Richard Ii

A History

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: HarperPerennial Classics
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781443443463
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Shakespeare Drama
• Index: Literature

When King Richard II banishes two feuding noblemen from England, he sets into motion a series of events that will eventually cost him his crown and his life. Mishandling several issues that enrage the nobility, King Richard II brings the wrath of Henry Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV, down upon his throne. Richard II is the first of four connected plays about successive British monarchs, and is followed by Henry IV, Part I, Henry IV, Part II, and Henry V.

Known as "The Bard of Avon," William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.

HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

ACT TWO

SCENE I. London. Ely House.

Enter JOHN OF GAUNT, sick, with the DUKE OF YORK, etc.

GAUNT Will the King come, that I may breathe my last

In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth?

YORK Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;

For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

[5]

GAUNT O, but they say the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony.

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain;

For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.

He that no more must say is listen’d more

[10]

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose;

More are men’s ends mark’d 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.

[15]

Though Richard my life’s counsel would not hear,

My death’s sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.

YORK No; it is stopp’d with other flattering sounds,

As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond,

Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound

[20]

The open ear of youth doth always listen;

Report of fashions in proud Italy,

Whose manners still our tardy apish nation

Limps after in base imitation.

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity –

[25]

So it be new, there’s no respect how vile –

That is not quickly buzz’d into his ears?

Then all too late comes counsel to be heard

Where will doth mutiny with wit’s regard.

Direct not him whose way himself will choose.

[30]

’Tis breath thou lack’st, and that breath wilt thou lose.

GAUNT Methinks I am a prophet new inspir’d,

And thus expiring do foretell of him:

His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,

For violent fires soon burn out themselves;

[35]

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;

He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;

With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder;

Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,

Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.

[40]

This royal throne of kings, this scept’rcd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

[45]

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall,

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands;

[50]

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,

Fear’d by their breed, and famous by their birth,

Renowned for their deeds as far from home,

For Christian service and true chivalry,

[55]

As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry

Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son;

This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,

Dear for her reputation through the world,

Is now leas’d out – I die pronouncing it –

[60]

Like to a tenement or pelting farm.

England, bound in with the triumphant sea,

Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege

Of wat’ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,

With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds;

[65]

That England, that was wont to conquer others,

Hath made a shameful conquest, of itself.

Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,

How happy then were my ensuing death!

Enter KING and QUEEN, AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, ROSS, and WILLOUGHBY.

YORK The King is come; deal mildly with his youth,

[70]

For young hot colts being rag’d do rage the more.

QUEEN How fares our noble uncle Lancaster?

KING RICHARD What comfort, man? How is’t with aged Gaunt?

GAUNT O, how that name befits my composition!

Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old.

[75]

Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;

And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?

For sleeping England long time have I watch’d;

Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt.

The pleasure that some fathers feeds upon

[80]

Is my strict fast – I mean my children’s looks;

And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt.

Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,

Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones.

KING RICHARD Can sick men play so nicely with their names?

[85]

GAUNT No, misery makes sport to mock itself:

Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,

I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.

KING RICHARD Should dying men flatter with those that live?

GAUNT No, no; men living flatter those that die.

[90]

KING RICHARD Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me.

GAUNT O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be.

KING RICHARD I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill.

GAUNT Now He that made me knows I see thee ill;

Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.

[95]

Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land

Wherein thou liest in reputation sick;

And thou, too careless patient as thou art,

Commit’st thy anointed body to the cure

Of those physicians that first wounded thee:

[100]

A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,

Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;

And yet, incaged in so small a verge,

The waste is no whit lesser than thy land.

O, had th...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Richard II
• Dramatis Personae
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five
• About the Author
• About the Series
• Copyright
• About the Publisher