ABSTRACT
In the introduction to the most recent collection of critical essays on Richard II, Jeremy Lopez reviews criticism on the play and notes a "homogeneity" of themes and preoccupations. When historicised, the plays themselves are often rendered peculiarly unhistorical. Situating them in their historical context often has the effect of making them 'historical' for us, but decidedly contemporary for Elizabethan spectators. Whereas there is no denying that Richard II would have been recognised as topical when it was first performed, what remains problematic is the short-circuiting, or collapsing, of the difference: of the two sides so frequently noted in this and other Shakespearean histories. Elizabethan dramatists were fascinated with the idea of creating the peculiar illusion of witnessing the exploits of famous historical, and hence conspicuously dead, persons as though they were alive. It is worth returning to Heywood's tract to see what it can tell people about the specific process of performing the past.
