Richard II The New Oxford Shakespeare

'For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings'

Crowned as a child, Richard II only knows power. The King's court tire of his fickle, greedy reign, but it is only when he exiles his own cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, and attempts to steal his inheritance that they are pushed to act. What follows threatens Richard's crown and with it his sense of self. Shakespeare's most tragic history play uses the rich and messy familial web of monarchy to explore what it means to crave power, to hold it, to fight to take it, and to lose it. Richard II is Shakespeare's most human and tragic history play, a story about the ways power distorts a ruler's sense of self.

The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

William Shakespeare

Hailey Bachrach is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Roehampton University, where her fellowship project, Shakespeare and Consent, explores depictions of consent to sex and marriage on the early modern stage, and how contemporary artists grapple with the issues these raise. She completed her PhD at King's College London in collaboration with the Globe, including working as a rehearsal room researcher in the 2019 history plays cycle. She is the author of Staging Female Characters in Shakespeare's English History Plays (2023).

Anna Pruitt is the Managing Editor of Giving USA at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. She is an Associate Editor of The New Oxford Shakespeare.

General Editors' Preface to The New Oxford Shakespeare IntroductionNote on the TextSelect BibliographyA Chronology of William ShakespeareRICHARD II