Richard IIWilliam ShakespeareLabel: Wordsworth Editions LtdDescription: Edited introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts M.A. Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of English University of Sussex.Richard II is one of Shakespeare’s finest works: lucid eloquent and boldly structured. It can be seen as a tragedy or a historical play or a political drama or as one part of a vast dramatic cycle which helped to generate England’s national identity. Today to some of us Richard II may appear conservative; but in Shakespeare’s day it could appear subversive: ‘I am Richard II’ declared an indignant Queen Elizabeth.Numerous recent revivals in the theatre and on screen have demonstrated the enduring power and poignancy of this drama of the downfall of an egoistic but pitiable monarch.Richard II is the seventeenth volume in the Wordsworth Classics’ Shakespeare Series in which each volume has been freshly edited by Cedric Watts.
