Richard II

Richard II is the first play of the Henriad, the four histories that run on through the two parts of Henry IV to Henry V. A king who believes his crown is held from God alone squanders it; his banished cousin Henry Bolingbroke comes home to claim his inheritance and leaves with the throne. Almost all of it is in verse, some of the most musical Shakespeare wrote.

This is the whole play, in the public-domain text, with each speaker named and every verse line kept as a line, so it reads on a phone. Before each scene is a short note on what happens; after it, the harder words and the lines worth keeping, and at the end of each act, questions for the meeting. Words with a dotted underline are glossed: tap one to see what Shakespeare meant by it. Line numbers count spoken lines, scene by scene, and land within a line or two of a printed edition.

Glossary

Every harder word, A to Z, glossed in the sense it has here. Each links to the place it is used. Rarity is measured by how seldom the word turns up in English at large; the commonest words are never glossed.

Lines Worth Keeping

Every line the Society marked, in order.

Potent Quotables

The book's most-quoted lines, as first-letter study cards: read the first letters and say the line, then check it against the full text.

Memory Work