AUMERLE My father hath a power: inquire of him, And learn to make a body of a limb. RICHARD Thou chid’st me well. Proud Bolingbroke, I come To change blows with thee for our day of doom. This ague fit of fear is over-blown, An easy task it is to win our own. Say, Scroop, […]
Continue ReadingAuthor: Hester
Bishop to King: get a grip, alliteratively (3.2.178-185) #KingedUnKinged
CARLISLE My lord, wise men ne’er wail their present woes, But presently prevent the ways to wail. To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe, And so your follies fight against yourself. Fear and be slain, no worse can come to fight, And fight and die is […]
Continue ReadingNot a king, just a man, sitting on the ground… (3.2.171-177) #KingedUnKinged
RICHARD Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence. Throw away respect, Tradition, form and ceremonious duty. For you have but mistook me all this while, I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends. Subjected thus, How can you say to me I am a king? (3.2.171-177) […]
Continue ReadingA grinning death’s head in the hollow crown (3.2.155-170) #KingedUnKinged
RICHARD For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings, How some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed— All murdered. For within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal […]
Continue ReadingOf comfort no man speak (and, pies) (and other things) (3.2.143-154) #KingedUnKinged
AUMERLE Where is the Duke my father with his power? 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 […]
Continue ReadingDo not speak ill of the dead – yes, they’re dead… (3.2.135-142) #KingedUnKinged
SCROOP Sweet love, I see, changing his property, Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. Again uncurse their souls, their peace is made With heads and not with hands. Those whom you curse Have felt the worst of death’s destroying wound And lie full low, graved in the hollow ground. AUMERLE Is Bushy, Green […]
Continue ReadingVipers, dogs, Judases – have my friends deserted me too? (3.2.121-134) #KingedUnKinged
RICHARD Too well, too well thou tell’st a tale so ill. Where is the Earl of Wiltshire, where is Bagot, What is become of Bushy, where is Green, That they have let the dangerous enemy Measure our confines with such peaceful steps? If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it. I warrant they have […]
Continue ReadingWho dares take arms against the Lord’s anointed? everyone, pretty much (3.2.112-120) #KingedUnKinged
SCROOP Whitebeards have armed their thin and hairless scalps Against thy majesty; boys with women’s voices Strive to speak big and clap their female joints In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown; The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows Of double-fatal yew against thy state; Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills Against thy seat. Both […]
Continue ReadingA land drowned in a flood of steel (3.2.104-111) #KingedUnKinged
SCROOP Glad am I that your highness is so armed To bear the tidings of calamity. Like an unseasonable stormy day, Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores As if the world were all dissolved to tears, So high above his limits swells the rage Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land With hard bright […]
Continue ReadingNothing to be done, as Richard channels Beckett (3.2.91-103) #KingedUnKinged
SCROOP More health and happiness betide my liege Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him. RICHARD Mine ear is open and my heart prepared, The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold. Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, ’twas my care And what loss is it to be rid of care? Strives Bolingbroke to be […]
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