margaret, a world of cares? increasingly isolated and dependent
the Duchess of York, and Queen on strangers such as Tyrrel to
Elizabeth. They watch and Call them again. I am complete his plots.
remember. As Richard’s mother not made of stone…
points out, women are often the Buckingham’s departure from
sole surviving keepers of accounts. Richard the court heralds the waning of
Richard’s sole command of the
The landscape widens Act 3, Scene 7 action. It also prompts Richmond’s
Dreams, nightmares, curses, arrival on the scene. We learn of
prophecies, and premonitions his planned invasion from France,
present a metaphysical dynamic in secretly supported by Lord Stanley
the play beyond Richard’s control. and Queen Elizabeth. Now the
As soon as he murders the innocent action of the play opens up and
princes in the Tower, his fortunes moves from London’s square mile
begin to fail. He becomes prey to to rural Leicestershire, the heart of
England, and to Bosworth Field. ❯❯

60 RICHARD III

As the seasons turn from Richard’s and also known the crookback figure to be self-sufficient—“I am myself
busy sunshine to his autumnal fall, as he is portrayed in Tudor history— alone”—and, like an actor, turn his
Margaret returns. In a counterpart a monstrous creature of bloody civil shape to advantage by playing
to Richard’s prologue she ushers in war and a future demon king. his way to the throne. This is the
the inevitable conclusion: “So now performance he introduces us to at
prosperity begins to mellow / And Shakespeare capitalizes on the opening of the play. There he
drop into the rotten mouth of death” Richard’s physical nonconformity lets us in on his plots and simplifies
(4.4.1–2). by making it his motivating force. history into fiction with its heroes,
In the preceding play, he severs all lovers, and villains.
The shape of villainy links to family and faction and sets
Richard’s physical shape is a gift himself against the principle of The disruptive force of Richard’s
to any dramatist and Shakespeare blood bond that took York and villainous nonconformity is clear
makes much of it. Many in the Lancaster to war. Given his in his first five appearances in
audience would have enjoyed the deformity he feels that family bonds the play. Upsetting the smooth
hugely successful Henry VI plays and natural inheritance have let running of Edward IV’s new state,
him down. He decides, therefore, he interrupts a series of courtly
ceremonies and meetings
The villainy of Queen Elizabeth and redirects them all. Some
Richard III productions show him appearing
through a different entrance from
Married to that used by the other characters
as if, like the morality play figure
Derby Edward IV Vice, he comes to create chaos
Survivor King and brother from quite another place.

Stepfather to Father to Wit and wordplay
Richard shows us he’s the master of
Richmond Edward and improvised duplicity, especially with
Becomes Richard language, and is equally at home in
Henry VII Nephews street speech and witty repartee.
His versatility takes him from mock
Threatens Kills anger to mock modesty. The wit and
smooth rhetoric that let him catch
Richard Kills Lady Anne his opponents off-guard often take
Duke of Gloucester Curses A widow us in the same way.

Helps Lord Hastings If something thou wouldst
Friend swear to be believed,
Buckingham
Cousin Clarence Swear then by something that
Brother thou hast not wronged.
Queen Elizabeth

Act 4, Scene 4

Duchess of York Mother to
A widow

Comes back as a ghost

THE FREELANCE WRITER 61

American actor Kevin Spacey played
Richard as a self-hating, power-crazed
despot, who revolted the play’s women,
in Sam Mendes’s acclaimed 2011
production at the Old Vic, London.

His verbal skills are to the fore hath a thousand several tongues… / performance, it’s the strength of
when he persuades Lady Anne And every tale condemns me for a Richard’s prowess in the battle that
to be his wife (1.2), and Queen villain” (5.5.147, 149). often determines our feelings about
Elizabeth to let him marry her him at the end. Perhaps his cry
daughter (4.4). Strategically placed From sun to shade “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for
at each end of the play, these Now we watch as Richard is a horse!” (5.7.7) reminds us that
parallel scenes chart the rise disturbed by prophesies and curses. he was always happiest in a fight.
and fall of Richard’s fortunes. He He can’t sleep before his final battle Richmond ends the play, but the
approaches Queen Elizabeth with and the sun fails to shine the day he final focus rests also on Richard.
the same bravado but she turns his dies. Ultimately he’s defeated both Behind Richmond’s perfect picture
tactics back on him. This time the by history in the form of Richmond, of “smiling plenty, and fair
woman leads the debate. Her put- and by himself—“Myself, myself prosperous days” (5.7.34) there
downs are delivered with such confound” (4.4.330). He admits that lingers a shadow of Richard’s
feeling that they stifle Richard’s he has no pity even for himself. In sun-filled opening words. ■
efforts to defend his evil actions.

At the end, Richard stops the
performance and no longer draws us
into his confidence. When he tries
not to despair on the night before
Bosworth, his soliloquy addresses a
fresh audience: his conscience. The
debate is a judicial examination,
devoid of witty self-deceptions, with
Richard both the prosecution and
defense. Finally his conscience
tells him that he is the villain he
promised to be: “My conscience

Tudor propaganda? John Rous, a historian writing seeking to legitimize Tudor rule
during the reign of Richard III, with anti-Yorkist propaganda.
described his king as a “good But it is from their accounts that
lord” with a “great heart” who Shakespeare drew his material.
enacted just laws. But by the reign More described Richard as
of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, being devious and flattering
Rous had reversed his opinion. while he plotted, but also clever
Richard, he wrote, was a freak: and courageous. Shakespeare
stunted and physically weak, he retained all these features, and
was responsible for killing Henry gave the king added depth
VI and for poisoning his own wife. by encumbering him with a
Other historians, among them formidable conscience. The
Sir Thomas More, joined in the character is so enduring that
vilification of Richard, citing the historical Richard has been
his “crook-backed” deformity as obliterated. Indeed, there is no
evidence of inward corruption. It surviving account by anyone
may be that More and others were who knew him in person.

TO DIE

IS ALL AS COMMON AS

TO LIVE

EDWARD III (1592–1593)



64 EDWARD III

DRAMATIS Edward III rebuffs French As the English King Edward and King
PERSONAE demands for allegiance and navy approaches, John face off before the
announces his intention the French King
Edward III King of England. to claim France as his own. John boasts of Battle of Crécy.

Queen Philippa Wife of his strength.
Edward III.
1 4 6
Edward, the Black Prince Scenes 1–4 Scenes 5–6
Son of Edward III and Queen
Philippa. 2 5

Earl of Salisbury After relieving the In a terrible sea battle at
Scottish siege of Roxburgh Sluys, the French navy
Countess of Salisbury
Salisbury’s wife. Castle, King Edward is routed.
tries in vain to seduce
Earl of Warwick
The Countess’s father. the Countess of
Salisbury, who is also
Sir William de Montague
Salisbury’s nephew. desired by the King
of Scotland.
Earl of Derby
A t the English court, King As the king grows infatuated with
Sir James Audley Edward III is discussing the Countess, he asks his secretary
his claim to the French Lodowick to write love letters to
Henry, Lord Percy crown with the Comte d’Artois, her. The king pressures her to yield
who has joined the English side. to his desires, even though they are
John Copland Esquire, When the Duc de Lorraine arrives both married. She refuses, so he
later Sir John Copland. from France to insist Edward swear compels her father Warwick to
allegiance to the French King John, intervene. Unable to deny the king,
Lodowick King Edward’s Edward declares war. Meanwhile, Warwick urges his daughter to
secretary. the King of Scotland besieges the comply. There is a distraction as
Countess of Salisbury in Roxburgh young Prince Edward announces
Robert, Comte d’Artois Castle. King Edward sends his his readiness to lead the army for
son Prince Edward to France, and France, but the king soon resumes
Jean, Comte de Montfort, heads to Roxburgh himself. Enticed his amatory pursuit. The Countess
later Duc de Bretagne by the Countess’s beauty, King reminds him that they are both
Edward decides to stay.  married so the king promises to
Gobin de Grâce
A French prisoner.

John II de Valois King of
France (a conflation of the
historic Philip VI with John II).

Prince Charles King John’s
eldest son, the Dauphin.

Duc de Lorraine

Prince Philippe King John’s
youngest son.

Villiers Norman lord sent
as an envoy by Salisbury
to the Dauphin.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 65

Salisbury honorably A French prophecy Seemingly trapped again, News comes that
negotiates with his foretells that Prince Edward is victorious Prince Edward is
prisoner Villiers for safe King John will and conquers the French forces. dead, but he soon
advance into arrives triumphant
conduct to Calais. England. with King John as

his prisoner.

9 11 17 18
Scenes 7–9 Scenes 10–14 Scenes 15–18
10 14
8 18

King Edward refuses The forces of King John of France King Edward demands
to send aid to the Queen Philippa, King dispatches that Calais send him its
beleaguered Prince Edward’s wife, capture
Edward, but the the King of Scotland. Salisbury with six wealthiest
a warning to burgesses in their
Prince is victorious Edward, who is underwear. Queen
in battle. besieging Calais. Philippa persuades him

to be merciful.

kill both their spouses. The besieges Calais while the Prince sky and the French panic.
Countess is horrified; the king pursues King John. In Brittany, the The captured Salisbury is spared
finally sees sense and apologizes. Countess of Salisbury’s husband on the intervention of Villiers.
offers the French prisoner Villiers Prince Edward is victorious and
Off Sluys on the Belgian coast, freedom in exchange for a safe captures King John.
the English rout the French navy, passage to Calais. A captain of
Prince Edward triumphs on land, Calais offers to surrender the town The six wealthy men of Calais
and the French king, encamped at to the king, but the king insists he are brought to the king. The queen
Crécy, tries to buy him off. When will only accept the surrender if six urges mercy and he spares their
Prince Edward demands the crown wealthy citizens are sent to him. lives. Salisbury arrives with the
instead, battle ensues. News news that Prince Edward has been
reaches the king that his son is A prophecy that says John killed at Crécy. The king comforts
in danger. He refuses to send help, will appear in England seems the distraught queen, but suddenly,
insisting that this is his son’s favorable to the French. Faced Prince Edward arrives, with King
chance to prove himself. Prince with a large French army, Prince John as his prisoner. The excited
Edward returns triumphant and Edward turns down a French offer Prince Edward promises more
is knighted by the king. The king of mercy. Bad omens appear in the foreign adventures. ❯❯

66 EDWARD III Edward III is the story of Tell him the crown that
one of England’s most he usurps is mine,
IN CONTEXT formidable warrior kings,
who ruled the country for half a And where he sets his foot
THEMES century until his death in 1377. he ought to kneel.
Honor, kingship, valor, King Edward
patriotism, brutality of war The play was written in the
early 1590s, around the same time Scene 1
SETTING as the Henry VI plays, but only in
The royal court, London; the last few decades has it been the Black Prince, proved himself
Roxburgh Castle, Scottish accepted among Shakespeare’s a hero. However, the portrait of
borders; Flanders; Crécy, works. Most editors now agree that Edward III presented in this
Poitiers, and Calais, France Shakespeare did at least have a play is very different from that of
hand in some of the play but they Shakespeare’s other great warrior
SOURCES generally believe that he was king, Henry V. While Henry V
1377 Jean Froissart’s responsible for at most a few emerges as a dynamic young
Chronicles, a French source scenes, including Scenes 2 and 3, leader, inspiring his troops to
for the early battles of the between Edward and the Countess victory with stirring speeches,
Hundred Years War. of Salisbury, and Scene 12, in Edward is anything but inspiring.
which Edward the Black Prince No sooner has he, like Henry, sent
1575 The Palace of Pleasure, ruminates on death. Performances the French ambassador packing
by William Painter, features a have been so few that, when with a declaration of war than we
story entitled “The Countesse the RSC staged it in 2002, they see him in Scotland in a far from
of Salesberrie,” on which the described it, rather inaccurately, heroic light.
wooing scene is based. as a “new” play by Shakespeare.
Rough wooing
1587 Raphael Holinshed’s The story covers Edward III’s Arriving to lift the Scottish siege
Chronicles is a source for the defense of the kingdom against the of Roxburgh Castle, Edward is
battles (although for dramatic Scottish King David II, and his wars entranced by the beautiful
reasons they have been in France, including the historical Countess of Salisbury, whose
compressed in time). rout of the French navy at Sluys husband is fighting in France. He
(1340), his victory over superior then embarks on a siege of his own
LEGACY French forces at Crécy (1346), and to conquer her, and his tactics are
Early 1590s Date and place of finally the battle of Poitiers (1356) not honorable. After his love letters,
first performance is not known. at which his young son, Edward, penned by his secretary Lodowick
are rejected, he resorts to power
1596 The play is published In the play, the Black Prince is a games, commanding her father to
anonymously in London. gung-ho adventurer, a portrayal that is order her to submit to his desire.
probably close to the historical truth. The strong-willed countess refuses,
1623 The play is omitted His tomb in Canterbury Cathedral and desperately tells Edward that
from the First Folio, possibly shows him resplendent in armor. their spouses stand between them.
because of political objections Astoundingly, Edward offers to kill
to its portrayal of the Scots. both of them, saying, as if he is

1911 The Elizabethan Stage
Society performs one scene
at the Little Theatre, London.

2001 The Pacific Repertory
Theater performs the play
at the Carmel Shakespeare
Festival in California, US.

2002 The RSC performs
the full play, to mixed reviews.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 67

judge on their lives: “Thy beauty dynasty still keen to bolster its The Battle of Sluys is depicted in
makes them guilty of their death” legitimacy in Shakespeare’s day. a French manuscript of 1400. The play
(3.157). The Countess is mortified, Besides the unsavory incident omits the French king Philippe VI,
exclaiming: “O, perjured beauty! with the countess, Edward is seen who was defeated at Sluys. Instead,
More corrupted judge!” (3.160). as a tough, uncaring father. When Philippe’s son John loses the battle.
She tells him that there is a Prince Edward, known to history
higher court, above the king— as the Black Prince, is beleaguered Villiers, and Prince Edward—it does
“the great star chamber o’er our in battle, Edward refuses help, not shy away from showing war as
heads” (3.161)—that will judge saying, “Then will he win a world a very brutish business. A French
such a crime. of honour too / If he by valour can mariner reports the sea battle of
redeem him thence. / If not, what Sluys in gruesome terms: “Purple
After this disturbing but remedy? We have more sons / Than the sea whose channel filled as
memorable interlude, the countess one to comfort our declining age” fast / With streaming gore that
is all but forgotten, and the play (8.21–24). from the maimèd fell” (4.161–162).
settles into a far more conventional
to-and-fro of battles. However, Late in the play, news comes Edward in Edward III is a
the countess’s absent husband, through that the young prince has far from attractive character,
Salisbury, becomes a key focus apparently perished and his mother and yet the play ends, happily
for the sense of justice that runs weeps in distress, but Edward’s for him, with the young prince
through the play, along with brand of comfort is to promise excited and eager for fresh
his French counterpart, Villiers. pitiless revenge. Moreover, when challenges and Edward in calm
Against the run of events, they the citizens of Calais send him six control after a series of stunning
both insist on behaving honorably. leaders of the town as a gesture military victories. With the
of submission, only the queen’s French and Scottish kings his
Unsentimental leader intervention dissuades him from captives, and also the dauphin, he
It is surprising just how negative a slaughtering them. There is a muses contentedly on their strange
portrait this is of one of England’s foretaste here of Shakespeare’s new unity: “God willing, then for
most dynamic monarchs, a king other warrior-king Henry V, who England we’ll be shipped, / Where
whose military victories turned threatens Calais with even more in a happy hour I trust we shall /
England into a major power. The savage brutality. Although there are Arrive: three kings, two princes,
reason may have been due to heroes in this play—Salisbury, and a queen” (18.242–244). ■
contemporary Tudor politics.
Edward III was a Plantagenet king,
whose line ultimately came to an
end with the first of the Tudors, a

Here flew a head
dissevered from the trunk;
There mangled arms and legs

were tossed aloft.
French mariner

Scene 4

WHAT ERROR DRIVES OUR

EYES

AND EARS AMISS?

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (1594)



70 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

DRAMATIS As a Syracusan caught At home, Adriana Antipholus E is locked
PERSONAE illegally visiting Ephesus, complains that out. He decides to give a
Egeon must pay a fine her husband is courtesan a gold chain he
Egeon A merchant from or die. The Duke gives him neglectful. Luciana had intended for his wife.
Syracuse and father of the argues that men are
Antipholus twins. He is under until 5 o’clock to pay. freer than women.
sentence of death as the
play begins. 1.1 2.1 3.1
Act 1 Act 2
Solinus Duke of Ephesus.
1.2 2.2
Antipholus of Ephesus
Twin son of Egeon. He is Egeon’s sons Antipholus Adriana rebukes
a successful merchant, and Dromio are warned Antipholus S, thinking
married to Adriana. he’s her tardy husband.
to conceal their
Antipholus of Syracuse Syracusan nationality. He sees her sister,
Twin son of Egeon, who raised Luciana, and falls in love.
him. He has come to Ephesus Antipholus S is met by
to find his twin. Dromio E who begs him to

Dromio of Ephesus Servant come home to dinner.
of Antipholus of Ephesus and
twin to Dromio of Syracuse. T he city of Ephesus is at war never returned. Now Egeon has
More put-upon and beaten with Syracuse. Syracusans risked death by coming to Ephesus
than his Syracusan twin, his visiting Ephesus illegally in search of both sons and their
character is, understandably, must pay a fine or be executed. servants. Moved by the tale, Duke
less happy. One such is Egeon, a merchant just Solinus gives Egeon a reprieve until
arrived. He tells Duke Solinus that five in the afternoon to raise the fine. 
Dromio of Syracuse Servant he, his wife Emilia, their young
of Antipholus of Syracuse and twin sons, and their twin servants, Unknown to Egeon, those
twin to Dromio of Ephesus. were separated by a storm at he seeks have also just arrived.
He has a lively wit and acts sea years before. Egeon and his Sending Dromio to the inn with
on his own initiative. remaining son and servant returned their money for safekeeping,
to Syracuse, where he named the Antipholus of Syracuse sets off to
Adriana Wife of Antipholus of boys after their respective siblings. explore. Little does he know that
Ephesus. She is impatient with Once grown, Antipholus and the subjects of his own search are
a marriage that restricts her Dromio as they were called, set nearby. Antipholus of Ephesus, a
liberty, and with an inequality off to seek their brother twins, but thriving merchant, lives with his
between husband and wife wife, Adriana, and her sister,
that she resents.

Nell Adriana’s kitchen-maid.

Luciana Sister of Adriana
who, having seen a troubled
marriage close up, is wary of
marriage.

Emilia An abbess in
Ephesus and, we later learn,
the long-lost wife of Egeon.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 71

Angelo the goldsmith, The courtesan Antipholus S and Adriana and
who gave a gold chain sees Antipholus S Dromio S draw swords Antipholus E appeal to
to Antipholus S, has wearing a gold chain on their pursuers and flee the Duke. Both sets of
that Antipholus E twins finally meet.
Antipholus E arrested had promised her. into the abbey. The abbess is revealed
for non-payment. as Egeon’s lost wife. She
Antipholus S
thinks she’s a invites all to a feast.
witch and flees.

4.1 4.3 5.1 5.1

Act 3 Act 4 Act 5

3.2 4.2 4.4 5.1

Antipholus S Dromio S asks Fearful and confused, The abbess rebukes
declares his love Adriana for the bail Antipholus E Adriana for being an
to Luciana. She is unsympathetic wife.
charmed, but asks money to free her becomes violent.
imprisoned husband. Adriana employs an
him if he’s mad. exorcist to cure his
apparent madness.

Luciana, both of whom resent the A series of mistaken encounters Meanwhile, the Syracusan twins
time he spends away from home ensues. Antipholus of Ephesus attempt to flee the town. But,
visiting the tavern and a courtesan.  sends Dromio of Ephesus for a rope pursued by almost everybody in
to punish Adriana. But before the Ephesus, they take refuge in the
Furious that he’s late again for servant returns, a goldsmith arrests abbey. As the fateful hour of
dinner, Adriana spots Antipholus in Antipholus of Ephesus for non- 5 o’clock arrives, Adriana and
the street and becomes angry with payment for a chain, which was Antipholus of Ephesus petition the
him. He responds surprisingly delivered in error to his Syracusan Duke to mediate. While he hears
politely and seems unusually happy brother. Dromio of Syracuse arrives their conflicting accounts, the
to eat with her. In fact, she has and is sent to Adriana for the bail abbess enters with the Syracusan
met her husband’s twin, Antipholus money. Dromio of Ephesus then twins and all becomes clear. When
of Syracuse, and he promptly falls returns with the rope.    the twins recognize Egeon, the
in love with her sister. When her Abbess, in a final twist, reveals
husband returns with friends, he Confused and frightened, she is Emilia, Egeon’s long-lost
finds the door to his home barred Antipholus of Ephesus turns wife. So the family is reunited
by someone claiming to be Dromio. violent. Seeming mad, he’s tied and the tale complete. ❯❯
He leaves, threatening revenge. up with the rope, but escapes.

72 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

IN CONTEXT The confusion at the heart servant relationship that comes
of The Comedy of Errors under comic strain; clearly there
THEMES is caused by a natural are bonds of lifelong friendship
Twinship, identity, marital phenomenon, twinship, a subject and trust that are also tested.
and filial relationships, loss that interested Shakespeare
because he was the father of Exploration of identity
SETTING twins. Individuals like to think Shakespeare’s changes to his source
Port of Ephesus of themselves as unique, so material let him explore how far
identical twins are intriguing identity is influenced by others. We
SOURCES because they appear to duplicate see the fear and isolation felt by
1390 John Gower’s English identity. They suggest the each twin when even his servant-
version of the Greek romance possibility of one person being in partner disputes his version of
Apollonius of Tyre forms the two places at one time. And that events. Each man appears to see
basis of Egeon’s and Emilia’s can be both funny and frightening. and hear a slightly different world.
frame narrative. Confusion over mistaken identity
Shakespeare exploits both the makes Antipholus of Syracuse
1595 Roman playwright comedy and the fear. He doubles want to leave town because the
Plautus’s Menaechmi (“The the identical twins that he found inconsistency he finds seems to
Brothers Menaechmus”) in Plautus’s Menaechmi by adding confirm the place’s reputation for
translated into English. A servant Dromios to the original witchcraft. It makes his twin brother
second play, Amphitruo, may twins. This nicely doubles the so frustrated that he turns to
have inspired Act 3, Scene 1. opportunity for farce as the play’s violence, especially when his sanity
mistimings gather pace. We’re told is doubted. But this only convinces
LEGACY that the servant twins have shared everyone that he is indeed mad.
1594 Performed at Gray’s the lives of their masters since When identities and the bonds
Inn, London. birth, which means that when the of trust between individuals are
errors begin it’s not just the master-
1786 Gli Equivoci, an opera of
the play, is staged in Vienna. The twins’ relationships

1938 Richard Rodgers and Sisters
Lorenz Hart stage The Boys
from Syracuse, a musical of the Adriana Luciana
play, on Broadway, New York.
Married Rebukes him, In love
1938 Theodore Komisarjevski’s to believing him to with
production at Stratford-upon- be her husband.
Avon makes a fluid use of
space that has a key influence Antipholus of Twin Antipholus of
on staging Shakespeare. Ephesus brothers Syracuse

1963–97 Indian film-makers Has him arrested Gives him gold
make five films based on the for non-payment chain, mistaking
play’s plot, most recently Ulta for gold chain. him for his brother.
Palta starring Ramesh Aravind.
Servant to Angelo Servant to
1976 Trevor Nunn’s production Goldsmith
for the RSC combines elements
of farce, circus, and music hall. Dromio of Twin Dromio of
Ephesus brothers Syracuse
2001 The Kyogen of Errors, a
Japanese production of the
play, tours the UK and USA.

THE FREELANCE WRITER 73

I to the world am like there’s an obvious bond between The Kyogen of Errors
a drop of water them. The dialogue is so fast-paced
and funny that there’s little time to In 2001, the Mansaku
That in the ocean seeks stop and think. For if anyone were Company of Japan performed
another drop, to do that, the reason for the errors The Kyogen of Errors,
might come clear. a Japanese-language
Who, falling there to find production of the play, to
his fellow forth, The love story between Luciana English-speaking audiences.
and Antipholus of Syracuse offers Kyogen, meaning “mad
Unseen, inquisitive, a brief respite from the chaos and a words,” is a form of traditional
confounds himself. variation on the identity theme. In Japanese theater known
Antipholus of Syracuse contrast to the anger all around, for its earthy, comic style,
the gentle Antipholus woos the for which Shakespearean
Act 1, Scene 2 surprised Luciana with a lyricism slapstick is particularly
that she clearly hasn’t heard before. suited, with language
threatened in this way, it becomes proving no barrier to farce.
apparent how swiftly family and Marriage bonds
social relationships can fall apart. Marriage, too, can be regarded as At key moments, the
a type of twinship. Shakespeare audience was encouraged
Dramatic structure draws attention to its responsibilities to join the comedy by
Egeon’s tragic story frames the and strains by building up the role chanting “Ya-ya-koshi-ya!”
comic action, and the day’s grace of Adriana, the Ephesian wife. His (“How complicated!”).
given to the old man to redeem audience would know Saint Paul’s In keeping with the traditions
himself fixes the length of the play. “Letter to the Ephesians,” which of Japanese Noh theater,
The completion of the tale with the discusses the respective duties of with which Kyogen is
revelation that the Abbess is his husbands and wives, masters and closely associated, each
long-lost wife, Emilia, brings a servants; details that Luciana, set of Antipholuses and
sense of wonder, because no hint Adriana’s sister, is obviously versed Dromios wore identical
of this is given. Emilia’s return in. Adriana, however, longs to lose masks—props that aided the
also completes a change of mood herself in a fairer relationship, and play’s visual complexities.
from threatened death to festive says so at length, but to the wrong
re-birth. The family is whole again. twin. Possibly her real husband The success of the
And so is their story. wouldn’t have listened to her so production showed how
patiently. As the Abbess observes, the themes in the play—
Within this framing narrative, if she criticizes too much she runs marital relationships,
time goes adrift. As events move the risk of ruining everything about loss, and identity—are
out of sequence, only the audience Antipholus that she loves. so powerful and universal
holds the narrative threads together. that they transcend
The farce builds up through scenes The key props in the play—a even the most challenging
that almost mirror one another. And gold chain and a rope—neatly of linguistic and cultural
within these, Shakespeare’s use of symbolize its emphasis on bonds: differences.
rapid one-line repartee maintains of love and trust, and of punishment
the momentum, creating a comic and control. The gold chain
double act between master and represents a husband’s love, but
servant. Even when they’re arguing, is promised to the courtesan in an
act of spite. When it’s given to the
wrong twin, his brother is arrested
for debt. Finally, it finds the right
Antipholus and, we hope, Adriana.

The last bond in the play is that
of the Dromios who, reunited as
brothers, leave as equals, hand-in-
hand—to the audience’s applause. ■

74 IN CONTEXT

HUNTING HE THEMES
LOVED BUT LOVE Erotic desire, youth,
HE LAUGHED longing, temptation
TO SCORN
SETTING
VENUS AND ADONIS (1592–1593) Ancient Greece

SOURCES
8 CE Book X of Roman poet
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in its
original Latin, was probably
used by Shakespeare.

1565–67 An English
translation of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses by Arthur
Golding was also drawn
on for the poem.

LEGACY
1636 Reprinted at least 10
times in Shakespeare’s lifetime,
and another six times by
1636—the most often reprinted
work during his lifetime.

1817 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
writes glowingly of the poem
in his Biographia Literaria.

T he poem Venus and Adonis
retells the mythical tale
of Venus, goddess of
love, who woos and attempts to
seduce the beautiful mortal youth,
Adonis. Shakespeare announces
the theme in the opening lines:
“Even as the sun with purple-
coloured face / Had ta’en his last
leave of the weeping morn, / Rose-
cheeked Adonis hied him to the
chase. / Hunting he loved, but love
he laughed to scorn.”

Venus approaches Adonis, begs
a kiss, drags him from his horse
and tethers it to a tree, thrusts the
boy to the ground, and smothers
him with kisses. His bashfulness
inflames her lust and, pinning him

THE FREELANCE WRITER 75

Some scholars have speculated that and dashes into a wood with his me” (l. 525). His unwise offer of a
Shakespeare may have seen a copy of mate. Venus renews her advances kiss inflames her again. He tells her
Titian’s painting Venus and Adonis and takes Adonis by the hand, that he plans to go boar hunting,
(1554), in which the young hero seems “A lily prisoned in a jail of snow” which causes her such pain that:
to spurn the overeager Venus. (l.362), saying that Adonis should “She sinketh down, still hanging
take a lesson from his horse: by his neck. / He on her belly falls,
to the ground, she tells him at “O, learn to love! The lesson is but she on her back” (ll.593–594).
length how lucky he should feel to plain, / And, once made perfect,
be desired by one who was wooed never lost again” (ll.407–408). Horrified that he may be killed,
by so great a figure as the god she advises him to hunt harmless
Mars. But Adonis, complaining that Hunter hunted animals such as hares. Adonis
he’s getting burned by the midday She pretends to collapse before rebukes her for succumbing to lust:
sun, with much difficulty shakes him. Guiltily he tries to bring her “Love comforteth, like sunshine
her off: “Away he springs, and around and gives her a farewell after rain, / But lust’s effect is
hasteth to his horse” (l.258). kiss, which inflames her again, but tempest after sun” (ll.799–800).
Tempted by a passing mare, he says he is unripe for love: “Before
however, the horse breaks away I know myself, seek not to know At last he escapes, leaving her to
bemoan her fate. The next morning,
hearing sounds of hunting, she ❯❯

76 VENUS AND ADONIS

dashes to see what is happening. who was also from Stratford-upon- Ovid wrote his narrative poem
She spies “the hunted boar” (l.900), Avon, went on to publish The Rape Metamorphoses in the first decade CE.
sees Adonis’s exhausted and of Lucrece. Venus and Adonis was Running to 15 books and covering
wounded hounds, and bemoans the first book to bear Shakespeare’s 250 myths, it would have given the
his suspected fate. name as author. schoolboy Shakespeare a thorough
grounding in classical mythology.
Deluded into supposing that The first edition bore a Latin
he is still alive she reproaches motto from the poems Amores some graver labour. But if the first
herself for being too fearful but, (“The Loves”) by the Roman poet heir of my invention prove deformed,
coming upon his body, speaks an Ovid: “Vilia miretur vulgus; mihi I shall be sorry it had so noble a
elegy for him and prophesies that flavus Apollo pocula Castalia plena godfather, and never after ear [till]
henceforward sorrow will always ministret aqua”—“let low-minded so barren a land for fear it yield me
attend upon love. Adonis’s body people admire vile things, but for still so bad a harvest. I leave it to
melts away and she vows to cherish me let Apollo supply goblets full your honourable survey, and your
the purple flower that springs up of the water of the Muses.” honour to your heart’s content;
in its place. Finally, she returns to which I wish may always answer
Cyprus in her dove-drawn chariot, your own wish and the world’s
planning to seclude herself away hopeful expectation. Your honour’s
in perpetual mourning. in all duty, William Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare also dedicated his
Publication and date other narrative poem, The Rape
Venus and Adonis first appeared of Lucrece, published in the
in print in 1593. London’s theaters following year, to Southampton.
were closed that year and for much
of the following year because of an Source
outbreak of plague, and it seems Shakespeare based Venus and
likely that Shakespeare, who was Adonis on an episode from one of
already an established playwright, his favorite books, the long poem
had time on his hands. The poem Metamorphoses by Ovid, which he
was published by Richard Field, a would have studied at school and
well-known London printer. Field,

With this she seizeth Dedication O, what a sight it was
on his sweating palm, The poem bears a dedication wistly to view
The precedent of pith to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of
Southampton, a precocious and How she came stealing
and livelihood, talented nobleman who was only to the wayward boy,
And, trembling in her 17 at the time. The formal dedication
passion, calls it balm – reads, “Right Honourable, I know not To note the fighting conflict
Earth’s sovereign salve how I shall offend in dedicating my of her hue,
to do a goddess good. unpolished lines to your lordship,
Venus and Adonis nor how the world will censure me How white and red each
for choosing so strong a prop to other did destroy!
ll.25–28 support so weak a burden. Only, if
your honour seem but pleased, I Venus and Adonis
account myself highly praised, and
vow to take advantage of all idle ll.343–346
hours till I have honoured you with

THE FREELANCE WRITER 77

which he refers to and quotes from in them to please the wiser sort.” Juliet and Venus and Adonis, and
many times in his plays. He even Venus and Adonis acquired a declares that he will “worship
brings a copy of the poems on reputation as soft porn due to lines sweet master Shakespeare.”
stage in his early tragedy Titus such as these in which Venus tries
Andronicus and in his late romance to tempt Adonis with the delights of The poem’s artificial style and
Cymbeline. Shakespeare seems to her body: “I’ll be a park, and thou digressive story line caused it to fall
have referred both to the original shalt be my deer. / Feed where out of fashion until romantic poet
and to an English translation by thou wilt, on mountain or in dale; / and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
Arthur Golding. But while Ovid Graze on my lips, and if those hills Biographia Literaria (1817) helped
tells the tale in only 75 lines, be dry, / Stray lower, where the to restore its critical reputation. ■
Shakespeare expands it to 1,194 pleasant fountains lie” (ll.231–234).
lines of verse. He modifies both the In a play performed by Cambridge In 2007, the Royal Shakespeare
characterization and the events of students early in the 17th century, Company, in association with the
the original tale. In Ovid’s version, a character boasts of how he woos Little Angel Theatre of Islington,
the youthful Adonis returns Venus’s his mistress with speeches larded London, gave a performance in which
love, but Shakespeare turns him with quotations from Romeo and the poem was recited aloud while the
into a bashful adolescent who shies story was acted out with puppets.
away from the goddess’s lustful
advances. He also expands the
story; the most substantial addition
is the episode (ll.259–324) in which
Adonis’s horse lusts after a mare
and gallops after her into the forest,
frustrating Adonis’s attempts to
escape from Venus’s clutches.

Style and reception
The poem is written in six-line
stanzas. Each line is an iambic
pentameter, meaning that it has ten
syllables and every other syllable is
stressed: for example “She looks
upon his lips, and they are pale”
(l.1123). The lines are rhymed in this
order: a b a b c c, resembling the
last six lines of a Shakespearean
sonnet. The style is witty, narrating
events with knowing detachment
while also achieving lyrical beauty
in the descriptive passages.

The poem was to be more
frequently reprinted than any other
of Shakespeare’s works during his
lifetime: nine times by 1610. It was
especially popular with adolescents.
In about 1600, Cambridge scholar
Gabriel Harvey wrote that, “the
younger sort take much pleasure in
Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis,
but his Lucrece, and his tragedy of
Hamlet Prince of Denmark, have it

78 IN CONTEXT

WHO BUYS THEMES
A MINUTE’S Lust, betrayal, honor
MIRTH TO
WAIL A WEEK SETTING
Rome, 509 BCE
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE (1593–1594)
SOURCES
27–25 BCE History of Rome
by the Roman historian Livy.

8 CE The Book of Days by
the Roman poet Ovid.

LEGACY
1616 Six editions published
by the time of Shakespeare’s
death attest to the poem’s
popularity.

1818 English poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge praises the
dramatic qualities of the work.

1931 French playwright André
Obey adapts the poem for the
stage in Le Viol de Lucrèce.

1946 English composer
Benjamin Britten writes an
opera based on the poem.

The Rape of Lucrece is a poem
that tells the classical story of
the Roman general Tarquin,
who desires and rapes Lucrece, the
wife of his fellow warrior Collatinus
(called Collatine in the poem).
Shakespeare jumps straight into
the action in the opening lines:
“Lust-breathèd Tarquin leaves the
Roman host / And to Collatium
bears the lightless fire / Which, in
pale embers hid, lurks to aspire /
And girdle with embracing flames
the waist / Of Collatine’s fair love,
Lucrece the chaste.”

The narrator explains that
Tarquin has left the Roman camp
for Collatium because, on the
previous night, the warriors had

THE FREELANCE WRITER 79

been boasting of the beauty and When Lucrece awakes, Tarquin A one-woman musical and dramatic
chastity of their wives. This has says he will kill her and her performance based on the poem was
filled him with desire for Lucrece. attendant slave unless she yields given by Camille O’Sullivan in 2011.
to him. She pleads with him in It toured Britain and Ireland under
When he reaches Collatium, vain, and he rapes her: “with the auspices of the RSC.
Lucrece welcomes him. He finds the nightly linen that she wears /
her even more beautiful than he had He pens her piteous clamours in Having done the deed, Tarquin
expected, praises her husband’s her head, / Cooling his hot face in creeps away in shame. From
valor, and goes to bed aching with the chastest tears / That ever this point onward, the poem
desire for her. In a long soliloquy, modest eyes with sorrow shed” concentrates on Lucrece. She
Tarquin meditates about his (ll.680–683). addresses night, time, and
intention to seduce Lucrece, aware opportunity in a series of laments,
of the horror and danger of what he She bears the load of lust and curses Tarquin before deciding
intends to do, but unable to resist his he left behind, to kill herself for shame and to tell
evil impulses: “Here pale with fear her husband what has happened.
he doth premeditate / The dangers of And he the burden She calls her maid but does not
his loathsome enterprise, / And in of a guilty mind. confide in her. Lucrece writes to
his inward mind he doth debate / Collatine summoning him home
What following sorrow may on this The Rape of Lucrece and then meditates on a painting
arise” (ll.183–186). of the siege and fall of Troy, which
ll.734–735 is described at length. When
A passage of vivid narrative Collatine arrives with her father
describes how he makes his fearful and other lords, she tells them
way to the chamber where Lucrece what has happened without at first
lies sleeping: “Her breasts like ivory naming Tarquin until all the men
globes circled with blue, / A pair of have vowed to avenge her. Then
maiden worlds unconquerèd, / Save she suddenly stabs herself. “Even
of their lord no bearing yoke they here she sheathèd in her harmless ❯❯
knew, / And him by oath they truly
honourèd” (ll.407–410).

80 THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

breast / A harmful knife, that some graver labour.” The Rape of untutored lines, makes it assured
thence her soul unsheathed. / Lucrece, also dedicated to the earl, of acceptance. What I have done
That blow did bail it from the deep followed a year later, in 1594. Like is yours; what I have to do is yours,
unrest / Of that polluted prison the earlier poem, it was printed by being part in all I have, devoted
where it breathed” (ll.1723–1726). Shakespeare’s fellow Stratfordian yours. Were my worth greater
Richard Field. (The title page calls my duty would show greater;
Her father and Collatine grieve it simply Lucrece, but the pages are meantime, as it is, it is bound
over her body and Tarquin and all headed with the longer title.) to your lordship, to whom I
his family are banished from Rome. wish long life still lengthened
Dedication with all happiness. Your lordship’s
Publication The dedication to this poem is in all duty, William Shakespeare.”
Shakespeare seems to have written in much warmer terms Dedications could be mere
thought of The Rape of Lucrece as than that to Venus and Adonis: formalities, intended to indicate
a tragic companion piece to the “The love I dedicate to your
ironically comic Venus and Adonis. lordship is without end, whereof Italian artist Palma Giovane depicted
In dedicating the earlier poem to this pamphlet without beginning the rape of Lucrece in this painting in
the Earl of Southampton, he had is but a superfluous moiety. The about 1570. Many artists would have
promised that, if the Earl liked it, warrant I have of your honourable portrayed this famous tale in paintings
he would “take advantage of all idle disposition, not the worth of my that Shakespeare would have seen.
hours till I have honoured you with

THE FREELANCE WRITER 81

to potential purchasers that the appeared in Shakespeare’s lifetime, Classical tale
author of a book had an eminent with another three by 1655. There
patron, and perhaps in the hope are several admiring contemporary Like Venus and Adonis, The
of a reward—two guineas references to it. In 1818, the English Rape of Lucrece is an example
was a standard sum—from poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote of a literary genre that
the dedicatee. But the warmth of The Rape of Lucrece that the flourished in the 1590s: long,
of affection—indeed, the “love… poem “gave ample proof of his classically based narrative
without end”—expressed here has possession of a most profound, poems telling stories of
understandably given rise to the energetic, and philosophical mind, romantic love, often inspired
suggestion that Shakespeare had a without which he might have in both tone and subject
genuinely close friendship with the pleased, but could not have been matter by the Roman poet
young, precociously talented, and a great dramatic poet.” Ovid, whose writings were
remarkably good-looking aristocrat. much studied in grammar
The poem’s rhetorical style fell schools such as that of
After the dedication comes out of fashion in later times, but Stratford-upon-Avon.
“The Argument,” a prose summary more recently it has come to be
of the poem’s action. The story it admired for its profoundly dramatic Unlike Venus and Adonis,
tells differs somewhat from that of quality and for its anticipations of this time the subject matter
the poem itself, and it may not have Shakespeare’s later work, especially is historical, not mythical.
been written by Shakespeare. in his plays based on Roman The events took place in
history and in Macbeth. 509 BCE and were already
Style and reception legendary by the time of the
The poem is written in the seven-line Britten’s opera first surviving account, by
stanza form known as rhyme royal, In 1946, British composer Benjamin the Roman historian Livy in
which Shakespeare also uses in “A Britten wrote an opera based on his history of Rome published
Lover’s Complaint.” Each line is an Shakespeare’s story. He was inspired between 27 and 25 BCE.
iambic pentameter—ten syllables in on seeing a play adapted from the Shakespeare seems mainly to
which, normally (although with poem by French playwright André have used the account given
variations), every other syllable is Obey. Britten’s work is a “chamber by Ovid in his poem Fasti,
stressed, as, for example in line 6: opera”—an intimate work with known in English as The Book
“And girdle with embracing flames 13 musicians and eight singers. ■ of Days, or Chronicles, first
the waist.” The lines rhyme a b a b b published in 8 CE. He seems
c c. The tone, unlike that of Venus Even here she sheathèd in her also to have drawn on the
and Adonis, is deadly serious harmless breast Roman historian Livy and
throughout, and there are many other sources. Shakespeare
digressions from the basic narrative. A harmful knife, that thence concentrates on the private
her soul unsheathed. rather than the political
The opening sequence, with aspects of the story, and
its intense account of Tarquin’s That blow did bail it from the makes a little narrative
tormented state of mind as he deep unrest material go a long way.
approaches Lucrece’s chamber,
is the most vividly powerful. Of that polluted prison where
Shakespeare recalls the events and it breathed.
style of this poem in later writings,
most memorably when Macbeth, The Rape of Lucrece
on his way to murder King Duncan,
speaks of “withered murder” which, ll.1723–1726
“With Tarquin’s ravishing strides,
towards his design / Moves like a
ghost” (Macbeth 2.1.52–56).

Like Venus and Adonis, the
poem was popular right from its
first publication. Six editions

THE LORD

CHAMBER
MAN

1594–1603

LAIN S

84 INTRODUCTION

London theaters Privateer Sir Francis Spanish troops capture The Merry Wives of
reopen in May after a Drake departs on his Calais. Queen Windsor and Henry IV,
plague epidemic. final voyage, a campaign
Love’s Labour’s Lost against the Spanish Elizabeth expels all Part 2 are written.
and The Comedy of Empire in the Caribbean. Africans from England. Shakespeare buys
New Place as his
Errors are written. Stratford family home.

1594 1595 1596 1597
1595 1596 1596 1597

Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, The Life and Death of The Lord Mayor of London theaters are
and A Midsummer Night’s King John, The London bans actors closed for months
from the city and tears
Dream are written. Merchant of Venice, down inn-theaters; the when The Isle of Dogs,
and Henry IV Part 1 by Ben Jonson and
ban is lifted the Thomas Nashe is
are written. following year. labeled seditious.

B y the time the theaters That stake ensured Shakespeare had stirring history of Henry V and the
reopened after the plague an income of between £200 and £700 tragedy of Hamlet. Many thousands
epidemic of 1592–94, the ($325 and $1000) a year—by no means packed the theater to watch them.
literary success Shakespeare had a fortune, but far above any other
achieved with the publication of playwright’s earnings. Shakespeare Evidence for the dating of the
Venus and Adonis in 1594 helped chose to live frugally, renting various early plays is limited, but reference
him engineer a uniquely secure places to live in London, and by 1597, to several of Shakespeare’s plays
position in the theater world. he had saved enough to buy his family is made by the little-known writer
a large house in Stratford—New Francis Meres in a book called
With the theaters back in Place. He went on to buy land nearby, Palladis Tamia: Wit’s Treasury
business, Lord Hunsdon, the Lord and even a coat of arms. published in 1598. Meres asserts
Chamberlain, reconstituted his that “Shakespeare among the
theater company as the Lord Creative drive English is the most excellent for
Chamberlain’s Men. It brought Shakespeare’s position in the the stage; for comedy, witness his
together leading actors of the day, company gave him a platform for Gentlemen of Verona, his Errors,
such as the tragedian Richard his plays—and he made the most of his Love Labour’s Lost, his Love
Burbage, who would launch some it. In the two-year break caused by Labour’s Won, his Midsummer’s
of Shakespeare’s greatest roles; the plague, he had honed his poetic Night Dream, and his Merchant of
the clown William Kemp, who and dramatic skills, and over the Venice; for tragedy, his Richard II,
triumphed as the comic creation next nine years, he wrote 17 plays, Richard III, Henry IV, King John,
Falstaff; and Shakespeare himself. ranging from the romantic Titus Andronicus, and his Romeo
Crucially, the leading actors all comedies A Midsummer Night’s and Juliet.” Thus scholars have been
owned shares in the company; Dream and Twelfth Night to the given a date by which all of these
Shakespeare had a 10 percent stake. plays must have been written.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 85

Much Ado About The Globe Theatre Sir Thomas More The rebellion
Nothing is written. is built in Southwark. is written, but is against Elizabeth I
Shakespeare’s name The actors, including probably never
becomes a selling staged due to by her one-time
point and appears on the Shakespeare, are censorship and the favorite Essex is
title pages of the quarto shareholders. huge cast required. crushed and he
editions of his plays.
is beheaded.

1598 1599 1600 1601
1598 1599 1601 1602

Shakespeare acts in The poet Edmund Twelfth Night is written. Troilus and Cressida
Ben Jonson’s play Every Spenser dies. A special performance is written.
Man in His Humour at of Richard II is staged
The Bishop’s Ban
the Curtain Theatre. prohibits satire in a at The Globe, perhaps
to incite the deposition
large selection of
literary works. of the Queen.

Theater on the edge Hamlet. The company’s worries, them. If this is true, he was
Although the Lord Chamberlain’s however, went beyond capricious playing a risky game. It is true that
Men often performed before the landlords. Theater at this time the Lord Chamberlain’s Men were
queen, theater life was precarious. could be political dynamite, and not afraid of political controversy.
The company was always playing actors faced a constant battle to On February 7, 1601, Sir Gelly
cat-and-mouse with authorities get scripts past the Master of the Meyrick, acting on behalf of the
keen to control what they saw Revels, who vetted every play. Earl of Essex, commissioned a
as salacious entertainment, and special performance of Richard II at
theaters stayed on marginal land Dangerous times The Globe, including the scenes in
beyond the city walls. In 1598, the Just how far this censorship went which the monarch is deposed and
landlord of a Shoreditch playhouse is clear from the cuts made to the murdered—scenes too incendiary
known as The Theatre demanded script of Sir Thomas More. This to publish at the time. The
a huge rise in rent, then decided to play, which Shakespeare had a performance went ahead, and the
tear down the building altogether. hand in but which has several very next day the Earl of Essex led
Shakespeare’s company secretly authors, portrays the Chancellor a small army toward Whitehall
dismantled it beam by beam and of King Henry VIII, who refused Palace to bring down the queen
carried the timbers over the river to to grant the king a divorce, in a and replace her with James VI of
Southwark to erect a new theater, favorable light. Some have argued Scotland. Essex’s revolution ended
The Globe, which was owned by that Shakespeare was a Catholic in farce and the Earl was executed.
the company. The Globe was an rebel, who stuffed his plays with It could all have turned out badly for
instant triumph. In its opening year, coded symbols designed to evade Shakespeare and the Chamberlain’s
1599, it saw performances of Julius the censor but convey a powerful Men, but somehow they managed
Caesar, As You Like It, Henry V, and message to anyone who understood to escape punishment. ■

WHO CAN SEVER

LOVE

FROM CHARITY?

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST (1594–1595)



88 LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

DRAMATIS In Navarre, King Armado has The King of Navarre
PERSONAE Ferdinand asks that Costard imprisoned and the princess discuss
his lords study, fast, and confesses that he Aquitaine while Biron
Ferdinand King of Navarre. sleep little, and avoid
women for three years. is in love with verbally spars with
Biron Lord attending to the Jaquenetta. Rosaline.
king. He is surprised to fall in
love with Rosaline. 1.1 1.2 2.1
Act 1 Act 2
Longueville Lord attending
to the king. He woos Maria. 1.1 2.1

Dumaine Lord attending to The Spaniard Armado The Princess of
the king. He woos Katharine. sends a letter saying that France arrives with

Princess of France A he saw Costard her ladies and is
diplomat, a skilled huntress, “consorting” with encamped in a field.
and a beauty. Later she
becomes Queen of France. Jaquenetta.

Rosaline Lady attending to A t the court of Navarre, ladies each praise one of the lords
the princess. Biron falls for her. King Ferdinand tells his so warmly that the princess swears
lords that, to be successful, they must be in love. The princess
Maria Lady attending to the they must study and renounce plays at being offended by her cool
princess. She falls in love with women for three years. Dumaine reception from the king. Biron and
Longueville. and Longueville agree but Biron is Rosaline spar verbally and Dumaine
reluctant. The king agrees that he and Longueville ask Katharine and
Katharine Lady attending to must make an exception for the Maria’s names. Boyet insists that
the princess. She falls in love Princess of France who is soon to the king is in love with the princess,
with Dumaine. arrive. Biron, seeing that rules can and the ladies tease him for being
be bent, agrees to the oath. The a “love-monger.”
Lord Boyet French lord pompous Armado has Costard
attending to the princess imprisoned, saying that he saw him Armado asks the boy Mote to
who acts as a go-between. with Jaquenetta, and then reveals sing to Jaquenetta for him, but
that he is in love with Jaquenetta. Mote and Costard make fun of him.
Marcadé Messenger. The Princess of France arrives. Her Armado sets Costard free on the
condition that he takes a letter to
Don Adriano de Armado
A pretentious Spaniard. He
falls in love with Jaquenetta.

Mote Armado’s clever
page boy.

Costard Simple country fellow.

Jaquenetta A dairymaid.

Sir Nathaniel A curate.

Holofernes A schoolmaster
who fills his speech with Latin
(or an approximation of Latin).

Dull A simple constable.
He understands very little.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 89

Armado sets Costard Realizing Costard’s Forced to admit his love News arrives that
free on the condition he error, Jaquenetta for Rosaline, Biron persuades the King of France
take a letter to Jaquenetta, takes his letter to has died, and the
and Biron asks Costard to the lords and the king that
take a letter to Rosaline. the king. love is their best education. princess and
her ladies ask
their suitors to

wait a year.

3.1 4.2 4.3 5.2
Act 3 Act 4 Act 5
2.1 4.1 4.3
5.2

The lords each ask Costard mistakenly gives The lords overhear The ladies see through the lords’
Boyet if a particular Armado’s letter for each other secretly attempts to woo them in disguise, and
lady is single: Biron Holofernes and company stage a
likes Rosaline; Dumaine Jaquenetta to Rosaline, declaring their
is sweet on Katharine, and Boyet reads it out love for a lady pageant of the Nine Worthies.
in a sonnet.
and Longueville has loud to the ladies.
interest in Maria.

Jaquenetta. Biron also gives Costard who doesn’t quite get it all. three. Costard arrives with Biron’s
Costard a letter for Rosaline. Biron Holofernes discusses the hunt with letter to Rosaline. The quartet
curses his foolishness in falling in Dull and Nathaniel. Jaquenetta agrees to forget their pact and
love—and with a girl so deficient. arrives with Costard and asks them woo the ladies in earnest.
to read the letter from Armado. It is,
The princess and the ladies are of course, Biron’s letter to Rosaline Armado, Holofernes, Nathaniel,
hunting when Costard says he has and after Holofernes analyzes the Dull, and Mote are to entertain the
a letter for Rosaline from Biron. The poem’s merit they take it to the king. party. They disguise themselves,
princess asks to see it and in his but the ladies, forewarned, play
confusion, Costard gives Boyet Biron overhears the king along. When the men return
Armado’s letter. Boyet realizes it composing a love sonnet. Biron and dressed as themselves, the ladies
is meant for Jaquenetta, but the the king hear Longueville doing the pretend not to recognize them. The
princess asks him to read it out loud. same. Longueville hears Dumaine lords decide to woo from now on
Boyet teases Rosaline bawdily about composing a sonnet. Longueville only with honesty, but then news
Biron and she responds in kind. accuses Dumaine of breaking their arrives that the princess’s father has
Boyet indulges in an innuendo-laden agreement. The king accuses died. Her marriage is postponed,
exchange with Maria, joined by Longueville. Biron criticizes all and the ladies prepare to depart. ❯❯

90 LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

IN CONTEXT L ove’s Labour’s Lost is the These are barren tasks,
most conspicuously poetic too hard to keep –
THEMES of all Shakespeare’s plays,
Romance, flirting, chastity, with nearly two-thirds of the play Not to see ladies, study, fast,
word-play, cycle of life in rhyming verse. Its clever word- not sleep.
play must have delighted the Biron
SETTING intellectual elite at the Elizabethan
Navarre,a kingdom court, who counted this among Act 1, Scene 1
between France and Spain their favorite Shakespeare plays.
goes beyond mere verbal tricks,
SOURCES However, the play’s contemporary as the surprisingly nuanced and
16th century The Italian in-jokes have often been lost on affecting ending bears out.
tradition of commedia dell’ audiences since then, and in
arte, with stock characters, the 18th and 19th centuries, it The set-up is very simple. With
especially a pedant, a was the least performed of all the country at peace, the King of
braggart, and a fool, appears Shakespeare’s plays. Audiences Navarre calls upon his lords to do
to have been a source. watching the play can all too easily nothing but study for three years—
feel like the constable Dull, who, to eat little, to sleep little, and to
1586 L’Académie Française when the schoolteacher Holofernes renounce the company of women.
by Pierre de la Primaudaye, comments, “Thou hast spoken The joke is, of course, that they
which appeared in English no word all this while,” replies, don’t have a chance at succeeding,
in about 1586, outlined “Nor understood none neither, sir” least of all the king. As Biron, the
philosophical thinking in the (5.1.142–144). least convinced of his lords, points
French court in the late 16th out: “‘Item: If any man be seen to
century, and may have been The poetic knot-garden talk with a woman within the term
an influence on Shakespeare. In recent years, directors have of three years, he shall endure such
found ways to release the play’s public shame as the rest of the
LEGACY witty comedy and sweet romance court can possibly devise.’ / This
1597 A performance before the and make the most of its ingenious article, my liege, yourself must
Queen (Elizabeth I) “this last structure, likened by some to the break; For well you know here
Christmas” is referred to on the elaborate Elizabethan knot garden comes in embassy / The French
title page of the first edition. that the pretentious Spaniard king’s daughter with yourself to
Armado alludes to in his letter to speak” (1.1.128–133). So already
1817 Literary critic William the king. It is a play that may be the king must make exception
Hazlitt notes, “If we were to clever, but it also has a heart that for the French king’s daughter
part with any of the author’s and her ladies—and as soon as
comedies, it should be this.” British director Kenneth Branagh this first exception is made, the
made his movie version of Love’s whole plan quickly breaks down.
1837 First performance since Labour’s Lost (2000) a romantic 1930s
Shakespeare’s time. Hollywood musical. Here, the young Much of the humor hinges
lords anticipate the arrival of the ladies. on how the lords and the king
1946 A bold production by pretend to each other that they
Peter Brook at the RSC based are not falling under the romantic
the play on the fêtes galantes spell of the ladies, while the
(bucolic landscape) paintings ladies amuse themselves watching
of French artist Watteau.

2012 Deafinitely Theatre’s
production of Love’s Labour’s
Lost at the Globe is the first
full-length Shakespeare play
entirely in sign language.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 91

the men squirm. The plot could
hardly be simpler. Yet Shakespeare
uses this straightforward story to
create a gloriously intricate game
of words. There is ample scope for
a clever and merciless spoof of the
pretentious wordplay of the day,
which in many places is also
downright obscene.

Finding love and self the path taken by the King of This orderly Elizabethan knot
The thrust of the play is clear Navarre, Biron, Dumaine, and garden at Nyewood House in East
enough: that it is absurd for men Longueville, and so they are easily Sussex, echoes the careful grouping
to cut themselves off from women fooled by the ladies into paying of actors and the mannered patterns of
and from love in order to find out court to the wrong girl when the speech of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
about the world—women and love ladies swap accessories.
are the only true education. As performances, the men mock so
Biron finally acknowledges: “From The men are misguided enough, mercilessly that even the pedant
women’s eyes this doctrine I too, to think that they can disguise Holofernes is moved to a heartfelt
derive. / They sparkle still the right themselves to go wooing. The girls criticism, “This is not generous,
Promethean fire. / They are the are not fooled—and only pretend not gentle, not humble” (5.2.622).
books, the arts, the academes / not to know the lords when they
That show, contain, and nourish come back as themselves. Finally, In the middle of the pageant,
all the world” (4.3.326–329). Biron realizes he must learn to be news arrives that the princess’s
himself rather than act an image father, the King of France, has
Shakespeare is keenly aware of love. In his succinct summary of suddenly died. The normal round
that love poetry is no substitute the play, he says: “Let us once lose of weddings that might tie up a
for real-life love, and, as later plays our oaths to find ourselves, / Or comedy does not happen. Instead,
such as Romeo and Juliet and else we lose ourselves to keep the ladies each ask their suitors to
As You Like It show, young men our oaths” (4.3.337–338). wait a year, and to use that year to
who indulge in love poetry are learn more about people and the
often mistaking the idea of love for The final lesson world. Rosaline instructs Biron
the real thing. This indulgence is Unexpectedly, Shakespeare avoids to tend to the sick, and when he
giving us a neat happy ending. protests that there are no jokes
Sir, he hath never fed of the After Biron and the other men have in a hospital full of death,
dainties that are bred been through this moment of self- Rosaline reminds him that: “A jest’s
discovery, they sit down to watch prosperity lies in the ear / Of him
in a book; he hath not eat the pageant of the Nine Worthies that hears it” (5.2.847–848). The play
paper, as it were; he presented by Holofernes, Nathaniel, ends poignantly with haunting
Moth, Costard, and Armado. The songs of the seasons, first the cuckoo
hath not drunk ink: his women watch quietly, but in their for spring then the owl for winter. ■
intellect is not replenished

Nathaniel

Act 4, Scene 2

DOWN DOWN

I COME LIKE

GLIST RING

PHAETHON

RICHARD II (1595)



94 RICHARD II

DRAMATIS Bolingbroke accuses When John of Gaunt York is heavily
PERSONAE Mowbray of treason dies, Richard seizes outnumbered and
before the King and they allows Bolingbroke and
King Richard II The rightful challenge one another to Bolingbroke’s his troops to enter
king of England. inheritance and then Berkeley Castle.
single combat. leaves for Ireland. The
John of Gaunt Duke of
Lancaster, Bolingbroke’s father, disgusted nobles
and Richard II’s uncle. prepare to meet
Bolingbroke who is
Harry Bolingbroke returning to England.
Duke of Hereford, later King
Henry IV by usurpation, 1.1 2.1 2.3
cousin to Richard. Act 1 Act 2
1.3 2.2
Thomas Mowbray Duke
of Norfolk and Richard’s ally, Richard interrupts the The Duke of York
later banished for his quarrel trial by combat between tries to raise an
with Bolingbroke. Mowbray and Bolingbroke, army in the King’s
absence. Bushy,
Duke of Aumerle Duke of and banishes them. Bagot, and Green try
York’s son, ally of Richard. to save themselves.

Duke of York Richard’s uncle, T he play opens with an and wealth that by rights should
and regent in his absence. accusation of treason pass to Gaunt’s son, Bolingbroke.
made by Bolingbroke The nobles Ross, Willoughby, and
Queen Isabel Richard’s wife. against Mowbray. The latter stands Northumberland agree to meet
accused of murdering the Duke Bolingbroke, who is to arrive back
Duchess of York The Duke of Gloucester, but John of Gaunt on English shores with an army.
of York’s wife. suspects that King Richard himself
is implicated in the murder. Richard While Richard is quelling a
Earl of Northumberland banishes Bolingbroke for 10 years, rebellion in Ireland, the Queen is
An ally of Bolingbroke. later commuted to six, but Mowbray comforted by Bushy, Bagot, and
is permanently exiled. Green. Then news is heard of
Bushy, Green, and Bagot Bolingbroke’s return and the nobles’
Richard’s followers, who are Bolingbroke wins popular desertion. York, whom Richard left
blamed for his bad policies. sympathy as he leaves, while in charge, prepares for their attack.
Richard alienates the people by
Ross, Fitzwalter, and levying high taxes. When Gaunt At Berkeley Castle, York accuses
Willoughby Lords who join dies, Richard seizes all the land Bolingbroke of treason. Bolingbroke
Bolingbroke’s side. insists that he was banished as

Earl of Salisbury,
Bishop of Carlisle
Supporters of Richard.

Harry Percy
Northumberland’s son, also
known as Hotspur.

Abbot of Westminster He
joins a plot against Henry IV,
but dies before he is arrested.

Sir Piers Exton
Richard’s murderer.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 95

Richard arrives on Richard publicly York reveals his Richard’s coffin is brought
the Welsh coast. He takes off the crown son’s treason to forth. Bolingbroke banishes
learns that the Welsh the King, but his
forces have dispersed, and scepter and Exton and prepares to
that Bushy, Green, and invests Bolingbroke as wife secures a journey to the Holy Land
Wiltshire have been the new king, Henry IV. pardon for Aumerle. to be absolved of his guilt.

executed, and that
York has joined

with Bolingbroke.

3.2 4.1 5.3 5.6

Act 3 Act 4 Act 5

3.1 3.3 5.2 5.5

At Bristol Castle, Facing an York discovers Exton and four servants murder
Bolingbroke has Bushy armed threat from that his son, Richard at Pomfret Castle,
Bolingbroke, Richard Aumerle, is
and Green executed. agrees to restore his involved in a supposedly acting in accordance
inheritance and puts conspiracy with Henry IV’s wish.
against Henry IV.
himself into
Bolingbroke’s

power.

Hereford, not as the Duke of York’s son Aumerle is accused by Tower. On the way, Richard meets
Lancaster, and that he has a right Bagot of plotting Gloucester’s death his Queen and they say goodbye.
to defend his inheritance. York and being disloyal to Bolingbroke. York discovers that his son, Aumerle,
allows them to enter the castle. Multiple challenges to fight ensue. is involved in a plot against
York announces that Richard has Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV.
Richard lands on the Welsh named Bolingbroke his heir and is He betrays him to the King, but the
coast and greets the land joyfully. ready to resign his throne to him. Duchess’s eloquence manages to
However, he despairs at the news secure a pardon. Carlisle and the
brought by messengers. At Flint Richard is forced publicly to other conspirators will be executed.
Castle, Bolingbroke demands that renounce the throne. He takes off
Richard repeal his banishment and his crown and scepter but refuses Sir Piers Exton murders Richard
restore his inheritance. Richard to read the charges against him. at Pomfret Castle, and takes the
appears on the battlements and Looking at his face in a mirror, he body to Bolingbroke, expecting a
grants his request. Bolingbroke comments that “A brittle glory reward, but the new King is deeply
kneels to Richard but the power shineth in this face. As brittle as ashamed of the action. He has
has shifted. Richard submits to the glory is the face” (4.1.277–278). Exton banished, and sets off on
travel to London with him. Bolingbroke has him taken to the a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. ❯❯

96 RICHARD II W hen Richard observes of Ah, Richard! With the
himself “Down, down I eyes of heavy mind
IN CONTEXT come like glist’ring I see thy glory, like
Phaethon” (3.3.177), he offers a a shooting star,
THEMES complex image of his own tragic Fall to the base earth
Kingship, betrayal, fate. Phaethon was the son of from the firmament.
character flaws Phoebus/Apollo, the sun-god of Earl of Salisbury
Greek mythology. According to
SETTING legend, the youth stole his father’s Act 2, Scene 4
Locations in England and fiery chariot and drove it through
Wales during the reign of the sky, but he could not keep language of sacramental kingship
Richard II (1367–1400) control of the horses and caused is partly driven by an awareness
terrible destruction to Earth. Jove that the king is but one among a
SOURCES hurled a thunderbolt at the chariot, number of competing nobles who
1587 Raphael Holinshed’s and Phaethon plunged to his death. all have a claim to the throne.
Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Often interpreted as signifying Contemporary parallels
the dangers of ambition, the myth When Shakespeare wrote the
c.1592 Christopher Marlowe’s initially seems more appropriate to play, the story of Richard II was
play Edward II. the usurping Bolingbroke than to a controversial one because of
Richard, the divinely-appointed king perceived analogies between his
1595 Samuel Daniel’s epic of England, whose inherent majesty reign and that of Elizabeth I. The
poem The First Four Books of is often described in terms of the latter famously said to William
the Civil Wars. sun. Yet the myth was also used to Lambarde in 1601, “I am Richard II.
condemn a failure of government, Know ye not that?”
LEGACY which is how Richard uses it,
1601 Performed to rouse describing himself as, like Phaethon, Like Richard, Elizabeth was
support for Essex’s ill-fated “Wanting the manage of unruly perceived to be unduly influenced
rebellion against Elizabeth I. jades” (3.3.178). The gardener will by court favorites, most notably the
later confirm that it was Richard’s earls of Leicester and Essex. Like
1815 After two centuries inability to control his nobles that Richard, she had to contend with
of neglect, Edmund Kean brought about his downfall: “We at rebellion in Ireland, although she
revives the play in London, time of year / Do wound the bark, sent Essex to deal with it, rather
playing Richard as a the skin of our fruit trees, / Lest, than making the mistake of leaving
courageous figure. being over-proud in sap and blood, / the kingdom. She was also in the
With too much riches it confound difficult position of lacking an heir.
1937 English actor John itself. / Had he done so to great and One of the accusations against
Gielgud stages a production at growing men, / They might have Bushy, Bagot, and Green in
Queen’s Theatre, London, that lived to bear, and he to taste, / Their Shakespeare’s play is that they
emphasizes the play’s poetry. fruits of duty” (3.4.58–64). have prevented Richard from
ensuring the succession. This is
1971 English director Richard Power struggle attributed not only to dissension
Cottrell’s TV adaptation stars Richard’s difficulties reflect the
Ian McKellen as an effeminate, reality of 14th-century England,
doomed Richard. which saw a struggle between the
nobles and the monarchy. At the
1995 Irish actress Fiona Shaw start of the play, Richard cannot
is cast as an androgynous quell the argument between
Richard by director Deborah Bolingbroke and Mowbray because
Warner at the National their obedience to the king matters
Theatre, London. less to them than personal honor.
Indeed, the play’s extraordinary
2009 Australian actress Cate
Blanchett plays Richard at the
Sydney Theatre, Australia.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 97

between Richard and his Queen, ambitions among her powerful Gaunt’s speech
but to his being “corrupted” in a nobles, which would have been
homosexual sense, in a possible dissipated if the succession had This royal throne of kings,
echo of Marlowe’s Edward II where been clearly determined. ❯❯ this sceptred isle,
the king’s sexual preferences are
more explicitly divisive. Elizabeth Richard compares himself to This earth of majesty,
did not have this particular charge Phaethon, the youth of Greek myth who this seat of Mars,
to answer, but her failure to was struck from the skies. The fall is
produce an heir—a consequence of depicted here by Michelangelo, in an This other Eden,
her refusal to marry—encouraged engraving Shakespeare may have seen. demi-paradise,

This fortress built by
nature for herself

Against infection and
the hand of war,

This happy breed of men,
this little world,

This precious stone set
in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the
office of a wall,

Or as a moat defensive
to a house

Against the envy of less
happier lands;

This blessèd plot, this earth,
this realm, this England

(2.1.40–50)

John of Gaunt’s speech is one
of the most quoted in the
Shakespearean canon, and
was anthologized as early as
1600. Its imagery of England
as walled in by the sea,
protected by Nature, has been
central to constructions of the
nation, as has its imagery of
England breeding warriors
and kings. It provided titles
for at least two British World
War II films: David Lean’s This
Happy Breed (1944) and David
MacDonald’s This England
(1941). That said, the speech’s
jingoism has also undergone
some major reassessment, not
least because “this England”
subsumes within it the
separate nations of Wales
and Scotland. We should also
remember that Gaunt’s speech
is uttered by a man on his
death bed, who testifies to the
ways in which “this England”
has been ruined. It is an ideal
that already does not exist.

98 RICHARD II Harry Bolingbroke v Richard II

Harry Percy Duchess of York Married to
Father to
Earl of John of Gaunt Duke of York

Northumberland Son of Nephew to Father to
Lord Ross
Harry Rivals Richard II Duke of
Lord Fitzwalter Bolingbroke Aumerle
Married to
Lord Willoughby Cousin Cousin
Isabel
Believes he Duke of
does bidding of Norfolk

Sir Piers Exton Bolingbroke’s allies Earl of
Murders Richard’s allies Salisbury
Richard II
Bishop of
Carlisle

Shakespeare’s play was implicated image of himself as “glist‘ring The story reflects something
in the problems of his Queen when Phaethon” brings to mind the myth similarly self-aggrandizing in
it was performed on the eve of a of the young god’s fall, which has a Richard, whose fall inspires wonder
rebellion by the Earl of Essex, who tragic beauty to it, as Phaethon falls and whose self-perception is
had fallen out of favor following from the sky like a star to earth. echoed by other characters. Gaunt
failures in Ireland. Supporters of warns that “His rash, fierce blaze
Essex commissioned the Lord I live with bread, like you; of riot cannot last” (2.1.33), while
Chamberlain’s Men to perform the feel want, Salisbury laments: “Ah, Richard!
play at the Globe on February 7, With the eyes of heavy mind / I
1601. Presumably the deposition Taste grief, need friends. see thy glory, like a shooting star, /
scene of Act 4 Scene 1 was included. Subjected thus, Fall to the base earth from the
It had been thought too seditious to firmament” (2.4.18–20). Richard
be printed, and was absent from the How can you say to me seems to be in love with this image
published text until 1608. The next I am a king? of his own tragic fall and consciously
day, the Globe audience tried to stir tries to bring it about. Indeed, this
up rebellion. However, Essex was King Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s few history
denounced as a traitor and support plays with no battle scene,
dwindled. Shakespeare’s company Act 3, Scene 2 reflecting the ease with which
was investigated but not punished. Bolingbroke wins the crown. When
he offers to “tell sad stories of the
Self-fulfilling prophecy death of kings,” Richard implicitly
While Richard II is a history play, refers to the popular medieval
it is entitled The Tragedy of King definition of tragedy, the so-called
Richard the Second. Richard’s de casibus tragedy, derived from