Scene 5 Enter Richard alone. RICHARD
I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world,
And for because the world is populous
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it. Yet I’ll hammer it out. 5
My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father, and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In humors like the people of this world, 10
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, as thus: “Come, little ones,”
And then again, 15
“It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle’s eye.”
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs 20
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune’s slaves,
Nor shall not be the last—like silly beggars 25
Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame
That many have and others must sit there,
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Of such as have before endured the like. 30
Thus play I in one person many people,
And none contented. Sometimes am I king.
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am; then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king. 35
Then am I kinged again, and by and by
Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing. But whate’er I be,
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased 40
With being nothing. (The music plays.) Music do I
hear?
Ha, ha, keep time! How sour sweet music is
When time is broke and no proportion kept.
So is it in the music of men’s lives. 45
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To check time broke in a disordered string;
But for the concord of my state and time
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; 50
For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock.
My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,
Is pointing still in cleansing them from tears. 55
Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is
Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell. So sighs and tears and groans
Show minutes, times, and hours. But my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy, 60
While I stand fooling here, his jack of the clock.
This music mads me. Let it sound no more,
For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me, 65
For ’tis a sign of love, and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world. | In prison at Pomfret Castle, Richard gives a long, weird, but very poetic speech about his loneliness. He says he can't compare his prison to the rest of the world because the world is full of people and he is all alone in prison. Then he imagines that his brain is female and his soul is male. If his brain and soul could get together and breed, he could "people" (fill up) his prison with a bunch of his thoughts. (We told you this was a weird speech.) Then he imagines digging his way out of his walls and takes comfort in imagining other people who have also suffered. In this way he plays the roles of many people, though none of them are happy. Sometimes he is a king and wishes he were a beggar, since beggars are immune to treason. But poverty makes him think he was better off as king. In the end, he decides no man will be happy until he is "eased with being nothing" – that is, dead. |
Enter a Groom of the stable. GROOM Hail, royal prince! RICHARD Thanks, noble peer.
The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. 70
What art thou, and how comest thou hither,
Where no man never comes but that sad dog
That brings me food to make misfortune live? GROOM
I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,
When thou wert king; who, traveling towards York, 75
With much ado at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometime royal master’s face.
O, how it earned my heart when I beheld
In London streets, that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary, 80
That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,
That horse that I so carefully have dressed. RICHARD
Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him? GROOM
So proudly as if he disdained the ground. 85 RICHARD
So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!
That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down
(Since pride must have a fall) and break the neck 90
Of that proud man that did usurp his back?
Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be awed by man,
Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,
And yet I bear a burden like an ass, 95
Spurred, galled, and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke. | A Groom (someone who takes care of horses) comes in and tells Richard that he just saw Henry riding Richard's old horse through the streets on his way to be officially crowned king. Richard asks how "Barbary" behaved under his new master. Proudly, the groom says. Richard declares that his horse is an ingrate and a traitor. |
Enter one, the Keeper, to Richard with meat. KEEPER, to Groom
Fellow, give place. Here is no longer stay. RICHARD, to Groom
If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away. GROOM
What my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say. Groom exits. KEEPER My lord, will ’t please you to fall to? 100 RICHARD
Taste of it first as thou art wont to do. KEEPER
My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,
Who lately came from the King, commands the
contrary. RICHARD, attacking the Keeper
The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee! 105
Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. KEEPER Help, help, help! | A Keeper comes in with a dish of food and tells the Groom to leave. (Uh-oh.) The Groom reluctantly does so. The Keeper invites Richard to chow down, but Richard thinks this isn't a great idea. Maybe the Keeper should taste the food first, just to see what will happen. The Keeper says he doesn't dare: Sir Piers of Exton, who comes from the king, told him not to. Richard figures the plate of food has been poisoned. He declares, "The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!" and attacks the Keeper. |
The Murderers Exton and his men rush in. RICHARD
How now, what means death in this rude assault?
Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument. Richard seizes a weapon from a Murderer
and kills him with it. Go thou and fill another room in hell. 110 He kills another Murderer. Here Exton strikes him down. That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand
Hath with the King’s blood stained the King’s own
land.
Mount, mount, my soul. Thy seat is up on high, 115
Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. He dies. | Exton and four of his servants rush in. Richard snatches one of the servants' weapons and kills him with it. (Wow. Who knew Richard had it in him?) Then Richard kills another. Then Exton stabs Richard. Richard's not about to go down quietly. He accuses Exton of staining "the king's own land" with royal blood. Then he dies. |