by Jesse Herman, Blogging Circle 1
After reading the first act, I was particularly intrigued by one particular detail, and that is that every single line written is in verse, as opposed to pros. Going off of this, I skimmed through the rest of the play to see that there is not a single line not written in verse. I thought this was strange, and after further investigation discovered that this is one of four shows by Shakespeare that there is not both pros and verse included in it.
What reason could there be for this? My first instinct was that maybe every character is high status enough that they wouldn’t speak in pros, but I discovered that to be false after skimming through the play once again.
I delved deeper into his use of verse in the play, and found that Shakespeare implements numerous amounts of rhymed couplets in the dialogue, which may have had to do with how close in proximity Richard II was written to a lot of his famous sonnets. I also imagined that the characters use of rhyming may be the author’s way of hinting at how untrustworthy everyone seems to be in this play. In other words, the characters are hiding behind their fancy words.
Here are three examples of sections of the text from Act I Scene I in which Richard, Mowbary and Bolingbroke use rhyming couplets;
O, God defend my soul from such deep sin!
Shall I seem crest-fall’n in my father’s sight?
Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height
Before this out-dared dastard? Ere my tongue
Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong,
Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear
The slavish motive of recanting fear,
And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,
Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray’s face.
–Act 1.1.188-195
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate:
Since we can not atone you, we shall see
Justice design the victor’s chivalry.
Lord marshal, command our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home alarms.
—Act 1.1.200-205
Mine honour is my life; both grow in one:
Take honour from me, and my life is done:
Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try;
In that I live and for that will I die.
—Act 1.1.182-185
Now maybe their use of couplets is just Shakespeare being playful, but I feel that because of how much deceit and deception there is in this play, that the heightened language hides well the character’s true thoughts and intentions.
I really like your comment about characters “hiding behind their fancy words,” and I think it definitely applies to not only the use of verse but the use of puns and generally potentially confusing language. There’s one point in particular where I think I see this happening. When Gaunt is on his deathbed talking to Richard, he seems to be making predictions about the king’s fall and mocking him, and Richard, at first, seems really oblivious to it. He asks: “Can sick men play so nicely with their names?” (2.1.84) and “Should dying men flatter those that live?” (2.1.88). He seems to be confused about Gaunt’s use of language, and does not seem to realize that Gaunt does not genuinely mean to flatter him, but is predicting his downfall. I know you didn’t actually cite this as an example, but I think it illustrates what you’re saying about heightened language causing confusion and hiding what the characters truly think.
Jesse,
This is very interesting and I had not noticed it during my initial reading of the play. Everyone from the gardener to the Queen speak in the same exquisite form of verse, as though there are no class differences. Shakespeare, in other plays, differentiates between prose and verse in order to allow the audience to identify with more of the characters. It is difficult, after all, for the majority of the people watching the play to identify with the queen. Furthermore, Richard only had the title of King, so the play which is a tragedy, but history as well, may not be intended for the people to relate because Richard ends up without a title and still the hope for Shakespeare is that people recognize him as unidentifiable with, so they fail to empathize with the former king. Shakespeare does everything for a reason.
Jesse, I really liked your analysis of Shakespeare’s use of prose, verse, and rhyme. I do agree that many of the characters in the play may be speaking in such a way to conceal their true personalities and motives. However, the fact that Shakespeare may be using this sort of language to seem playful is also a possibility. After considering this, I thought that Shakespeare may use rhyme to make characters seem a bit less mature. Characters may speak in verse more if Shakespeare wanted to portray them as capable of making wise and mature decisions. However, I don’t think that was the case with many of the characters in this show.
Jesse,
I enjoyed your post! The change of style is very interesting and I didn’t think too much about it when I read the play. I like the point about the characters hiding behind their fancy words; the couplets make them sound intelligent even though Bolingbroke and Mowbary are just accusing each other of the same things. Of course, they can speak in couplets because they are in a play, but a person candidly speaking in reality wouldn’t be able to come up with numerous, relevant couplets like those. The couplets make the characters seem calculated, as if they are aware of the effects of their accusations.
I think this is a really insightful look into the language of the play, which is a really big part of Shakespeare’s reasons for being such a historical playwright and literary study subject. I find especially with today’s events going on, such as the 2016 presidential election, that language can be strewed in so many ways to be deceitful in order to get what you want. With that idea in mind, all of the characters of the play have clear desires and wants that they think they are being clever in fulfilling, but they seem to be just trying to win with words that begin to reach farther and farther from the point rather than affirmative action. Maybe Richard isn’t the only hesitant and wishy washy character in this play, he’s just the only who’s not very good at hiding it.
Your analysis is very interesting and brings up something I overlooked. I definitely agree with your point that the structure of a play provides a glimpse into the meaning and reinforces themes/characterization. Again, however, the structure could be due to the fact that Shakespeare was writing a lot of sonnets at this time.