Abstract
In this essay, I read William Shakespeare's Richard II with John Calvin's Institutes in order to explore the ambiguous relationship between divine and temporal power in the early modern period. Although Calvin's distinction between the person of the ruler and his office appears to ensure obedience, this logic enables his followers (and occasionally Calvin himself) to critique authority. Such dialectical tension similarly characterizes Richard II: while Northumberland gestures toward the Calvinist distinction to resist Richard, York invokes it when declaring allegiance to Bolingbroke. I argue that such allegiance, predicated as it is on God's inscrutability, paradoxically unsettles monarchy's claim to divine justification.
Published Version
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