Richard II Quotes
"For many people today, reading Shakespeare’s language can be a problem—but it is a problem that can be solved."
"It may be more pleasurable to attend a good performance of a play—though not everyone has thought so."
"We know that the King’s New School in Stratford-upon-Avon was considered excellent."
"The years in which Shakespeare wrote were among the most exciting in English history."
"The universe during these years also seemed to shift and expand."
"Intellectually, the discovery, translation, and printing of Greek and Roman classics were making available a set of works and worldviews that interacted complexly with Christian texts and beliefs."
"London—the center of England’s government, its economy, its royal court, its overseas trade—was, during these years, becoming an exciting metropolis."
"The plays and poems seem clearly to have been produced by a man from Stratford-upon-Avon with a very good 'grammar-school' education and a life of experience in London and in the world of the London theater."
"The chief competitors of such acting companies as the one to which Shakespeare belonged and for which he wrote were companies of exclusively boy actors."
"Acting companies and theaters of Shakespeare’s time seem to have been organized in various ways."
"These persons have put forward some dozen names as more likely authors, among them Queen Elizabeth, Sir Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere (earl of Oxford), and Christopher Marlowe."
"Occasionally, rather than separating basic sentence elements, Shakespeare simply holds them back, delaying them until subordinate material has already been given."
"In reading Shakespeare’s plays we should always remember that what we are reading is a performance script."
"It is also assumed that William Shakespeare’s growing wealth and reputation played some part in inclining the Crown, in 1596, to grant John Shakespeare, William’s father, the coat of arms that he had so long sought."
"O, but they say the tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony."
"Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain."
"He that no more must say is listened more than they whom youth and ease have taught to gloze."
"More are men’s ends marked than their lives before."
"The setting sun and music at the close, as the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, writ in remembrance more than things long past."
"Though Richard my life’s counsel would not hear, my death’s sad tale may yet undeaf his ear."
"No, it is stopped with other flattering sounds, as praises, of whose taste the wise are fond."
"Lascivious meters, to whose venom sound the open ear of youth doth always listen."
"For violent fires soon burn out themselves; Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short."
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise."
"This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."
"This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world."
"Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows."
"The breath of worldly men cannot depose the deputy elected by the Lord."
"For within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps Death his court."
"I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, need friends."
"To wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees, / Lest, being overproud in sap and blood, / With too much riches it confound itself."
"God save King Henry, unkinged Richard says, / And send him many years of sunshine days."
"I give this heavy weight from off my head / And this unwieldy scepter from my hand, / The pride of kingly sway from out my heart."
"Mine honor lives when his dishonor dies, / Or my shamed life in his dishonor lies."
"O God, O God, that e'er this tongue of mine / That laid the sentence of dread banishment / On yon proud man should take it off again / With words of sooth!"
"Yet looks he like a king: behold, his eye, / As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth / Controlling majesty."
"Pardon should be the first word of thy speech."
"I never longed to hear a word till now. Say 'pardon,' king; let pity teach thee how."
"The word is short, but not so short as sweet. No word like 'pardon' for kings’ mouths so meet."
"Twice saying 'pardon' doth not pardon twain, but makes one pardon strong."
"I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world."
"My brain I'll prove the female to my soul, my soul the father; and these two beget a generation of still-breeding thoughts."
"For no thought is contented. The better sort, as thoughts of things divine, are intermixed with scruples and do set the word itself against the word."
"Music do I hear? Ha, ha, keep time! How sour sweet music is when time is broke and no proportion kept."
"Thus play I in one person many people, and none contented."
"God for His Richard hath in heavenly pay a glorious angel."
"I know no cause why I should welcome such a guest as grief, save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest as my sweet Richard."
"They love not poison that do poison need, nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead, I hate the murderer, love him murdered."
"With Cain go wander through shades of night, and never show thy head by day nor light."
"Women may not be much in [Richard II], but femininity is."
"In the deposition sequence, Richard achieves a recognition of the importance of the unseen."
"Rackin examines the trajectory of the audience’s shifting responses in moving from the dilemma stage of conflicting loyalties first to Bolingbroke’s camp and then to Richard’s."
"Confident of his royal authority in the opening scenes, Richard assumes the role of Player King as he broods on the illusory nature of kingship."
"The chief significance of these scenes lies in their contextual trivialization of the abstractions central to the 'political life' of the play."
"This compact reference book helps with many difficulties in Shakespeare’s language."
"Baldwin shows, the educational system of Shakespeare’s time would have given the playwright a strong background in the classics."
"The biography includes detailed examinations of, for example, Stratford schooling, theatrical politics of 1590s London."
"Berry’s six essays collected here discuss (with illustrations) varying aspects of the four playhouses in which Shakespeare had a financial stake."
"The First Folio of Shakespeare... analyzes the mechanical production of the First Folio, describing how the Folio was made, by whom and for whom."
"Needs must I like it well: I weep for joy to stand upon my kingdom once again."
"Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, though rebels wound thee with their horses' hooves."
"As a long-parted mother with her child plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting."
"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."
"For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings."
"All the water in the ocean can never turn the swan's black legs to white, although she lave them hourly in the flood."
"Thou most . . . guest: Richard and Bolingbroke are set in contrast, the first a beautiful inn inhabited by grief, the second an alehouse with triumph as its guest."
"sworn brother: i.e., best friend (as if we were knights who had vowed to stand by each other like brothers)"
"new world’s crown: See 2 Timothy 4.8: 'For henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day. . . .'"
"been in thy heart: i.e., stolen your courage (The heart was considered the seat of courage and hence was synonymous with it.)"
"To be o’er-powered: i.e., at being overpowered"
"correction: punishment; kiss the rod: proverbial for 'accept punishment meekly'"
"Which art a lion: See note to 1.1.180 and picture."
"king of beasts: i.e., ruler over beastly men; If aught but: i.e., had they been something other than"
"sometime: former; prepare thee hence: prepare to depart"
"long ago betid: i.e., that happened long ago"
"quite: repay, reward; griefs: (tales of) suffering"
"Forwhy: because (of your sad tale); senseless: insensate; brands: pieces of burning wood; sympathize: answer or correspond to, accord with"
"Pomfret: Pontefract Castle (in the northern county of Yorkshire)"
"there is order ta’en: i.e., arrangements have been made"
"gathering head: reaching culmination or crisis (The image is from the maturing of a boil or abscess just before it breaks.)"
"ne’er so little: i.e., ever so little, even a little bit"
"love of: perhaps, love between; or, perhaps, (the king’s) love of; converts: changes"
"That fear: i.e., that fear changes; one or both: perhaps, the unrightful king or his supporter, or both of them"
"there an end: a phrase signaling that a topic of conversation is concluded"
"Take leave: i.e., say farewell; and part: and separate; must part: must depart"
"Hallowmas: i.e., November 1; short’st of day: i.e., the winter solstice (which occurs in December)"
"Better far off: i.e., it is better to be far apart; ne’er the near: a proverbial expression, 'never the nearer,' that means 'no closer to achieving the good desired'"
"piece the way out: i.e., make the journey seem longer"
"’Twere . . . me: i.e., it would not be a good part for me to play"
"keep and kill thy heart: i.e., keep your heart and (through my grief) to kill it"
"make woe wanton: perhaps, we luxuriate in woe; fond: (1) loving; (2) foolish, pointless"