STUDY QUESTIONS

By ANNE THROOP CRAIG

GENERAL

1. What is the character of a purely historical drama as exemplified in Richard II?

2. What did Shakespeare probably draw on for his material?

3. Were there other plays on the subject of Richard II?

4. What characteristics has this play in common with Marlowe's Edward II?

5. What is the historic period of the play?

6. What curious incident in Shakespeare's own time happened over the production of a play which is supposed to have been his Richard II?

7. Why does the quarrel of Bolingbroke and Norfolk constitute a strong dramatic beginning for this play? What was probably the true secret of the rupture between these two noblemen?

8. What can be said of Bolingbroke's behavior throughout? Contrast his character with Richard's.

9. What constitutes the radical weakness of Richard as a king? As a man? How do his personal weaknesses affect his relation to the people?

10. What questions of political philosophy does this play suggest? What is the nature of the Poet's dramatic utilization of them?

ACT I

11. With what incident does the play open?

12. What is Bolingbroke's accusation of Norfolk?

13. What is the underlying reason of Richard's attempt to reconcile the two?

14. What especially alarms Richard in Bolingbroke's reference to his uncle Gloucester's death?

15. Who was the Queen to whom Mowbray refers in line 131, scene i?

16. What are the results of the meeting at the lists in Coventry?

17. Compare the official power of getting people out of the way in those days, by exile and murder, with what is countenanced in civilized government to-day?

18. How is Richard's character shown by his manner of dealing with the quarrel between Bolingbroke and Norfolk?

19. How did the people express themselves upon Bolingbroke's departure for his exile?

20. What does Richard do to replenish the English revenues? What feeling does this cause among the people?

21. How does Richard receive the news of Gaunt's illness? What does he plan to do upon the occasion of Gaunt's possible death?

ACT II

22. Describe Richard's behavior to the dying Gaunt. 23. With what folly does York charge Richard in his talk with Gaunt?

24. To what action does York refer in scene i, line 168, when he says "nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke about his marriage"?

25. What does York say to Richard about the latter's intention to seize Hereford's lands?

26. What lords denounce Richard's confiscation of Hereford's property? What do they conspire to do?

27. To what influences does Northumberland attribute the King's wrongdoing?

28. Who has a foreboding of evil in scene ii?

29. On what campaign does the King go at this juncture?

30. What news comes to the Queen concerning Bolingbroke?

31. What does Coleridge say of the Poet's delineation of York?

32. How does York receive Bolingbroke?

33. What does Bolingbroke swear is the reason for his return?

34. Whom does Bolingbroke mention as some of the parasites about the king?

35. What purpose does the scene between Salisbury and the Captain serve?

ACT III

36. What influence did the parasitic courtiers have over Richard, judging from Bolingbroke's opening lines in this act?

37. What two historical events did Shakespeare combine when he causes Bolingbroke to say, "Come, lords, away, to fight with Glendower and his complices"?

38. Where does scene ii find King Richard?

39. What is the tenor of Richard's discourse in face of the ill tidings brought him?

40. Describe what takes place at Flint Castle.

41. Does the procedure of Bolingbroke have any justification?

42. What is the character of Richard's discourse to Northumberland in scene iii?

43. What is the dramatic purpose, and what the dramatic effect, of the scene in the Duke of York's garden (scene iv)? Cite some of its beauties.

ACT IV

44. What two incidents are combined in one, in scene i? 45. What was the issue of the quarrel in Parliament be

tween Aumerle and Surrey on the one side, and Fitzwater and other Lords on the other?

46. What news does York bring Bolingbroke in scene i? 47. What attitude does Carlisle take following this message to Bolingbroke? Of what is the close of his discourse prophetic?

48. What charge is brought against Carlisle for this speech?

49. What reflection does Bolingbroke make upon the Lords who are under arrest to await the trial of their dispute?

50. What is the dramatic character of Richard's expression of feeling when he is brought before the Parliament?

51. What is to be said of Northumberland's pressure of the King to read the accusations against him?

52. How does Bolingbroke's remonstrance with North umberland on this occasion speak for his personal feeling!. 53. What is the dramatic effect of the looking-glass incident?

54. What is said of Richard's extravagance in his mode of living?

55. What is the import of the final lines between the Abbot, the Bishop, and Aumerle?

ACT V

56. What was the fact of Richard's parting from Isabelle? What is the dramatic purpose of presenting it as in the play?

57. Where does Bolingbroke have Richard conveyed instead of to the tower?

58. What is the description of Richard's entry into London? What is the dramatic effect of it?

59. What does York discover that Aumerle purposes? What is his action upon it? The Duchess's? What is the Chronicle account of this incident? What is the outcome of it? What is its dramatic value?

60. Of what political moment might Henry's action towards Aumerle prove to himself?

61. What is the substance of Richard's reflections in scene v?

62. Describe the dramatic effect of Richard's scene with the Groom. What is its purpose?

63. What are the historical accounts of Richard's death? What is the dramatic effect of it in the scene in the play?

64. How did Daniel in his poem moralize the matter of the King's murder? Comment on Henry's part in it, together with his behavior incident upon its accomplishment by Exton?