Shakespeare’s Richard II

The Fall of Kings: Divine Right and Human Frailty

What does it mean for a king to be deposed, usurped, disgraced, divorced, jailed, and murdered, all in verse? For Shakespeare’s Richard II is all in verse. And the verse gets better as the politics get worse. If England is already a “precious stone set in the silver sea” before the king is deposed, the words of the king, once no longer a king, seem to fill the emptiness of the “hollow crown” he leaves to his usurping cousin, who more than fills it but never wears it easily. This first play in Shakespeare’s Henriad tetralogy (somewhat loosely so called) raises the most profound questions about a king’s identity.

What is a king, and can he be one and still be a man? How? And if he cannot be a king and be fully a man, how can he rule well? How does he who had been a weak, corrupt, even detestable king, once deposed and despised – “I wasted Time, and now doth Time waste me” –, only then become capable of eliciting unutterable pity while singing in a kingly key the song of himself? What’s in a king’s name: Richard II, as opposed to Richard of Bordeaux or Richard Plantagenet? What, finally, do we as audience and as human beings, political animals, learn by being made to join the king-no-king in his perhaps strangely self-aggrandizing poetry of self-abnegation, “Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings?”

Join us for a 12-week journey through Shakespeare’s magnificent historical drama—a profound exploration of power, legitimacy, and the complex relationship between rulership and identity.

Why Richard II Speaks to Our Time

When a divinely-appointed king faces rebellion from pragmatic nobles, Shakespeare creates a poetic meditation on authority that resonates powerfully with our modern questions about leadership, legitimacy, and the personal cost of public roles.

Through Richard’s dramatic downfall, we witness:

• The tension between divine right and effective governance
• The performative nature of power and its ceremonial trappings
• The crisis of identity when power is stripped away
• The birth of a new political order built on pragmatism rather than tradition

In Richard’s famous prison soliloquy—”I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world”—we see a deposed king whose loss of crown forces a profound reckoning with the nature of the self when stripped of titles and authority.

Why Read Richard II Slowly?

This poetic masterpiece rewards careful attention. Through slow reading, we:

• Appreciate Shakespeare’s exquisite language at its most lyrical and philosophically rich
• Explore the complex interplay between politics, theology, and psychology
• Discover how Shakespeare transforms historical chronicles into profound meditations on human nature
• Trace themes that will develop across his history plays into a comprehensive vision of leadership

From the spectacular garden scene to the deeply moving deposition sequence, Richard II offers an incomparable exploration of the personal dimensions of political change and the psychological impact of losing power.

Join our community of readers as we explore this magnificent play, discovering why it’s considered one of Shakespeare’s most poetic works and why its questions about legitimacy, identity, and the nature of authority remain so urgently relevant today.

“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground  

And tell sad stories of the death of kings.”

The Design of the Pathway

Richard II stands at a pivotal moment in Shakespeare’s exploration of English history and political philosophy. As the first play in the second tetralogy (followed by Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 and Henry V), it establishes the theological and political questions that will animate Shakespeare’s comprehensive vision of leadership.

Written during the twilight years of Elizabeth I’s reign, when questions of succession loomed large, the play resonates with anxieties about legitimate authority and the relationship between divine right and effective rule.

In this reading pathway, we are largely engaged with seeing what’s there, on the page, engaging together in a sustained, inquisitive and direct way with Shakespeare’s poetic meditation on kingship,  how his dramatization of this historical moment speaks to perennial questions about the nature of leadership, the foundations of political legitimacy, and the complex relationship between public roles and private selves.

12-Week Pathway Details:

Pathway Duration: April 2nd – June 25th

Meeting Day: Wednesdays 2pm Eastern | 1pm Central | 12pm Mountain | 11am Pacific  

Meeting duration: one hour and thirty minutes  

Meeting frequency: weekly  

Tutor: Eric Stull  

**Limited to 15 participants** to ensure quality conversation  

**No prior experience** with Shakespeare’s history plays is required—just a willingness to read carefully and think deeply

Cost:

Subscribe to the Symposium Slow Reading Program  

$250 Quarterly/$750 Annual

Your subscription unlocks the full Symposium experience:

• Complete access to all slow reading pathways, from Homer to Kant
• Monthly one-on-one liberal arts consultations to guide your learning
• Join any seminar, anytime—explore multiple texts simultaneously
• Connect with a community of thoughtful readers and dedicated learners
• Recordings available for missed sessions

Reclaim the lost art of careful reading in a world of endless distractions. Join us in creating space for wisdom to develop naturally through sustained engagement with humanity’s greatest works. 

Free seminar: See below for more information and to register!