“Let’s talk of graves, and worms, and epitaphs”
I’ve changed the order in which I’m reading the next set of plays. I was following the Shakespeare 2020 Project, which is a good schedule, but I am not only reading Shakespeare, but watching and listening to the plays. The Shakespeare 2020 Project had me reading the Henry VI plays, but I’ve decided to instead stick to the order in The Hollow Crown (available on Amazon Prime), so this week instead of reading Henry VI, I read, watched, and listened to Richard II.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we’ve all been forced to listen to stories about unremarkable people–the royal family–who we are supposed to consider remarkable, and based on the various books and news report, these are nothing but small people with no power, but lots of wealth who get far too much attention and who suffer much tragedy. Who wants to be a millionaire? I don’t.
One of the main themes of Shakespeare’s history plays is the idea of “the two bodies of the king.” That is, that the king has a physical body, but he also has a body that lives on and that is part of a greater truth, a destiny, as permanent in the universe as the planets. The king is also entwined with England. From Richard II:
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred 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.
In The Hollow Crown, Patrick Stewart speaks these lines of John of Gaunt. Then this happens:
The play ends with Bolingbroke, John of Gaunt’s son, taking over the throne. He is a cousin of Richard and some scholars believe is kind of like Machiavelli’s The Prince. I love that line of John of Gaunt’s: Landlord of England art thou now, not king.
I recommend everyone watch The Hollow Crown, it’s beautiful, realistic, and compelling.
By the way, these plays cover the Plantagenets and then the Tudors. The current family is the Windsors (with some other fancy names, thrown in like Mountbatten and Saxon).
yogadonna 
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