Some notes from Professor during the lecture:
Richard II was deposed from the throne and killed by Henry Bolingbroke. Due to this deposition war of the roses happened.
Hundred years` war is different from war of the roses. Hundred years` war was between England and France. We can say that also war of the roses lasted hundred years. Their last conflict started at the beginning of the 16th century and lasted until 1670s, but before then they had conflicts for some other reasons. So war of the roses lasted nearly hundred years too.
By the depostion of the king by divine right, chaos fallows. Elizabeth I is a Tudor Queen and she believed in kingship by divine right. It is an ideology to underpin your own power.
People and critics believed that---->Staging the royalty on the stage serves the purpose of underpinning, supporting royal power. For example Queen Elizabeth was represented in picture as Gloriana.
On the other hand---->If you put the Queen on the stage, put the royalty on the stage, and start discussing whether royalty holds her office rightly or not then it is different from underpinning the royal power. Even the public gardener speaks about politics.Richard II is a subversive play with regard to the royal power. That is why Queen Elizabeth banned Richard II to be staged.
Now from the tutorial:
It is hard to know where one play ends and the other starts. For example, it is hard to know where Richard II ends and Henry IV starts and Henry IV ends and Henry V starts. This is not that much important for us to know. The more important thing to know is:
God was symbolic father to the king, and again king was symbolic father to the people.
There is a strict hierarchy. God, king, king`s eldest son. Kingship by divine right. A strict God-given hierarchy. This is the old image.
to userp: to sieze the crown unrightfully.
God is the father to everyone, but more directly to the king.
Second view against the old view is: People have to be able to be king. Is this man able to be the king?
Henry Blongbroke represents the new world image against the old world image. Kingship of office, by which the king has to fulfill the obligations of his office.
Again succession of son to father is the succession of different world images. Son always represents the new world image.
In online reader on page 61
QU 29b
Henry IV:
Quotation 29b
PRINCE
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted he may be more wond'red at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wished for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents:
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promiséd,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes,
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.
Reader`s explanation:
King oppressed by the duties of his office, frustrated with his son Hal’s roaming the London taverns
What Henry IV does not recognise: Prince Hal’s invaluable experience of the underworld,
playing the docile ‘son’ to ‘Father of Vice’ Falstaff
(-> image of the pub in medieval morality play vs. part of educational process)
’Prodigal son’ Hal rescues his father from the rebels’ hands and defeats the exemplary son Hotspur
-> transition of power from father to son, based on experience and efficiency; cf. however:
We see in quatation 29b father/son relations. Prince Hal also participates in the petty
criminal actions with John Falstaff and his gang of people. They are bad people and Prince Hal is together with them to experience the broad view of the underworld.
As we go back and look at the QU28 in Richard II, Richard II compares himself to eye of heaven and also he compares himself to the sun. Prince Hal does the same like
Richard II. If you look at the third line he says : Yet herein will I imitate the sun, This is one small smilarity between Richard II and Prince Hal. Prince Hal, by saying this tries to
underpin his power. He refers to the old world image, because by means of it he wants to strenghten his power. Kingship by divine right cannot be investigated by people. He resorts to kingship by
divineright to empower his status. It is not because he represents the old world image, but he uses the old world image, whenever it supplies him power.
Major action in Henry IV is that there is a conflict between the English king and couple of aristocrats. Prince Hal is the prodigal son. He is lost and after some time he comes and and he is better than the others. This is the part where Henry IV Part I ends.
Hal gains a lot of experience by talking to ordinary people and understanding them. He also understands soldiers. Soldiers are simple and ordinary people. Prince is good, because he gained experience. Prince Hal saves his father`s life too. The perfect son of Erals of Northumberland who is Hostspur rebels against Henry IV, and he captures Henry IV, however Prince Hal understands soldiers` emotions and he knows how these ordinary people think. He gained a lot of experience in the taverns and pubs of London by speaking to the ordinary people. So he becomes a perfect leader and he commands the soldiers on the battle field and saves his father`s life. Normally according to the old world image father should save the son`s life, but also Prince Hal represents the new world image like his father and this is the indication of that. As he saves his father`s life this is against the old world image. However, as we mentioned above, Prince refers to the old world image whenever it empowers him. He does not do that because he believes in the old authority related world picture of world, but he just uses it for power and to legalise his status. Kingship by divine right is resorted by also Elizabeth I. It is the best way to make your monarch unquestionable. He defeats Hotspur who is a perfect son who hasn`t been to taverns and pubs like Prince Hal. A man like Prince Hal, a prodigal son with a lot of mistakes according to the old morality play customs, defats his enemy who would be the perfect man according to the old image and morality play customs. Also this shows the shift of old world view into the new world view. From an authority related towards the experience related world picture. Prince Hal gains a lot of experience in the pubs, taverns and underwold of London by John Falstaff and among his gang.
QU 30 on page 62
Quotation 30
PRINCE
No, I will sit and watch here by the king.
[Exeunt all but the Prince]
Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow
Being so troublesome a bedfellow?
O polished perturbation! Golden care!
That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night – sleep with it now!
Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow, with homely biggen bound,
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
That scald'st with safety; by his gates of breath
There lies a downy feather which stirs not:
Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
Perforce must move. My gracious lord, my father!
This sleep is sound indeed, this is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorced
So many English kings. Thy due from me
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
My due from thee is this imperial crown
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me. Lo where it sits,
[Putting it on his head]
Which God shall guard; and, put the world's whole
strength
Into one giant arm, it shall not force
This lineal honour from me: this from thee
Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.
[Exit ]
KING
Warwick, Gloucester, Clarence!
Enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE
CLARENCE
Doth the king call?
WARWICK What would your majesty?
KING
Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
CLARENCE
We left the prince my brother here, my liege,
Who undertook to sit and watch by you.
KING
The Prince of Wales? Where is he? Let me see him.
He is not here.
WARWICK
This door is open: he is gone this way.
GLOUCESTER
He came not through the chamber where we stayed.
KING
Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?
WARWICK
When we withdrew, my liege, we left it there.
KING
The prince hath ta'en it hence. Go seek him out.
Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose
My sleep my death?
Find him, my Lord of Warwick, chide him hither.
If we take this part of QU 30 and examine it:
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously.
My due from thee is this imperial crown
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me. Lo where it sits,
[Putting it on his head]
Which God shall guard; and, put the world's whole
strength
Into one giant arm, it shall not force
This lineal honour from me: this from thee
Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.
Henry IV is very sick and lying in his bed. Because of his sickness he takes off his crown and puts it on his side on the pillow. Symbolically it means power has gone, because the crown is no more on the head. Prince Hal enters the room and he thinks that Henry IV is dead. He takes the crown and puts it on his head and leaves the room, but Henry IV is not dead. As he wakes up, he cannot see the crown and he asks where his crown is gone. His servants tell him that Prince Hal took it and it makes him unhappy. Here the action reminds the usurpation. Henry IV was a usurper agaisnt Richard II who was his symbolical father and got the crown from him. Also his real son in a way became a usurper against his real father, by getting his father`s crown before he passes away. The chosen lines from QU 30, indicates the kingship by divine right, the old lineal order.
Especially Prince Hal says :This lineal honour from me: this from thee. This is the indication of the old world image.
As Prince Hal becomes the king he becomes Henry V. He sends his envoys to the French King and
they show the French King that Henry V is coming from Anjou-Plantagenets. He is coming from the House of Plantagenet which was founded by Henry II and which Edward III belongs to. By means of that he wants to be the king of France. House of Plantagent comes from France. The members of the House of Plantagenet came to England with the Norman invasion in 1066, so they are Norman French people. For that reason Henry V wants to be the king of France as well. Of course it would be stupidity to assume that the French king would easily leave his throne to Henry V. It was also in a way nonsense to try to prove your plantagenet background in front of the French King, because Henry IV whos was Henry V`s father was a usurper, and he destroyed the plantagenets. Richard II was the last plantagenet king. If you remember, above I mentioned the little discussion between I and the professor about the explanation of House of Plantagenet or Anjou-Plantagenets. For that reason Professor insisted that Richard II was the last plantagenet king. Plantagenets are never mentioned in Henry IV. However, Henry V resorts to this old image as an ideology. Whenever it is possible to gain power, he resorts to the old image. He does not believe the old image, but resorts to it. This is ideology. If you resort to something for political power, then it becomes an ideology. He also resorts to the old world image above in that utterance. Because of his demand from the French King hundred years` war starts. War between House of Lancaster and House of Valais (pronunciation vale). The war lasts 116 years. However, Henry V becomes the king of France for a couple of years. In the end House of Valais wins. We see Henry V`s demand from the French King in the QU 32 below especially in these two lines:
By law of nature and of nations, 'longs
To him and to his heirs, namely, the crown,
and in the second coloumn this line is important:
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Now I put the whole of Qu 32 below. It is about the things between Henry V and French King which I already mentioned above.
Quotation 32
Enter EXETER
FRENCH KING From our brother of England?
EXETER
From him, and thus he greets your majesty:
He wills you in the name of God almighty
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'longs
To him and to his heirs, namely, the crown,
And all widestretchèd
honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim
Picked from the wormholes of longvanished
days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line
[Delivers scroll ]
In every branch truly demonstrative,
Willing you overlook this pedigree,
And when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him, the native and true challenger.
FRENCH KING
Or else what follows?
EXETER
Bloody constraint, for if you hide the crown
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it.
As already mentioned above, son of a userper claims that he dervies from Edward III, and demand French kingship. As a proof his envoys show the family tree of Henry V to Edward III.
Edward III was still one of the old Norman families.
Definition of ideology: Go back to the old discourse or model to use it for power.
Tudor Myth: It is a technical term. After war of the roses, Tudors became the king. The first tudor king is Henry VII. Before 1485 when Tudors had the English throne, there was a cruel age. Richard III who was the last York king was portrayed by Tudors as a criminal.
Tudors myth claims that there is a direct line between Tudors and Lancasters and from Lancasters to Edward III. So their history goes back to Edward III in a direct lineage.
Tudors claim that York guys are the bad guys and they are related to Lancasters who are the good guys. As Lancasters are directly related to Edward III, this creates the Tudor myth. In order to justify their claims to the throne. they won the throne on the battle fiel against the York king Richard III. During the war of the roses, the last Lancasters were killed. There was no Lancaster left when Tudors had the throne. Their relation to Lancasters is: Great great grand mother of Henry VII is Kathrine Swynfront who is John of Gaunt`s third wife. Their relation to Lancasters is maternal.
In QU32, Henry V goes back to the old image which is very absurd and bizzare as it is already mentioned above. As a son of a userper, if you go back to the old image in front of the French King, it would be very nonsense and bizzare. He says lineal honour, by low of nature and nations. These are the indications of the old world image. He also says evenly derived, but that is not absolutely even. By destroying the plantagents and the low of primogeniture, you cannot evenly derive from Edward III. This is the point.
Also Tudors referred to the old world image, but not because they believed it. They just used it as an ideology and political power like Henry V.
Chaucer is great great grand uncle-in-low to Tudors.
Note: In the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries people believed that Shakespeare supported Tudors. However the generation of the present age thinks that he criticized Tudors.
THE END.
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