This England

Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, divided into three categories: comedies, tragedies and historic plays. His historic plays promoted patriotism in the largely illiterate class while dealing with important observations on governance in the educated classes. These plays were ostensibly mini-lessons in history, whether it was Greek and Roman (Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar) or whether he put the Greek history into Roman garb (Titus Andronicus). He sometimes even set a thoroughly English comedy into a Greek setting, such as the setting and characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, most often he opened the panoply of English history to his audiences with plays like Henry IV (Parts I and II), Richard III and Henry V, to name a few.

Written in 1595, Richard II leads us to the Henry plays with cruel and manipulative King Richard II and a noble and patriotic John of Gaunt. Like Shakespeare's other historic plays, Richard II entertained all strata of society, reminding them of their history while entertaining them by tales of nobility, treachery and brilliant fighting scenes, for London's largely illiterate population. A few if these plays were written with extreme care, like Henry VIII, a play that told the story of the kingship of the present queen's father. However sometimes Shakespeare, despite his political astuteness, got himself into the thick of it without even meaning to. Such was the case with one particular performance of Richard II.

Robert Devereaux, the young and handsome Earl of Essex, one of Queen Elizabeth's favorites, became frustrated with the Queen's ministers blocking his political agenda, and organized a plot to take over the government and oust her ministers. On February 8, 1601 with the young Earl of Southampton, Henry Wriothesley, and a number of his confederates, he planned to storm the castle and take over the Queen's government. In order to "psyche" his followers up, and without telling the company, he hired Shakespeare and his players on February 7, the night before, to perform the play, Richard II, as it dealt with a similar crisis in English history. Shakespeare's acting company was given a handsome sum of money to perform this play, by unfortunately, when Devereaux's plot failed and he was captured and beheaded, Shakespeare was called before the Queen's Council to answer for his "part in the plot." Faced with charges of treason, charges that caused two of his cousins to be executed previously, Shakespeare barely escaped with his life and reputation by explaining that they were unaware of Devereaux's plot and were just doing their job, and payed well for it. Such is the dramatic effect of much of Shakespeare's writing on Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

It is into John of Gaunt’s mouth that Shakespeare puts some of the most moving words in the play and one of his most eloquent speeches about his love of his country. The speech, not unlike our song, “America, the Beautiful” is a tribute to the love of a land that is timeless. During the lowest point in Germany’s air attacks on Great Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill reminded his people using Shakespeare’s words, of this love of their country. For anyone who has the pleasure of visiting this country, as I have, they have seen for themselves the land that these words describe. It is truly a mystical place.


John of Gaunt: This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
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,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.