RICHARD                                                        Thou shalt think Though he divide the realm and give thee half It is too little, helping him to all. He shall think that thou, which know’st the way To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again, Being ne’er so little urged, another way To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. The […]

Enter Northumberland [and others] NORTHUMBERLAND            My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is changed, You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower. And madam, there is order ta’en for you, With all swift speed you must away to France. RICHARD                                Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne, The time shall not be many hours […]

RICHARD        Good sometimes Queen, prepare thee hence for France. Think I am dead and that even here thou tak’st As from my death-bed thy last living leave. In winter’s tedious nights sit by the fire With good old folks and let them tell thee tales Of woeful ages long ago betid. And ere thou bid […]

QUEEN           What, is my Richard both in shape and mind Transformed and weakened? Hath Bolingbroke Deposed thine intellect, hath he been in thy heart? The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw And wounds the earth if nothing else with rage To be o’erpowered, and wilt thou pupil-like Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod And […]

RICHARD        Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul, To think our former state a happy dream From which awaked, the truth of what we are Shows us but this. I am sworn brother, sweet, To grim necessity, and he and I Will keep a […]

Enter Richard and Guard QUEEN           But soft, but see, or rather do not see My fair rose wither. Yet look up, behold, That you in pity may dissolve to dew And wash him fresh again with true-love tears. Ah thou, the model where old Troy did stand Thou map of honour, thou King Richard’s tomb, […]

Enter Queen and Ladies QUEEN           This way the King will come. This is the way To Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower To whose flint bosom my condemnèd lord Is doomed a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke. Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth Have any resting for her true king’s queen.           (5.1.1-6)   This is an […]

Exeunt [all but Abbot of] Westminster, Carlisle, [and] Aumerle WESTMINSTER         A woeful pageant have we here beheld. CARLISLE                   The woe’s to come—the children yet unborn Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. AUMERLE                  You holy clergymen, is there no plot To rid the realm of this pernicious blot? WESTMINSTER         My lord, Before I freely […]

RICHARD                                            I’ll beg one boon And then be gone and trouble you no more. Shall I obtain it? BOLINGBROKE                                  Name it, fair cousin. RICHARD                    ‘Fair cousin’? I am greater than a king, For when I was a king my flatterers Were then but subjects. Being now a subject, I have a king here to my […]

RICHARD                    Mark, silent King, the moral of this sport: How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face. BOLINGBROKE          The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed The shadow of your face. RICHARD                                                                    Say that again. The shadow of my sorrow—ha, let’s see— ’Tis very true, my grief lies all within And these external manners of laments […]