Shakespeare and the Welsh Part II.

(Read Part One First?)

So, to recap the theme of all this . . .

• The way persons or people are represented can have a powerful effect (see the first post in this series), and

• Whoever exercises the power of representation has power indeed.

Angelo Montecelli’s rendering of The Shield of Achilles as described in Homer’s Iliad. The shield depicts the cosmos, beginning with divinity and the zodiac at the center, and ending with the world of humanity – divided between war and peace – on the peripheral. The shield was said to be so arresting that warriors approaching to fight with Achilles would momentarily stop and stare at it and so be slain in their hesitation. Some critics have suggested that the shield’s power was psychological: as a scaled down model of EVERYTHING, the beholder sees himself represented microscopically within its circle and cannot hope to achieve much beyond awe in the face of its incontestable immensity.

In the last weeks of April I also began watching The Hollow Crown at my neighbour’s. This BBC series includes dramatisations of Shakespeare’s Richard II, Henry IV Part One, Henry IV Part Two, and Henry V. Trying to figure out who was who within the messy world of the history of English Royalty, some Google and Wiki-based research soon revealed that these four plays were the main source of Shakespeare’s representations of the Welsh and Welsh characters.

The Welsh in Richard II: How Shakespeare Represents the Welsh in Act 2, Scene 4.

Play with your fancies, and in them behold the Earl of Salisbury and an army of ‘trusty Welshmen’ waiting assembled on the misty coast of North Wales. They await the return of King Richard by sea from Ireland, and plainly seek to aid him in combat against the usurper Bolingbroke who has returned from exile to reclaim his inheritance during Richard’s absence. (In The Hollow Crown version, the Welsh are dressed like Ewoks – and though Medieval Wales might have been as curious and distant a place as the moon of Endor, yet, is this in itself an accurate representation? Read a Q&A with The Hollow Crown's costume designer.)

The most striking thing about the Welsh in this situation, besides all their beardyness and bone-bling, is their loyalty to the King of England. Today this may seem strange and misplaced, especially since Richard was a harsh king who had been unpopular in the region. Nonetheless, it is historically accurate. He had a loyal following in Wales and found much affection from the people there upon his return.

This loyalty is perhaps understandable. It’s a bit of a stereotype, but the Welsh have always been a spiritually-minded people – even superstitious, if you like. The official source of spiritual instruction in those days was the Church, and it was the Church who invested monarchs with spiritual power. ‘The Divine Right of Kings’ was largely unquestioned. Bolingbroke’s audacity in challenging the authority of the crown must have seemed like a Satanic sort of madness to the average medieval mind. God would defend the king and surely all manner of things would be well; and if they were not, those who gave their lives in defense of Richard would probably feel assured of a place in heaven.

The Welsh in Richard II: How Shakespeare Misrepresents the Welsh in Act 2, Scene 4.

The Welsh in Shakespeare’s play are in effect portrayed as deserters despite their true-to-life loyalty to King Richard II (it is well attested that a party of Welshmen tried to rescue Richard by pursuing Bolingbroke and his men on the road to London after he had captured the King through trickery).

The Welsh Captain in the scene tells Salisbury of a series of omens and portents that have resulted in his soldiers becoming convinced that Richard must be dead. In Shakespeare’s play, the keys to Bolingbroke’s success are:

• Impatience, physical disintegration, and/or ill-discipline on the part of the Welsh (“we have stayed ten days and hardly kept our countrymen together”).

• Moonlighting in the hospitality industry or fickle allegiance on the part of the Welsh (“Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes”).

• Superstition on the part of the Welsh, and a failure to notice the syphoning off of Welsh water to major English towns of the day such as Chester (“The bay trees in our country are all withered, and meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven . . . These signs forerun the death or fall of kings”).

A sane person would therefore be unlikely to trust these sorts of ‘trusty Welshmen’ to provision a war camp with whittled marshmallow-roasting sticks. Ironic then that they seem to have been entrusted with the fate and security of the entire English realm.

The Welsh as Portrayed in Shakespeare’s Richard II: Mystical or Misguided?

Ewoks: "Bring it on."

If this representation is accurate, then instead of launching costly military campaigns, the English might have conquered Wales more easily by installing bottomless holy wells. Combining this strategy with propaganda in the form of misleading fortune cookie messages and newspaper horoscopes, the English would have succeeded in no time:

Merlin say: “cast they sword in the well today; thou shalt have good fortune.”

)-(  “Pisces: if thou seest any sword-smith, be sure to slay him or risk bad luck.”

V  “Aries: surrender without resistance this week – the Force may not be with you.”