Richard II

Written entirely in verse, this history play charts the fall of a king who believes his crown is sacred and untouchable. Richard II rules with careless extravagance, and when he seizes the lands of his exiled cousin Bolingbroke to fund a war in Ireland, that injustice brings Bolingbroke home at the head of an army. The weak, eloquent king watches his support melt away, and what begins as a political struggle becomes a meditation on power, legitimacy, and the loneliness of a man stripped of the only identity he has ever known. Richard’s poetry deepens even as his authority collapses, giving the play some of Shakespeare’s most beautiful speeches. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers a fine entry into the history cycle.