Richard the Redeless
Richard the Redeless ("Richard without council") is an anonymous fifteenth century English alliterative poem that critiques Richard II's kingship and his court. It seeks to offer Richard retrospective (or even posthumous) advice, following his deposition by Henry VI. The poem claims that "Richard has been poorly advised, his kingdom mismanaged, his loyal subjects ill-served."[1] The author believes that the advice he imparts will be of great aid to any guiding the kingdom in future years. The poem also contains elements of satire, especially towards court manners and clothing fashions.
The history of Richard the Redeless has become heavily intertwined with another fifteenth century poem, Mum and the Sothsegger. Indeed, John Bale (1495-1563), an important early antiquarian, identified what Skeat named Richard the Redeless as "Mum, Soth-segger".[2] This confusion of the two continued to the early 20th century, with Day and Steele declaring in their EETS edition that "the two fragments form part of one larger composition."[3] This assertive opinion has also generally fallen out of favour within the academic community. As James Dean states: "The two alliterative fragments do have much in common... But the differences are striking as well. Richard the Redeless focuses wholly and exclusively on Richard II and the latter part of his reign, whereas Mum ignores Richard's rule to concentrate exclusively on problems during Henry IV's administration. It seems best to hold open the possibility that there may be a connection between them, but there may not be."[4]
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References
- ^ James M. Dean, Richard the Redeless and Mum and the Sothsegger, (Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2000), p. 7.
- ^ Day, Mabel, and Robert Steele, eds. Mum and the Sothsegger Edited from the Manuscripts Camb. Univ. Ll. iv. 14 and Brit. Mus. Add 41666. EETS o.s. 199. (Oxford: OUP, 1936), p.xn3
- ^ Day and Steele, Mum and the Sothsegger EETS (OUP, 1936), p. x.
- ^ Richard the Redeless and Mum and the Sothsegger, ed. James M. Dean, (Kalamazoo: TEAMS, 2000), p.78.