A Poetics Of The Elizabethan Theatre Is — страница 2

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apparent. Shakespeare’s history plays can be seen to mirror this state of affairs somewhat, although whether this would have been apparent to a large part of an audience of the day will be looked at later. In Richard II we see an ineffective King presiding over mounting turmoil. The very first scene affords us a view of two noblemen accusing each other of high treason over the murder of a third. Instantly a picture of disorder, underhand dealings and edginess is conveyed to us. Soon we are to learn that the King himself is believed to have been involved in the aforesaid murder further adding to the treachery already apparent. The ordered ” Garden of England ” is not as it should be. When Bolingbroke is banished and Gaunt subsequently takes to his deathbed we begin to

understand how deep the dissatisfaction with Richard’s rule is. Gaunt proclaims to Richard “Thy deathbed is no lesser than thy land Wherein thou liest in reputation sick” We also learn of Richard’s financial troubles, firstly on the news of Gaunt’s imminent death as Richard plans to appropriate his lands in order to pay for the planned Irish war, and also in Gaunt’s famous line “Landlord art thou now of England, not king:” Richard’s rule is beginning to look more and more troubled and as a king he is apparently very unpopular. It would not be true to say that Elizabeth was an unpopular monarch but in an increasingly secular society questions were beginning to be asked about the divine right to autocratic rule which we can see parallelled in the conflict over the

question of Richard’s continuing claim to the throne. Although the older nobles such as York and Gaunt, before his death, are well aware of Richard’s human inadequacy as a king, they represent the old order in maintaining that ” God’s anointed deputy ” cannot be questioned. In Elizabethan society of the day the old aristocracy were also maintaining that power could only be God-given and not acquired by other means. They wanted change kept to a minimum and also generally objected to religious reform which the new gentry favoured and advanced. The old nobility in both the play and the contemporary Elizabethan social order epitomised the old order which was being ever more frequently challenged by more secularly minded groups, including both the new aristocracy and the

masses. Richard never sees his power as being in any doubt at all despite the troubles in his court. Whether this is because he is unaware of the seriousness of the troubles he faces despite Gaunt’s warnings, “England, bound in with the triumphant sea, Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame, With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:” or because he sees his rule, foolishly, as unquestionable can be debated but both would appear to be true if we look at the text. Richard leaves Gaunt’s deathbed exclaiming “Art thou a lunatic lean-witted fool…..” and even when all appears lost in Wales after his troops have deserted him he refuses to accept imminent defeat, demanding “Is not the King’s name twenty thousand

names?” He appears to believe some other force will save him, namely divine providence, despite his lack of an army and his deep unpopularity with his subjects. His impending doom is largely as a result of his unwillingness to heed advice and his foolish actions of banishing Bolingbroke and disenfranchising him of his estate, although this is obviously the straw that breaks the camel’s back. What contributed to it was his refusal to adequately consider the sentiments of the nobility, especially in regard to the attentions and priviledges accorded to his “army of flatterers” including Bushy, Bagot and Green between whom and the new aristocracy obvious parallels can be drawn, and the sentiments of his common subjects also “whom he hath taxed half to death” to fund his

profligacy. Elizabeth’s reign, although attempting to mediate between classes, served in the long term the dominant class; the new or “enterprising” gentry, and her costly foreign wars, especially with the Spanish, along with the constant expenditure involved in subduing the Scots and the Irish forced her to sell crown lands and frequently left her with no alternative but to plead with the Commons for extra grants who then had to impose new taxes to pay for them. Although Elizabeth managed to obtain this money and to pay her troops it severely weakened her position and eventually led to civil war which, although it was not imminent when he was writing, Shakespeare may have conceivably foreseen the possibility of. Despite the growth of England’s population, trade, overseas