So, after watching Richard II, I was pretty impressed with how the emotion was captured, but there were a few things I didn't favor so much. A few thoughts:
Music
I was displeased by the lack of soundtrack in the production (BBC, 1978). It doesn’t occur at all, and the only other sounds that exist are the occasional diegetic trumpet blasts when the stage directions call for them. In this way it can be seen that fidelity to the text was one of the highest priorities in producing this version. A soundtrack could have certainly enhanced the emotional apexes that are high in this production. I wonder if it was a conscientious decision to leave music out, or if it was simply not an established thing to do at the time that this production was released.
Cutting
Further evidence that the production is ever-true to the text is that there are only two brief sections where text has been cut, and only for a half a page or so. The plot does not suffer at all because of the lack of those pages, and must have only been removed of time purposes.
Casting
Since the emotional experience of the play is so high, like I mentioned I think that music should have played a more integral part. In any case, the actors that were casted performed very energetically their respective roles. It was easy to capture the depth of the experience when Richard raves emphatically when he feels betrayed:
“O villains, vipers, damn’d without redemption!
Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!
Snakes, in my heart-blood warm’d, that sting my heart!
Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!
Would they make peace? terrible hell make war
Upon their spotted souls for this offence”
Act III, scene ii
To be King
The actor chosen for this role, Sir Derek Jacobi, impressed me most with his acting. In especially the scene when he returns from the Irish war (which I quoted above), he goes from triumphant to concerned to consoled to explosively angry, then depressed and absolutely inconsolable. With further developments and the loss of his crown officially and the forced estrangement from his wife (the “double divorce”), he sometimes goes nuts in emotional rage and sometimes gives up all hope. The dynamism in his reaction has been teaching me a lot about the nature of men, and like any good literature, teaches about what it means to be a human. I was unsure before about why Shakespeare wrote so many histories, but I am convinced that this is why. I guess I was naïve about a “history”, letting my bias say that it would be documentary. I should have known better.But anyway, back to Richard II: I have learned through him that the higher you esteem yourself and love your pride, the harder you will fall. This is the main message that I am got out of Richard II’s emotional outbursts as his life crumbled out from under him. Other Kings, perhaps, had they not loved their station so much and the power associated with it could relinquish their authority much more easily. Richard says:
“Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;
Let’s purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;
Deep malice makes too deep incision;
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed”.
Act 1 scene i
The above quote exemplifies the type of all-powerful-ruler Richard II sees himself as. In an important dispute, in which one member (Bolingbroke) wants an attorney, Richard refuses to give it to him. He commands instead what is to be done. Even though the argumenters eventually convince him to let them fight it out, he cancels that proceeding right before it is about to begin, referring back to this original plan or not “letting blood”. This decision eventually leads to Richard’s downfall and tantrum when he gives up his crown.
Another king, King Benjamin, in the Book of Mosiah from the Book of Mormon, is like Richard’s antithesis. Although both believe that they have divine approval for their kingship, but their attitude is totally different. King Benjamin says:
“I have not commanded you to come up hither that ye should fear me, or that ye should think that I am of myself am more than a mortal man. But I am like as yourselves, subject to all manner of infirmities in body and mind; yet I have been chosen by this people, and consecrated by my father, and was suffered by the hand of the Lord that I should be a ruler and a king over this people” (from LDS.org).
He only wanted to serve the people, and to his son gave up the crown easily. Richard was quite the opposite, such was his zeal and jealousy.
So, back to my original thought, then: The more you love your pride, the harder it is to fall. King Benjamin, we read later, has always served his people and been selfless. From the entire text of the play, we encounter many evidences that hint at the fact that Richard II really enjoyed the power he had, in contrast.
Questions answered
This was the answer to my first question, “Why so many histories?” They are simply conducive to emotionally powerful things we can learn from, pride being one of them.
My second question was even more enjoyable for me to investigate, and that was about the translations of Spanish of Richard II. As I mentioned before, Lamarca has published an amazing article about his view of Richard II, and the role of poetry in history. I have begun reading a fantastic book called “Shakespeare en España”, compiled by Angel-Luis Pujante and Laura Campillo, which tells all about Shakespeare’s reception in the Hispanic world. It is a collection of essays on various topics, most of them literary criticism about Shakespeare (as was Lamarca’s article commented on earlier), proving to me at least that Shakespeare’s influence has been great in the last century in Spain. I have been attempting to contact the editors with a few research questions that I have in hopes that they might be able to help direct my research. Awaiting the reply!!!
Comparative Translations
Outside of academic commentary, though, I have been trying to do some of my own comparative translation. Time to get some lunch, but tune in to the next blog here.
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