Round Top, TX II
Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;
Here, cousin,
On this side my hand, and on that side thine.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well
That owes two buckets, filling one another,
The emptier ever dancing in the air,
The other down, unseen, and full of water:
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.
King Richard II (IV.i.181)
Listening, or hearing, I don’t recall, part of that passage, I kept thinking that there was tie-in to certain imagery on tarot cards. The (neo) traditional Star Card is a female pouring water between two vessels. Because I have a Dali Tarot, I looked in it, as well, and found that it was Temperance, with his offset humor, surreal.
“The image of the king as an actor is a trope that recurs throughout Shakespeare’s history plays and throughout the culture that prompted them.”
(Excerpt From This Is Shakespeare by Emma Smith)
In this recent production, might’ve been opening night, there was a female actor playing one of the King’s supporters, and as a father-figure, in the play, I saw a new part, an echo, a simple dramatic device I’d not seen before. In part, mostly, it was due to her performance, and the command of the language. York to the king. King Richard the Second — I went for the king, and the actor playing him nailed that. But that supporting role, York, was amazing, the play is written almost entirely in verse, yet her delivery of his material was easy to follow, understand, and conveyed emotions.
“I felt that.”
Richard 2 quote
Richard II 2019
Richard the Second 2017
The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.
King Richard the Second (5.1.66)
