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The Conversation
The Conversation
Kit MacFarlane, Lecturer, Creative Writing and Literature, University of South Australia

Richard II by William Shakespeare: why 'the divine right of kings' (still) matters

Richard II Richard III William Shakespeare Elizabeth I Henry IV Emma Smith Harold Bloom
Portrait of Richard II – artist unknown, c. late 16th century.

What do you do with a bad king? And what do you do when that bad king is (allegedly) appointed by God?

Shakespeare’s Richard II is a play that asks us, among other things, what it means to have power, what it means to take power, and what we’re left with when power is gone. It is also a play that saw Shakespeare risking some serious trouble with the God-appointed monarch of his time, Elizabeth I.

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