ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly from Holinshed as well as from Froissart Shakespeare would obtain a view of Richard's reign as greatly interested in ceremony and ritual. There were Holinshed's fine accounts of the jousts at Smithfield in 1389, and of the King's splendid household, of the meeting with the French King, of the preparations for the duel at Coventry, of the Parliament in
the new Westminster Hall, of the ceremonies of abdication and Coronation. The beginning of the play with its chivalric challenges between the appellant lords set Shakespeare going in a manner which becomes characteristic of this play. The abortive duel of 1.3 with its preliminary formalities continues the style. In IV.I Shakespeare changes the order of events in order to make challenge and counter-challenge usher in the new reign, thus repeating the theme of I. I-and Gloucester's death is behind them both. Two ceremonial scenes mark the decline of Richard-at Flint Castle (IlI.3), and in Westminster Hall (IV.I).
