Monologue

King Richard Monologue from Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Oxford 1911)/Volume 4/The Tragedy of King Richard the Second

From Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Oxford 1911)/Volume 4/The Tragedy of King Richard the Second by Oxford 1911

male · anguished · 2:22 min

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:What must the King do now? Must he submit? :The king shall do it: must he be depos'd? :The king shall be contented: must he lose :The name of king? A God's name, let it go: :I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, :My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, :My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, :My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood, :My sceptre for a palmer's walking-staff, :My subjects for a pair of carved saints, :And my large kingdom for a little grave, :A little little grave, an obscure grave; :Or I'll be buried in the king's highway, :Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet :May hourly trample on their sovereign's head; :For on my heart they tread now whilst I live; :And buried once, why not upon my head? :Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin! :We'll make foul weather with despised tears; :Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn :And make a dearth in this revolting land. :Or shall we play the wantons with our woes :And make some pretty match with shedding tears? :As thus: to drop them still upon one place :Till they have fretted us a pair of graves :Within the earth; and, there inlaid: 'There lies :Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes.' :Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see :I talk but idly, and you laugh at me. :Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, :What says King Bolingbroke? will his Majesty :Give Richard leave to live till Richard die? :You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay.

About this piece

King Richard grapples with the loss of his power and identity as he contemplates his fate and the possibility of his deposition.

40s · sadness · power · death · identity · betrayal

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