Аннотация: The Tragedy of King Richard II (1595) is one of the few plays about English history in Shakespeare, and one of the few plays about language and its role in forging the notion of nationhood. It is one of the few plays in world literature about the power of language and the language of power. Portraying Richard II as a tragic figure, it establishes clear political links between the instability of late Elizabethan England and the 14th century England.Throughout the play Shakespeare weaves a complex matrix of iterated ‘jewelry’ metaphor which grows into symbol and gains strength towards the end. The text itself is built as an extended metaphor of language approached as a treasure trove, and of a poet as a jeweler powerful enough to unlock it.