Richard II

Arkangel Shakespeare

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: Rupert Graves, Julian Glover, John Wood

Shakespeare's finest verse play is also his first portrait of the psychology of power.

The sensitive and poetic Richard II is undoubtedly the rightful king of England, but he is unscrupulous and weak. When his cousin Henry Bolingbroke returns from banishment and mounts a challenge to his authority, Richard's right to the throne proves of little help to him. Richard is forced to abdicate, but as his power is stripped away, he gains dignity and self-awareness, and he meets his death heroically. Meanwhile Bolingbroke's seizure of the crown has caused resentment among the nobles of England.

Rupert Graves is Richard II, and Julian Glover is Bolingbroke. John Wood plays John of Gaunt.

Public Domain (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

it was a little choppy at the beginning.

it was a little choppy at the beginning but it was a great audio book! Really helped me grasp the text for school! totally would listen again!

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
-- William Shakespeare, Richard II

'Richard II' is a gem. It will never be my favorite, but it is fascinating and finely finished. In many ways it is William Shakespeare meets Machiavelli. Shakespeare wrote eight historical "War of the Roses" plays. They weren't written in order. It is pretty easy, if you are a Star Wars fan, to think of the plays like this. Richard II is = the Phantom Menace. Henry VI, Part 1; Henry VI, Part 2; Henry VI, Part 3; and Richard III (together known as the Minor Tetralogy) were all written and performed first (Like A New Hope, Empires Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi). Then Shakespeare jumps back and gives us the Henriad, aka the Major Tetralogy (Richard II; Henry IV, Part 1; Henry IV, Part 2; Henry V).

It is also a fascinating look at the body of the king. The king having both a physical body and the kingdom. Shakespeare does a brilliant job in some later speeches made by Richard II of illuminating the King's two bodies (Natural Body and Body Politic). This isn't new. This isn't me. I ran across this theme in several places (Wikipedia, "The King's Two Buckets") after I read the play, and now I want to go check out Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. This plays a large part in this play. The king is LITERALLY the embodiment of England (its people and the land).

This dualism can be taken even further as a metaphor for Christ and His double nature/role as divine mediator. I'm not saying Shakespeare means for us to interpret Richard II as a type of Christ. But, I think we could look at England's King as existing in a similar (man/divine) space. Anyway, there were several direct references to Judas', betrayal, etc.. Enough to warrant me spending a couple sentences on that topic.

There are also several minor themes that bob around in this play as well: honor, rituals of state, loyalty (to family, King, country). There were also several nice lines, specifically:

- “You may my glories and my state depose,
But not my griefs; still am I king of those.”
- “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay;
the worst is death and death will have his day.”
- “Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills”
- “Each substance of a grief has twenty shadows."
- “My brain I'll prove the female to my soul;
my soul the father: and these two beget
a generation of still-breeding thoughts,
and these same thoughts people this little world.”

Great Reading - Bland Characterizations of Main Characters

This reading is excellent to listen to. As a dramatization however it leaves a little to be desired. The main dramatis personae deserve some distinct characterizations by the actors but do not receive such worthy treatment. Compare, for example, this reading here to the dramatization of Richard II in The Hollow Crown; distinct and distinctly different characters (even just when considering their voices and manners of speech). In this audio recording all sound like old men and even older men and are just read to sound Shakespearean British (of course). A missed opportunity. Tragic characters like Richard II and his antagonists deserve better. Still … of the many Audible Shakespeares, these are consistently of great quality and value. Recommended.

Excellent performance

And powerful play. Appreciated the execution of thrle scene in which Richard II looks in the mirror, ruminates on his cisafe, and breaks the mirror.

Wonderful Material Wonderfully Performed

Beautiful play brought to life so well. Excellent in every way. Give it a listen.

Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me

Oh my dear Richard, hapless monarch with a poet's soul, where have you been all my life? Your eloquent heartbreak has made me fall in love with Shakespeare all over again.

Richard II is a truly wonderful & thought-provoking play, performed ably & in its entirety by a full cast in this Arkangel Shakespeare version. As I followed along with the written play, this production swept me into Richard's medieval world, complete with sound effects and mood music. (The scene in which Richard shouts from the battlements of Flint Castle his defiance of his cousin Bolingbroke was particularly effective, embellished by a mournful wind and birds' cries.)

Richard, the pompous, spendthrift King of England, has alienated nobles and commoners alike with his heavy taxes and careless management of the realm. He listens to flattering sycophants rather than wiser statesmen like his uncle John of Gaunt, whose son, Henry Bolingbroke, he banishes from England. When Gaunt dies, Richard seizes his lands and riches to fund an Irish war, which brings Bolingbroke back from exile to challenge his authority. While Richard constantly asserts his divine right to rule, his cousin acts - and mere humans bring down one of God's anointed who has lost their love and respect.

But Richard is no cardboard villain - he's a weak, self-absorbed man who perhaps had it in him to be great, but only discovers the best in himself through abject defeat. As he loses crown, kingdom and all, he gains nobility and dignity in suffering, expressed in some of Shakespeare's most soaring poetry. The reader weeps with Richard; a bad king he may have been, but only a heart of stone would not pity a man in such pain.

As his power is stripped away, Richard wields the only weapon left to him: the medieval belief in the divine appointment and right of kings. His adversaries never escape doubts about the rightness of their actions. Should men depose those whom God himself has raised to the throne?

With its complex dual protagonists, intricate political plot, and beautifully soaring language, Richard II was a pleasant surprise to me and will perhaps become one of my favorite of Shakespeare's works.

Absolutely Brilliant Performance

I listened to the Arkangel full cast recording of the play along with reading in E Book format from the Delphi Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Be still my heart, the performance was enthralling and emotionally charged. Some of the best Shakespearean lines written by him have to appear in this play. In this work we find King Richard deposed and his crown taken from him by Henry Bolingbroke, not that many of the characters seemed to mind but it was heart-wrenching none the less. Even in the dungeon with the water dripping you could feel the emotional hopelessness he felt. If the live play were as excellent as this was, I for one would give them a standing ovation. Wonderful and entertaining.

Excellent but with some problems

Shakespeare’s histories of the Plantagenets kings are some of my favorites in the canon and this recording did not disappoint. The performances by the actors are all first rate. Truly excellent and I can’t wait to get to the next one...

However, there some things that I found problematic. These all had to do with the production. There is a lot of use of vocal effects (reverb and echo) to set the space (outside, in the castle, etc). I found this unnecessary and distracting. The same holds true for the ambient sound effects. They’re are fine to help establish the scene but become a distraction from the language.

There is music in the scene breaks but is incredibly banal and generic. The cues do nothing to enhance the story.

My last complaint is that the entire play had only three chapters so if I want to go back to a previous scene, I have to hunt and peck for it. A separate chapter break for each act and scene would have been appreciated.

The other thing I would have liked was a ‘stage manager’ voice, especially at the the start of each section going the act and scene number, location, and who’s on stage at the start. It can be a challenge to know where we are and who’s speaking.

These issues knocked a star off for me but I will still definitely listen to more in this series.

Great for newcomers to Shakespeare

Fourth purchase from Arkangel series! Superb acting. Great intro to a lesser-known play. Doesn't disappoint.