SHAKESPEARE'S KINGS

Noted historian Norwich (Byzantium, 1989, etc.) takes a brilliantly nuanced look at the relations between England’s kings

and Shakespeare’s plays. Studying only the plays known collectively as the "histories" (and thus omitting King John), he uses his immense knowledge of English and European history to illuminate the historical background of the plays and to offer an intriguing look at England in the years of Shakespeare’s writing. Norwich’s analysis of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard III emphasizes factors Shakespeare added for dramatic effect (such as the famed "winter of our discontent" speech, written for Richard III to deliver during the summer of 1477) and his equally strategic omissions (e.g., the bands of idle soldiers roaming through the English countryside in 1414 whom Henry V would have to employ in a war so as to avert the unrest they would otherwise cause at home). Norwich notes other realities Shakespeare recast more subtly, transforming France’s Charles VI from a doddering fool to a wise voice of reason against the rash voice of Louis, the Dauphin, for example, in order to portray Henry V’s war against France as just and reasonable. And he reminds us that the historical Richard III was not the hunchback of Shakespeare but a "great and good man of perfectly normal physique, the fine administrator and far-sighted law giver."

Entrancing historical interpretation, perfectly cast. (Color and b&w illus.)