Richard II (Vol. 39) | Jeanie Grant Moore (essay date 1991)
Jeanie Grant Moore (essay date 1991)
SOURCE: "Queen of Sorrow, King of Grief: Reflections and Perspectives in Richard II" in In Another Country: Feminist Perspectives on Renaissance Drama, edited by Dorothea Kehler and Susan Baker, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991, pp. 19-35.
[Here, Moore highlights the metaphoric role of Queen Isabel, arguing that she—like the central image of the mirror—provides a perspective on the character of Richard.]
Tell thou the lamentable tale of me.
Richard to Isabel (V.i.44)1
Young, childless, and powerless, Queen Isabel in Richard II seems sadly insignificant. Her appearances number only four; in her first scene, she speaks one mannerly, unrevealing line: "How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?" (II.i.71). Then, after mutely observing the angry encounter between her husband and the dying John of Gaunt, she is whisked away by Richard with the rest of his...
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