A precursor to his Henriad trilogy, Shakespeare’s Richard II charts Richard’s fall from grace and the rise of the future Henry IV, the first king from the House of Lancaster. Unable to properly manage money and an inept politician in the eyes of his courtiers, Richard’s hold on the throne is tenuous. He exiles his cousin Henry—greatly favored by Richard’s subjects—who will eventually return to England to seize the crown. Shakespeare’s history play interrogates what it means to be king, and what it means to maintain power. Use the Shakescleare modern English translation of Richard II to unlock some of the play’s key lines, such as “Not all the water in the rough rude sea/ Can wash the balm off from an anointed king.”
Eve Houghton graduated from Yale College in 2017 and is currently pursuing the MPhil in Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge. In 2018, she will return to Yale to begin her PhD in English. Her research interests include early modern commonplace books and note-taking practices, paratexts, reception studies, and the history of reading.