Why use one word when ten will do? Okay, okay, I know this is Shakespeare and I should be prepared for lengthy dialogue but this play is something else. Is it just me or is this one of the most wordy plays you've ever read? Richard himself spouts off ornate and flowery speeches at when ever he gets a chance, though I suppose that would be the kingly thing for one to do.
His gift for gab is nicely contrasted by Bolingbroke's more plain speaking manner...well plain speaking for Shakespeare at any rate. Richard and Bolingbroke create a nice foil for one another as Richard, who speaks in in this eloborate style seems to be more of a thinker then an actor while the Bolingbroke is as straightforward in word as he is in deed.
Now I'm not saying that lavish speeches are a bad thing, heck they're part of what makes Shakespeare great, I'm just not feeling it in this one, especially as I'm having a problem just following the characters names, let alone deciphering what they're saying.
2 comments:
I agree that the names are a bit much. That the characters become confusing and mixed up if you do not read carefully. One name is more than enough for the characters but the play itself wouldn't be a Shakespeare play without the language. For someone who is famous for how they write, and what they say it just wouldn't be Shakespeare without the obscenely long dialogues and manners or speech.
I also found the names a bit confusing in this play, which, of course, can make it difficult at times to sort out the details, but I can't agree on the "Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness" you refer to. I find the dialogue in this play to be extraordinarily delicious. Maybe even more so than some of Shakespeare's other plays.
Which, for me, brings up an important point: I am constantly amazed at Shakespeare's use of language and especially at his use of words. His ability to sew words and phrases together in such a fashion that they not only say something elegant and beautiful even on a superficial reading, but that the knitting of those words together often reveal meaning that is three or four layers deep. Yes, it can seem wordy. But that wordiness has a purpose, and it's not merely to jack up the word count.
To me there's something stunning in that.
Post a Comment