Enter a Groom of the Stable
GROOM Hail, royal prince!
RICHARD Thanks noble peer,
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou, and how com’st thou hither,
Where no man never comes but that sad dog
That brings me food to make misfortune live?
GROOM I was a poor groom of thy stable, King,
When thou wert king, who travelling towards York
With much ado at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes royal master’s face. (5.5.67-75)
The Groom’s appearance is pretty random, but then the scene already has a dreamlike quality. The tone shifts as Richard gently jokes with his faithful former servant: addressed as royal prince, Richard greets the Groom as his noble peer; they are indeed now equals, peers. There’s a further pun (obscure to a modern audience) on coins (oh we love a bit of numismatic word play): royals and nobles are both coins, with a royal worth ten groats (forty pence) more than a noble, and Richard says he isn’t worth that much any longer, in a characteristically neat couplet. The appearance of the Groom allows Richard to explain just how isolated and lonely he is, the circumstances which have occasioned his attempt to people his prison with thoughts: the only person he sees is the servant who brings his food (which makes it even odder that the Groom’s been allowed in). No wonder Richard’s going a bit mad with the solitude, and he bitterly terms the servant who waits on him as that sad dog that brings me food to make misfortune live. Not only is the servant surly, taciturn, depressed, but the food is unwelcome; all it can do is prolong Richard’s life, make misfortune live. And what does he have to live for? Richard is in despair. So the Groom explains: he’s somehow got permission to see the King, not without difficulty, as he happened to be in the area, on his way to York. (A reminder that Richard’s been sent away from London, and the court, far north, and in effect forgotten about.) This Groom is loyal to his former master, speaks to him affectionately, and unaffectedly—another sign of love in this all-hating world, and all the more poignant for being so unexpected.
