ABSTRACT
The censorship of Shakespeare’s Richard II, including the deposition scene, along with the commissioning of the play the night before the Essex rising and the comment of Elizabeth I, “I am Richard II, know ye not that?” (Nichols 552), have led to decades of analysis on how the play shadows the potential deposition of Elizabeth herself. Did the play spur the Essex rebels to action against the Queen? Did the Queen see herself in the play’s fallen monarch? Did her advisors recognize the parallel as well, thereby ordering the play’s censorship?
