![]() ![]() As he consistently miscalculates in his attempts to destroy Bolingbroke, and watches his own power wane, he becomes a far more appealing, Hamlet-like figure, more interested in "talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs", and "sad stories of the death of kings". Richard II begins with a portrait of Richard as a pompous, arrogant and self-regarding sovereign, with little sense of his people or his political responsibilities. ![]() But the play has been celebrated above and beyond its stature as historical drama. ![]() Forerunner to the two parts of Henry IV, the play deals with the abdication of King Richard II in 1399, the subsequent succession of Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV, and Richard's death in the spring of 1400. One of Shakespeare's finest history plays, Richard II deals with one of the most sensitive and politically explosive issues of its day-the rights and wrongs of deposing a legitimately appointed king. ![]()
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