Richard II is packed with awesome speeches, but John of Gaunt's paean to England is the one that has been most successful in escaping into the public consciousness. Here's a collection of filmed performances, for your viewing pleasure:
The performances are as follows:
0:00 - An Age of Kings, 1960, Edgar Wreford
2:01 - BBC Shakespeare, 1978, John Gielgud
3:58 - Shakespeare's Globe, 2003, John McEnery
5:35 - The Hollow Crown, 2012, Patrick Stewart
OK, now that we've got the first major quotable speech of the play out of the way, let's get on with business!
OK, so Bolingbroke is spelled "Bolingbroke", but in most of the productions I've seen it's been pronounced closer to "Bullingbrook", which kind of rhymes with "Falling Book" if you're not listening too closely. Hey, I'm not a linguist: take it up with David Crystal.
Anyways, that's all for today. Tomorrow we'll see Bolingbroke's triumphant return from exile! Ooooh, I bet Richard's not going to be happy about that...
Richard II
Dramatis Personae | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10