King Richard the Second – William Shakespeare 1994

Letting go of what makes you. 

“King Richard: Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.

John of Gaunt: But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:

Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,

And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow;” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.364).

 “Queen: (…)

I will despair, and be at enmity

With cozening hope, - he is a flatterer,

A parasite, a keeper-back of death,

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.369).

“King Richard: (…)

As a long-parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting,

So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth,

And do thee favours with my royal hands.

Feed not thy sovereign’s foe, my gentle earth,

Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense;

But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,

And heavy gaited toads, lie in their way,

Doing annoyance to the treacherous deed,

Which with usurping steps do trample thee.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.373).

“King Richard:

No matter where; - of comfort no man speak:

Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;

Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes,

Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.

Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills:

And yet not so, - for what can we bequeath

Save our deposed bodies to the ground?

Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s,

And nothing can we call our own but death,

And that small model of the barren earth

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground,

And tell sad stor’es of the death of kings: -

How some have been deposed; some slain in war;

Sime haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;

Some poison’d by their wives; some sleeping kill’d.

Akk murder’d: - for within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king

Keeps Death his court.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.374).

“King Richard:

Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood

With solemn reverence; throw away respect,

Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty;

For you have mistook me all the while:

I live like you, feel want,

Taste grief, need friends; - subjected thus,

How can you say to me, I am a king?” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.374).

“King Richard: (…)

Go to Flint castle: there I’ll pine away;

A king, a woe’s slave, shall kingly woe obey.

That power I have, discharge; and let them go

To hear the land that hath some hope to grow,

For I have none: - let no man speak again

To alter this, for counsel is but vain.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.374).

“Henry Bolingbroke:

My gracious lord, I come for my own.

King Richard:

Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.376).

“King Richard:

God save the king! Although I be not he;

And yet amen, if heaven do think him me. –“ (Shakespeare, 1995, p.379).

“King Richard:

Give me the crown. – Here, cousin, seize the crown;

Here cousin:

On this side my hand, and on that side yours.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.380).

“Henry Bolingbroke:

I thought you had been willing to resign.

King Richard: My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine:

You may my glories and my state depose,

But not my griefs; still I am king of those.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.380).

“Henry Bolingbroke:

Are you contented to resign the crown?

King Richard:

Ay, no; - no, ay; for I must nothing be;

Therefore no no; for I resign to thee.

Now mark me, how I will undo myself.

(…)

Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,

And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.380).

“King Richard: (…)

                                   but whate’er I be,

Nor I, nor any man that but man is,

With nothing shall he pleased, till he be eased

With being nothing.” (Shakespeare, 1995, p.386).