The Hollow Crown of Reigning Sentiment

The precise date of the discovery by theatre directors that they are greater than Shakespeare cannot be specified: the discovery was more a process than an event. But by the time I saw a production of Richard II at the Almeida Theatre a few weeks ago, the superior genius of any director over that of Shakespeare was an established principle and indisputable fact.

Until then, I had mistakenly thought of Richard II as an early manifestation of Shakespeare’s unique genius, of his uncanny ability to make us not only observe the minds at work of a huge range of characters, but somehow to transform us for a while into those characters, so that we ourselves become them. Most of us have never been abruptly thrust down from high positions, never having reached them in the first place, much less have we ever been a deposed king. But when King Richard says:

            … within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court; and there the antick…