Richard II and Locke
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As an account of the abdication of a king and usurpation of a throne, Richard II provides a platform for dealing with the conditions under which Locke says that the state loses legitimacy and a transformation of government is justified. In the play, the fact that England's leading families are on the point of taking arms against each other is instructive as to the stability of Richard's civil society. Richard's intervention in the duel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray can be interpreted as either statesmanlike or an assertion of royal prerogative designed to humble the political ambitions of the nobility; however, what the dying John of Gaunt says about Richard's management of England is key because it speaks to Richard's flaws:A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, Whose compass is no bigger than thy head; . . . Landlord of England art thou now, not king: Thy state of law is bondslave to the law (II.1) Richard listens but does not hear and confiscates Gaunt's estate, thus depriving the exiled Bolingbroke of his patrimony. York understands this as a signal to England's other first families: "If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's [Bolingbroke's] rights, . . . You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, / You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts / And prick my tender patience, to those thoughts / Which honour and allegiance cannot think" (II.1). The state Locke envisions derives its legitimacy from the extent to which it protects property rights.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Specifically Locke, II3 Locke, II1 Locke, Richard II, Meanwhile York, Hereford's Bolingbroke's, II1 Richard, Gaunt Richard's, Bolingbroke Mowbray, Landlord England, civil society, political society,
Approximate Word count = 969
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)
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