The Lamentable Comedy of Richard II | John Halverson, University of California, Santa Cruz
The Lamentable Comedy of Richard II
John Halverson, University of California, Santa Cruz
I
Although all the quartos of Richard II use the word "tragedy" on the title-pages, the First Folio prefers the more noncommittal "Life and Death of Richard II." This may have no particular significance, but it is evidently not just a matter of conformity with the category of "history" since the Folio does keep the designation "tragedy" for Richard III (the only history play so titled). It may be that Heminge and Condell, from their intimate experience with Shakespeare's mature tragedies, decided that the traditional genre designation was inappropriate. Not that it is likely to have mattered much to Shakespeare: Polonius' famous excursus on dramatic genres suggests that his creator did not take the issue very seriously. In any case, the Elizabethans seem to have had no dramatic theory to define tragedy or the tragic hero more...
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