Act III, scenes - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Act III, scenes

i

-ii

Summary of Action

At Bristol Castle in southwestern England, a short distance south of Berkeley Castle, Henry Bolingbroke and his men have apprehended Bushy and Greene, who remain loyal to King Richard. Bolingbroke accuses them of having "misled a prince"(8)--that is, of having given Richard deliberately bad advice--and recites a list of charges against them: he says that they have stirred up trouble between the king and his queen and that their advice was the reason that Richard "misinterpret[

ed

]" Bolingbroke and subsequently banished him (18). He thus condemns them to be executed. Bushy and Greene are defiant but resigned; Northumberland leads them away to die. Having dispatched this piece of business, Bolingbroke sends greetings to Queen Isabel via the Duke of York, at whose house she is staying, and gathers up his men to fight some rebellious Welsh before heading to the main battle.Slide2

Meanwhile, King Richard has landed on the coast of Wales, at "

Barkloughly

" Castle (actually called

Harlech

), accompanied by the Duke of

Aumerle

, the Bishop of Carlisle, and some soldiers. Richard greets the earth and air of England in poetic terms.

Aumerle

points out that, while they delay, Bolingbroke grows stronger in power. (The King and his party seem to be aware that Bolingbroke has landed in England, but do not have up-to-date news on his progress.) Richard responds, in powerful language, that since he is the rightful king, no rebel stands a chance; God is on their side, and they will easily sweep Bolingbroke out of England.Slide3

Lord Salisbury enters, and, grieving, delivers terrible news to Richard: only the day before, the army of twelve thousand men of Wales, believing Richard to be dead, dispersed from where they had been waiting for him and fled to Bolingbroke. Richard is now without an army. Richard momentarily succumbs to despair, but then recovers his royal self-assurance. Lord

Scroope

then enters to give Richard the news that, as Bolingbroke made his way through England, all the common people acknowledged him as lord and joined his forces--men, women and children alike. Richard asks

Scroope

what has happened to his allies--Bagot, Bushy, Greene, and the Earl of Wiltshire.

Whe

Scroope

tells him that they have "made peace with Bolingbroke" (127), Richard curses and damns them in ferocious terms--but then

Scroope

explains that he means they have been executed.Slide4

Richard gives a long, eloquent, and despairing monologue, but the Bishop of Carlisle tells him to recover hope: giving in to fear and despair, he say, will do the enemy's work for him. Richard agrees, and declares that he will ride against Bolingbroke despite his losses. But

Scroope

has yet more bad news: the Duke of York has defected to Bolingbroke, too, and all the King's castles in the north and his allies in the south are in Bolingbroke's possession or on his side. Richard, hearing this and realizing that he has no hope left, announces his final intention to give in to despair and declares that he will go to Flint Castle, in

northeastern

Wales, to "pine away" (209).Slide5

Commentary

Act III, scene

i

, in which Bushy and Greene are executed, is brief but serves two important purposes. First, it shows us the escalation of events that is building towards the inevitable outcome of the war: King Richard's capitulation to Bolingbroke at Flint Castle in Act III, scene iii. Richard's supporters have defected from, him one by one--or have been executed. From here, there is no turning back.Slide6

Second, the way in which Bolingbroke justifies his execution of Richard's two friends points to an important issue surrounding Bolingbroke's invasion of England--the issue of hypocrisy, and the importance of that which is never stated aloud. Note that Bolingbroke arrests and executes Bushy and Greene 

in the name of the king.

 He continues to claim loyalty to the king and refers to him only in terms of respect. "You have misled," he says to the men, "... a royal king, / A happy gentlemen in blood and lineaments, / By you

unhappied

and disfigured clean" (8-10). He implies that Richard is a good kind who has been led astray, and that he (Bolingbroke) is actually attempting to 

protect

 the king by disposing of his corrupt and wicked advisors.Slide7

However, everyone involved--Bolingbroke, his followers, Bushy and Greene, and the play's readers--know that Bolingbroke's intentions are not nearly so pure: his real motivation for executing Bushy and Greene is to weaken Richard so that Bolingbroke himself can take the crown. As in the scenes of political challenge in Act I, scene

i

, and of duel and banishment in Act I, scene iii, the real political

maneuverings

here are never openly acknowledged. Instead, they are masked by a wall of words.Slide8

Act III, scene ii, which shows us Richard's return from Ireland and his discovery that he has lost England in his absence, is one of the most crucial scenes in the play. It marks a transformation for Richard: from here on in, the king who has spoken so carelessly and rudely, and who has ignored the words of so many of his advisors, will metamorphose into a brilliant and effective poet, often considered one of Shakespeare's most eloquent characters. From here until the end of the play Richard's poetry will become increasingly exalted, and his wordplay obviously superior to that of anyone around him. At the same time, however, he will become increasingly self-absorbed and abstracted from the realities around him.Slide9

Richard's speeches in this scene address one of the play's central themes: What is a king? Is he divinely anointed and invulnerable, or merely a human being like any other? At the beginning of the scene, Richard is secure in his divine power as King--the same power that John of Gaunt respected in Act I, scene ii, when he refused to rise against him. Richard tells

Aumerle

, "Not all the water in the rough rude sea / Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; / The breath of worldly men cannot depose / The deputy elected by the Lord" (54-57). This is a thoroughly medieval way of thinking about kingship--the king as a direct deputy of God, immortal and invulnerable. But, as Richard learns that he has already lost his kingdom, his rhetoric changes rapidly: "Our lands, our lives, and all, are Bolingbroke's... / [T]

hrow

away respect, / Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty; / For you have but mistook me all this while. / I live with bread like you, feel want, / Taste grief, need friends" (151-2; 172-76).Slide10

Act III, scene iii

Summary

Bolingbroke, along with the Duke of York, Lord Northumberland, and their attendants, rides toward Flint Castle (in

northeastern

Wales), to which King Richard has fled. York, although he has now joined forces with Bolingbroke, is deeply disturbed about the possibility of divine retribution for the impending overthrow of the king, and Bolingbroke acknowledges his concerns. Young Harry Percy brings the party the news that King Richard is holed up inside the castle with several allies--

Aumerle

, Lord Salisbury, Sir Stephen

Scroope

, and the Bishop of Carlisle. Bolingbroke sends Northumberland to Richard with a message: that he, Bolingbroke, has come as a loyal subject to his King, and is prepared to surrender his army if< the lands and title which Richard seized from John of Gaunt at his death are returned to Bolingbroke, who is

Gaunt's

rightful heir. Otherwise, Bolingbroke will wage war against the King.Slide11

However, before Northumberland can enter the castle, King Richard and his allies appear upon the high walls of the castle. Richard proudly, with all the authority of a king,

thunderingly

tells Northumberland to relay a message to Bolingbroke: if Bolingbroke dares try to usurp the throne, the heavens and the King will rain vengeance upon him. He also says that Bolingbroke will not possess the crown in peace until the fields of England have been stained with blood.Slide12

Bolingbroke quickly denies that he has come to seize the throne, claiming that he is there simply to demand that his rights as

Gaunt's

heir be restored to him. Richard agrees to Bolingbroke's demands, but he realizes--as he says, in highly dramatic and despairing language, to his attendants--that his reign as king has ended; Bolingbroke will certainly not let him retain the crown. Bolingbroke calls upon Richard to come down from the castle and parley with him, and Richard and his attendants obediently descend. Bolingbroke never says aloud that his intention is to take the crown, but Richard asks whether he must go with Bolingbroke and his army to London, and Bolingbroke says yes. Richard, saying that it is clear he has no choice, agrees.Slide13

Commentary

This scene marks a turning point for the balance of power in the play, but it is haunted throughout by an unstated fear: that the overthrow of a rightful king is blasphemous. All the characters inwardly debate the question of whether Bolingbroke has the right to take the crown from the politically incompetent Richard, or whether he is committing a grievous sin for which he must eventually be punished. York, who is still conflicted about whether he has done the right thing in joining Bolingbroke, sharply warns his nephew not to presume too far when he disdains the power of the still-reigning king: "Take not, good cousin, farther than you should, / Lest you mistake: the heavens are o'er our heads" (16-17). He is clearly suggesting that God is watching closely to see what Bolingbroke does next.Slide14

Both Richard and Bolingbroke invoke powerful metaphors of kingship in this, their first meeting since Bolingbroke's banishment. Bolingbroke muses, "Methinks King Richard and myself should meet / With no less terror than the elements / Of fire and water, when their

thund'ring

shock / At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven" (54-57). Richard does, indeed, seem positively elemental when he appears on the castle's ramparts to challenge Bolingbroke and his party. Bolingbroke, upon seeing him appear, invokes the ubiquitous metaphor of the king as the sun: "See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, / As doth the blushing discontented sun / From out the fiery portal of the East, / When he perceives the envious clouds are bent / To dim his glory and to stain the track / Of his bright passage to the occident" (62-67).Slide15

Bolingbroke's words recall Richard's own description of himself in Act III, scene ii: Richard claimed that when Bolingbroke "[s]hall see us rising in our throne the east, / His treasons will sit blushing in his face, / Not able to endure the sight of day" (II.ii.50-53). Richard's anticipated "rising" has come to pass, but it does not work out exactly as he had predicted. Far from being unable to endure the brilliant shining of the rightful king, Bolingbroke realizes that he is quite capable of putting out Richard's sun.Slide16

The events of this scene also point to the hypocrisy of politics, since much of the underlying political

maneuvering

is masked by half-truths. Bolingbroke, and his ally Northumberland, still claim that they have come to face Richard for no other reason than to restore to Bolingbroke his ancestral titles; yet everyone present is fully aware that Bolingbroke will not be satisfied until he sits on the throne of England. Richard, realizing this, invokes the traditional concept of the divine sanction conferred upon a king: "[W]ell we know no hand of blood and bone / Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, / Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp" (79-81).Slide17

Richard follows this up with another dark prophecy: if Bolingbroke insists upon treasonously opening "[t]he purple testament of bleeding war" (94), then he will never possess the crown until that war has wracked the land, staining "[h]

er

pastures' grass with faithful English blood" (100). Shakespeare's audience would have recognized this as a foreshadowing of the civil wars that lay ahead in the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V. Northumberland does not help matters when he speaks up on Bolingbroke's behalf and swears, by the royal blood and the dead bodies of Richard and Bolingbroke's ancestors, that his leader has only come to reclaim his inheritance and has no thought of becoming king. This claim, clearly an equivocation at best and an outright lie at worst, sets the stage for the horrors that follow when Bolingbroke breaks that vow.Slide18

Knowing his reign is at an end, Richard indulges again in the elaborate language of despair that first appeared at Act III, scene ii, and to which we saw Isabel succumbing in Act III, scene

i

. "O that I were as great / As I have been, or lesser than my name! / O that I could forget what I have been!" laments the king. The famous image he invokes of himself and

Aumerle

digging their own graves with their tears (160-169) marks a new level of fanciful thought. Although Richard's despair has been transformed into extraordinary poetry, he no longer seems capable of taking much action in the real world. As Northumberland says, he speaks "fondly like a frantic man" (that is, a madman).Slide19

Act III, scene iv

Summary

While Richard, Bolingbroke, and their respective allies have been having their fateful encounters in the west of England and in Wales, Queen Isabel has been staying at the house of the Duke of York (at Langley, not far from London). Although she has not yet heard the news of Richard's capture by Bolingbroke, sadness and foreboding weigh very heavily upon he. As she walks in the Duke's garden with her waiting-women, they try to cheer her up by suggesting of games, singing, dancing, and storytelling. The Queen rejects all these ideas, saying that making any attempt to forget her grief would only add to it.Slide20

An aged gardener and his assistant enter the garden to tend to some of the plants. At the Queen's suggestion, she and her ladies conceal themselves in the shadow of a grove to overhear what the men will discuss. She has noticed that the common folk have been discussing affairs of state, as if expecting an imminent change in the government.Slide21

The older gardener tells his assistant to bind an apricot tree against a wall, and the two then begin to talk about the state of the country, using the garden as a metaphor. Why, the assistant asks, should the two of them bother to maintain order within their garden, when the country surrounding it has been allowed to sprout weeds and be infested by insects (a reference to Richard's mismanagement and his unpopular advisors)? The elder gardener tells him to keep quiet, since the person who caused the country's disorder has "met with the fall of leaf" (49)--that is, King Richard has been overthrown. He informs the assistant that letters came last night to a friend of the Duke of York's, bearing the news that the King's allies-- Bushy, Greene, and the Earl of Wiltshire--are dead, and that King Richard himself has been

caputed

by Bolingbroke. It seems almost certain that the king will soon be removed from power.Slide22

Queen Isabel, no longer able to contain herself, bursts from her hiding place to ask the

gardner

if what he says is true. The gardener apologetically confirms that it is: King Richard is in Bolingbroke's custody, and, in comparing the resources of the two sides, it has become apparent, while Richard has nothing left, Bolingbroke holds the loyalty of all the English noblemen. He adds that if Isabel will go to London, she will discover that what he says is true.Slide23

Isabel, lamenting her misfortune and the sorrow that lies in her future, summons her ladies to come with her to London to meet the captured Richard. She casts upon the gardener a half-hearted, grief-stricken curse as she departs: "[F]or telling me these news of woe, / Pray God the plants thou

graft'st

may never grow" (100-101). But the good-natured gardener takes pity upon the queen instead of getting angry; he decides to plant a bed of rue, the herb of sorrow, in the place where he saw her tears fall.Slide24

Commentary

This apparently small and insignificant scene carries great metaphorical importance and has interested critics for a long time. Critic Marjorie Garber refers to scenes like this as "window scenes" that give us a glimpse, as through a half-opened window in the street, into the minds and thoughts of everyday people. Commoners usually get short shrift in plays about kings and noblemen; here, we see into the minds of the skilled

laborers

who maintain the grounds of the Duke of York's palace--a far cry from the aristocracy of the vast majority of the play's characters. While other, contemporary plays in the "high style" certainly had scenes involving commoners, they were usually presented as comic relief, not as the sober and perceptive people Shakespeare gives us. This mixing of the "low" classes with the high is developed in much fuller and more interesting ways in the "Henry" plays which follow (

Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2

 and 

Henry V

).Slide25

The metaphor of England as a garden, and of Richard as a bad gardener, has come up before--most notably in Act II, scene

i

, in John of

Gaunt's

speech. Indeed, some of the same figures and images are used: for instance, the king's advisors Bushy and Greene are called "caterpillars" here (47), the same word Bolingbroke uses to refer to them in Act III, scene iii.Slide26

Moreover, we see once again the metaphors which associate the king with the land: the description of Richard defeat as "the fall of leaf" (49) reminds us not only of John of

Gaunt's

rich garden analogies in Act II, scene

i

, but also of the metaphor the Duchess of Gloucester used to refer to the death of her husband Thomas of Gloucester: "One flourishing branch of [Edward III's] most royal root... / Is

hack'd

down, and his summer leaves all faded / By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe" (I.ii.18-21). The verbal echo seems to be loaded with ominous foreboding: if Gloucester died violently and mysteriously, what does it mean that Richard's leaves now are falling too? Already the king's assassination in Act V, scene v--the groundwork for which has been laid nearly from the play's beginning--is starting to look inevitable.Slide27