This scept’red isle, this precious stone
in
Richard II
When did England become
England? In 1016 the Kingdom of England became part of the union with Denmark
and Norway under Cnut the Great. So, by name England but still not alone. 1066
is of course the date we all remember, when England became French, sort of.
With Henry II (reigned 1154-1189) the kings became more English in nature.
Ireland was invaded in 1169 (that went well, didn’t it?). Edward I added Wales
to the kingdom (lucky Wales, eh?) and Edward III made England a military power
and developed its parliament. Thank you, Wikipedia. You’re a gem.
So
we come to Richard II, grandson of Edward III but not even born in England. He
was born in France, as was his second wife Isabella. So already there we have a
connection between England and the world. That is part of the paradox. Is
England of the world or not?
In John of Gaunt’s oft cited monolog on how Richard is threatening the
kingdom he lauds
‘this scept’red isle…this England…
…This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea…
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm this England…
Renowned…far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry…
…this dear, dear land
Dear for her reputation through the world… (Act II Scene 1)
Again the paradox. An
isolated blessed island, created and protected by nature, but known in the
world (the world known by Europeans).
Consider then
Mowbry’s grief at being banished:
A heavy sentence…
…to be cast forth in the common air…
My native English, now I must forgo…
What is thy sentence then but speechless death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
…Then thus I turn me from my country’s light
To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. (Act I Scene 3)
Though he will be
allowed to return Bolingbroke too is upset at being exiled and will remember:
…what a deal of world I wander from the jewels that I love…
…England’s ground, farewell;
Sweet soil, adieu,
My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
Where’er I wander, boast of this I can,
Though banish’d, yet a trueborn English man. (Act I Scene 3)
Of course King
Richard himself refers often to England through the repeated word ‘earth’,
implying English earth. Of Bolingbroke he says in accusing him of causing a war
for the throne:
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons
Shall ill become the flower of England’s face…
…and bedew
Her pasture’s grass with faithful English blood (Act III Scene 3)
The gardener refers
to England as ‘our sea-walled garden’) Act III Scene 4). The Bishop Carlisle
compares the Christian England to ‘…black pagans, Turks and Saracens’ and goes
on to predict that under Henry IV ‘the blood of English shall manure the
ground…/Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels.’ (Act IV Scene 1)
Henry ends the play
by condemning the murder of Richard as a ‘slander…upon my head and all this
famous land…’ and vows to ‘make a voyage to the Holy Land.’ (Act V Scene 4)
Throughout the play
the characters are acutely aware of their Englishness, their isolation their
protection as an island from the Other. But they’re also are aware of those
Others and their uneasy position at the edge of the world, their anxiety over becoming
a part of that world.
Shakespeare’s play is
not regarded by historians as the gospel truth, nor was that his intention. He
lived in an England with a violent identity crisis, flexing its history muscles
in an expanding world. Creating its history is always important to any budding
nation. England was blooming, its history was becoming important. Shakespeare
knew this, and wrote plays about it, capturing, as always, the complexities,
the paradoxes and the humanity. He was, after all, the creator of humanism.
13 June 2024
