Starting Shakespeare's History Plays: King John and Richard II

#shaketember is a #booktube reading event all about old Billy #shakespeare hosted by:
‪@booksimnotreading‬
‪@OldBluesChapterandVerse‬
‪@adayofsmallthings‬
This week I look at:
No Bed for Bacon: Caryl Brahms & S J Simon
A History of England - Early Medieval England: M T Clanchy
A History of England - England in the Late Middle Ages - M H Keen
King John - William Shakespeare
Richard II - William Shakespeare

[@book-ramble]

Interesting back story. Thanks.

[@GenreBooks23]

Thanks!

[@BookChatWithPat8668]

Excellent discussion, Gavin. I especially like your discussion of what Shakespeare may have been saying about his own time through the situation described in King John. I did read King John-required for my comprehensive exams-but I don’t feel as though I know it at all. I’ve not read Richard II at all. It’s really quite impressive that you’re reading your way through the much neglected histories. Well done!

[@GenreBooks23]

I think I could read the plays again next week and tease something else out of them, suppose thats what makes him special!

[@BookChatWithPat8668]

@@GenreBooks23 absolutely!

[@RaynorReadsStuff]

That was brilliant Gavin, packed full of info and really interesting. Incidentally Mowbray is a distant relative of mine. My maiden name is Mowbray 😊

[@GenreBooks23]

Oh that’s interesting! My mum figured out we were descendants of one of the Edwards (but I think there are tens of thousands of us!), we certainly didn’t keep the surname!

[@KatJack-vl8xj]

@@GenreBooks23 I've read that most Brits are related to Edward I/III. Stands to reason, they both had many children. (When I'm not being a Shakespeare bore, I'm a genealogy bore.)

[@apoetreadstowrite]

My initiation into Shakespeare was Henry IV, Part 1 & Julius Caesar, so I've always had a soft spot for the history plays. I'd do (almost) anything to spend time with Falstaff. I haven't read King John yet, so thanks for the introduction. I'll get to it now.

[@GenreBooks23]

I have Falstaff to look forward to this week, stops the history plays being too dry!

[@apoetreadstowrite]

@@GenreBooks23: Ah, Falstaff - the most jovial & celebratory of all our gods...

[@KatJack-vl8xj]

I do like a good natter about Shakespeare. I started reading him about the age of 12, when my father gave me a Classics Illustrated comic of Romeo & Juliet. I was blown away. My parents then gave me a complete edition for Christmas, so I proceeded to read it all the way through. The plays were in chronological order of when they were probably written, so it started with Henry VI Part I. I later listened to some recordings of the plays, which had the effect of sinking the words further into my brain. So I still have Richard Burton's Hamlet, Albert Finney & Claire Bloom as Romeo and Juliet, John Gielgud as Richard II, Peter O'Toole as Petruchio, Michael Redgrave as Prospero (with Vanessa as Ariel) ready to float to the surface of my mind. And of course the movies of Laurence Olivier as Othello, Richard III and Henry V (I didn't care for his Hamlet and the recording of Othello is better than the movie. You're not distracted by the embarrassing "blacking-up.") And the first play I saw on stage was Richard III...

[@GenreBooks23]

Nice roll call! I’ve seen some nice productions: Derek Jacobi as Macbeth, Patrick Stewart as Anthony, Iain Glen as Henry V and Robert Stephens as Lear: all excellent. Would happily do Shakespeare every month!

[@KatJack-vl8xj]

​@@GenreBooks23 For me, British actors I've seen on stage include: Alan Bates/Richard III, Ian McKellen/King Lear, Patrick Stewart/Macbeth, Mark Rylance Richard III/Twelfth Night, Simon Rus sell Beale Hamlet/Twelfth Night, Emily Watson/Twelfth Night, and Geraldine James/Merchant of Venice. I wish I could have seen Robert Stephens in Shakespeare onstage. But I have picked up a recording featuring him as -- what else, with that voice --- Richard III. Another surprise is who is playing Lady Anne -- none other than Glenda Jackson! She could have just as well played Richard herself...

[@GenreBooks23]

@@KatJack-vl8xj nice. I saw Simon Russell Beale in Lear and Tempest. Unfortunately only time I saw Glenda Jackson was on the underground!