Richard II

William Shakespeare

• Publisher: Classic Books Library
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781528785723
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Shakespeare-Drama

Classic Books Library presents this new beautiful edition of William Shakespeare's play, "Richard II". This edition features a specially commissioned new biography of William Shakespeare. The play is the first in Shakespeare's tetralogy chronicling the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, and covers the battle for power between King Richard and Henry Bolingbroke (who would eventually be Henry IV). Embezzlement, exile and an uprising fail to restore Richard's place as King. Richard is depicted as feminine and weak, in contrast with the strong and masculine Bolingbroke. The play's implications on traditional expectations of men in society is an area of growing interest for contemporary scholars. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is considered to be the greatest writer in the English language and is celebrated as the world's most famous dramatist.

ACT V.

SCENE I. London. A Street Leading to the Tower.

[Enter the QUEEN, with her attendants]

QUEEN.
This way the King will come; this is the way
To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower,
To whose flint bosom my condemned lord
Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke.
Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth
Have any resting for her true King's queen.

[Enter KING RICHARD and Guard]

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,
And not King Richard; thou most beauteous inn,
Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee,
When triumph is become an alehouse guest?

KING 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 awak'd, the truth of what we are
Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim Necessity; and he and
Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France,
And cloister thee in some religious house.
Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our profane hours here have thrown down.

QUEEN.
What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transform'd and weak'ned? Hath Bolingbroke depos'd
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'erpow'r'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take the correction mildly, kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility,
Which art a lion and the king of beasts?

KING RICHARD.
A king of beasts, indeed! If aught but beasts,
I had been still a happy king of men.
Good sometimes queen, prepare thee hence for France.
Think I am dead, and that even here thou takest,
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 good night, to quit their griefs
Tell thou the lamentable tale of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds;
For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And in compassion weep the fire out;
And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
For the deposing of a rightful king.

[Enter NORTHUMBERLAND attended]

NORTHUMBERLAND.
My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is chang'd;
You must to Pomfret, not unto t...