SOURCE: “‘A Liberal Tongue’: Language and Rebellion in Richard II,” in Shakespeare's Universe: Renaissance Ideas and Conventions, edited by John M. Mucciolo, Scholar Press, 1996, pp. 37-51.

In the following essay, Norbrook considers the ways in which the original Elizabethan audience (in particular, those individuals involved in the Essex rebellion) might have responded to Richard II. Norbrook surveys the knowledge Elizabethans had of their country's past and asserts that the play reflected contemporary concerns regarding the necessity of a guaranteed forum for national debate and criticism (Parliament) and the danger of the growth of royal absolutism.

A consistent theme of W. R. Elton's teaching, at once daunting and bracing, has been that for all the volume of commentary generated by Shakespeare's plays, there is still a great deal to be done in understanding their initial contexts. Richard II is a case in point. It is generally accepted that it...