Was Richard III an evil monster or a victim of Thomas More’s and Shakespeare’s pens?

Richard III

No king in medieval England was as demonic as King Richard III (1483-1485); and that was a savage age.  The list of whom he killed and murdered is as long as your arm.  Our knowledge of this infamous king of “this sceptred Isle”, the one we know, mostly comes from Thomas More’s biography of King Richard III and Shakespeare’s play with the same title.

Thomas More was Henry VIII’ councilor.  As we know, Henry VIII’s father, Henry VII, was the founder of Tudor dynasty, which was created when he defeated and killed Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth.  As someone said history was written by the victors (some attributed this saying to Churchill, but I think he said “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it,” and he did.) Thomas More’s Richard III was a classic example, a respectable person though he might be.

photo credit: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Royal Britain

Both Thomas More and Shakespeare blamed Richard III to the most heinous royal murder in all ages. Richard III murdered his two nephews (the sons of Edward VI—Richard’s brother), aged 12 and 9 in the Tower of London in 1483.

Thomas wrote the biography 70 years after Richard III was killed and the Bard wrote his play about 110 years later.  It was said that Shakespeare’s great grandfather fought in the Battle of Bosworth and on Henry VII’s camp (?)  It is no secrete that Shakespeare had a romantic admiration of all the Tudor heroes, thus treating Richard III as a villain.

The Bard used roses to describe how innocent the two young princes were after they’re murdered; in Richard III (Act IV Scene 3) we read,

photo credit: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Royal Britain

Their lips were four red Roses on a stalk,
Which in their summer beauty kissed each other.

Churchill is a well known historian; I quote the following from his “A Story of the English Speaking Peoples”,

“Thomas More late in the next reign wrote his celebrated history.  His book was based of course on information given him under the new and strongly established regime.  His object seems to have been less to compose a factual narrative than a moralistic drama.  In it Richard [III] is evil incarnate, and Henry Tudor [Henry VII], the deliverer of the kingdom, all sweetness and light.  The opposite view would have been treason.  Not only is every possible crime attributed by More to Richard, and some impossible ones, but he is presented as a physical monster, crook-backed and withered of arm.  No one in his lifetime seemed to have remarked these deformities, but they are now very familiar to us through Shakespeare’s play.  Needless to say, as soon as the Tudor dynasty was laid to rest defenders of Richard fell to work, and they have been increasingly busy ever since.”

I made this “map” so I can follow the story when I study Shakespeare’s history plays.

“Son of York”: The best pun in literature

Being a history buff, it is only natural that I would be interested in Shakespeare’s history plays.  With the garden season winding down, I may begin to write about it; I know how to alienate the readers from this blog.

The opening lines of Richard III (“Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York”) are as famous as that of The Tale of Two Cities (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,”) I also like “Call me Ishmael” that begins Moby-Dick.

Richard:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
            Richard III  Act I  Scene 1

Shakespeare opened the play with a powerful and lengthy (40 some lines) soliloquy of Richard (Duke of Gloucester, at which time his elsder brother, Edward IV, was the king).  It gives us a hint of who he is and what he will be.

I made a ‘map’ (I will be your GPS) which covers more than two thirds of Shakespeare’s history plays.  The Wars of Roses (1455-1485) were fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York, both are the descendants of Edward III.  For about 60 years Lancastrian clans have been Kings (Henry IV, V and VI—the Bard gave us Henry IV—Part 1 & 2, Henry V, and Henry VI—Part 1, 2 & 3) and that is Richard’s “winter of discontent” as Yorkists (Edward IV and Richard III) finally took over the crown, thus “made glorious summer by this son of York”.  The gloomy winter’s discontent turned into glorious and sunny summer's contendedness, now that his brother is the king (Edward IV).

“this son of York” is the pun of “this sun of York”.  The Wars of Roses were fought by several generations—by the sons of Duke of Lancaster and Duke of York.  And less known is that “sun” is also the emblem of Edward IV’s crown.  The radiance of the glorious ‘sun’ dispelled the gloomy clouds overcasting the House of York.

American Grown or American Crown

One hour before the kick off of the 2009 Super Bowl, Matt Lauer’s interviewing President Obama was aired and President Obama predicted Pittsburgh Steelers will beat Arizona Cardinals; at that moment I wrote in a Super Bowl post at Sermo, “The King has spoken and that is the way it shall be!”

Two years ago on our color-chasing trip to New England, we dined at Stewman’s Oceanfront Lobster Pond (at Bar Harbour, Maine), Obama family also dined there that summer, I wrote in my blog, “When in Maine, eat like a Mainer, nay, eat like a King.”

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-dined-where-first-family-did-at-bar.html

With that in mind, when I first saw Michelle Obama’s garden book, “American Grown”, I thought it was “American Crown”.

The First Lady said her book is “another extension of the garden”, the same is also true for my blog.” 

An unexpected spectacle in the garden

While watching TV late last night, Katy learned there will be a frost at 2AM.  We hurried making effort to cover the veggies that are still producing.  These photos were taken early this morning.  All the veggies and flowers survived the first frost of the year.

The First Lady, Michelle Obama said she has been anxious paying close attention to the weather for her White House kitchen garden; she had the guy from the Weather Service Bureau report to her.  Poor little ‘subjects’ like us have to watch TV or surf internet to get the up-to-date weather news.  During the hot dry spell in June and early July, I bet she ordered the archbishop of Washington D.C. to pray fervently for rain.

Lincoln issued preliminary Emancipation Proclamation today 150 years ago

150 years ago today, September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.  There is a piece of op-ed article at the Wall Street Journal today commemorating this event.

At the end of my letter-to-the-editor also mentioned how and why the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Founding fathers are founding gardeners

Last year I came across a book of “Founding gardeners” talking about our first four presidents (founding fathers) are all gardeners.  I believe the book was talking about the relationship about the gardening and the building of a country, I think it a bit over stretched.  A The New York Time Sunday Book Review article has kind words about the book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/books/review/book-review-founding-gardeners-by-andrea-wulf.html?_r=0

Joy went to a lecture on food and science in the hospital last night, the speaker was the White House pastry chef, who quoted Thomas Jefferson,

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. . . . But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.”

We are not alone in following Jefferson’s footsteps, the First Lady, Michelle Obama has had a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of White House.  Give us five or ten years we may come up with a book like the First Lady did.

This link of The New York Times Sunday Book Review mentions her gardening book and many more,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/books/review/michelle-obamas-american-grown-and-more.html?pagewanted=all

I read “Vegetable gardens may be good for our diets, but they’re even more important for our hearts and souls.” in the article; this is what I have been preaching that cultivating a flower/veggie garden is cultivating the mind.  We even have a sign in the garden.

White hydrangeas “turn rust” with “a line of brown runs over them” in “mid September”

These two photos were taken yesterday (September 17) and must have been the same hydrangeas that Carl Sandburg saw in a mid September when he wrote the poem of hydrangea.  The title of this post is taken from the lines of this poem.

9/17/12

9/17/12

Hydrangea: 
I tell you the white hydrangeas turn rust and go soon.
Already mid September a line of brown runs over them.
One sunset after another tracks the faces, the petals.
Waiting, they look over the fence for what way they go.
           — Carl Sandburg

Sandburg’s hydrangea “look over the fence for what way they go,” all of the flowers and veggies in our garden go to heaven when they die, if, like Mark Twain said, the criteria of going to heaven is by merit, not by favor.

Carl Sandburg is known for his Lincoln (if I were allowed to have only one book, out of probably over 20,000 books that was the figure many years ago, about Lincoln, this is the one I want, and I do own the 4-volume set of Lincoln: the War Years, thanks to Jo, who purchased it online paying an handsome price; I must be worth it), he is also a poet.

The following two photos are 年輕漂亮的 hydrangeas, taken on 8/20/12 when they were young, innocent and gorgeous.

8/20/12

8/20/12

Reading history of England is the prerequisite of visiting England

I usually go places and meet people on books (now including eBooks or iBooks).  Janice once said I should take Katy to England to take advantage of my reading of history in general and of England in particular.

I certainly would love to see the lines from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding inscribed on his memorial stone in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. The British treated Eliot as one of their own; he was indeed naturalized as a British citizen and converted to Anglicanism.
.
“. . . the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire  beyond the language of the living.”

If one doesn’t read Henry II (1154 – 1189) and Becket (the Archbishop of Canterbury) story, one cannot understand or enjoy T.S. Eliot’s verse play, Murder in the Cathedral, which remains one of the most dramatic stories of all ages.  I cannot trace any story of the separation of the Church and State earlier or more “dramatic” than this.

We read Ann Boleyn’s coronation in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII (an eye-witness statement, so to speak),

Among the crowd in the Abbey, where a finger
Could not be wedged in more.  I am stifled
With the mere rankness of their joy.

Boleyn was later imprisoned and tried in the Great Hall of the Tower of London.  Catherine Howard (another Henry VIII’s wife, met the same fate here.)  While visiting the Tower Hill and the Traitor Gate, one will think about how Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell spent their last days of life here.

So many scenes in Shakespeare’s plays took place in the Tower and the Abbey; if one doesn’t read the history of England, one cannot follow the Bard’s history plays.

Vol. I of a 4-volu

The boy Edward V said while being led to the Tower (in Richard III), 

I do not like the Tower of any place. 

Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?

Buckingham replied, 

He did, [which is not true] my gracious lord, begin that place, 
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified. 

I may not be the choice of tour guide the travel agency wants, but if one knows the history of the places being visited, the place will come alive and one will meet more people of the place through the ages.

Two Christmas gifts: Benghaizi (to Churchill) and Savannah (to Lincoln)

It is sad and tragic that American ambassador and three other Americans had to die at Benghazi, Libya.  Since I write about history, not politics; this would be what I’ll say about Benghazi.  On December 24, 1941 (two days after he arrived at the White House), Churchill received two telegrams from General Auchinleck, the first one read, “it appears that enemy can no longer use Benghazi” and the second, “Royal Dragoons [of British Army] occupied Benghazi this morning.  The Army of the Nile sends you hearty greetings for Christmas.”

This is reminiscent to what happened on December 22, 1864 when Union General William T. Sherman arrived at Savannah, Georgia and sent Lincoln a message, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, . .”, to which Lincoln replied the day after Christmas, “Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift, the capture of Savannah.”

Charles Lindbergh—an imperfect hero with many faults

Today is 9/11, a day will also live in infamy in modern time.  Another less well known event is today (September 11) in 1941, less than 3 months before Pearl Harbor attack, Charles Lindbergh told an America First (an American isolationist movement in pre-WWII era) rally in Des Moines, Iowa, “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” were pushing the United States toward war.

In a letter-to-the-editor on 6/12/12 Wall Street Journal (see photo), the writer defended Lindbergh regarding a statement in a book review that Lindbergh had a “crush on Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering.” What he wrote was correct in that the trip was encouraged by the FDR administration.  But, it is also my impression that Lindberghs (both Charles and Anne) did have a “crush on Hermann Goering” (not on Hitler, though); Anne Lindbergh wrote with admiration on their meeting with Goering, and that was after Anne’s editor asked her to “tone down” her praise.

10/1938

FDR wouldn’t let Lindbergh serve in the Air Force after the war broke out.  He later did fly combat mission (not as a pilot) in the Pacific theater.


Against Wind and Tide was published earlier this year; it was Anne Lindbergh’s letters and diaries 1947-1986.  It was published by her daughter as Anne passed away in 2001.  It revealed what kind of husband Charles was: leaves a lot to be desired.  He was a hero with many faults.

Salvia: Looking at the intoxicating beauty can be hallucinogenic

9/5/12

There are many kinds of salvia; one of them is salvia divinorum, ingestion or smoking of which is hallucinogenic (do not let Aldous Huxley know). 

Ours is probably salvia scarlet sage.  Looking at its intoxicating beauty may be hallucinogenic.  “Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.”—by Aldous Huxley

Some of the salvias are tall, up to Katy's waist.  These photos were taken in the period between 6/22/12 and 9/5/12.

7/12/12

7/26/12

8/22/12

7/12/12

6/22/12

7/28/12

9/1/12

8/26/12

9/1/12

7/12/12

8/22/12

7/24/12