Richard the Second

The Sacred King

Monologue dissection (Act 5 Scene 5)

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.
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 humours like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself
Against the word:
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,
'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
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
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.
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;
Then am I king'd again: and by and by
Think that I am unking'd 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
With being nothing.
Key:
- Any text highlighted GREEN is due to the fact that it calls back to a separate
event/line in the play
- Lines and words highlighted in RED are indicators of strong emotions
- Lines highlight with YELLOW may be considered as lies Richard finds ironically
funny and thus my warrant a little laugh after being said
- Words highlighted with BLUE is the beginning of a new thought

Information of the wider text:

Context:
This monologue is found in act 5 scene 5. After a series of subjectively unfortunate
events Richard at least partly believes is his fault in addition to his sense of divine
punishment, Richard has found himself imprisoned in a tower in 1400 AD after his
cousin (Henry Bolingbroke)whom he had banished temporarily 2 years earlier has led
a successful coo and dethroned him despite being 4 years off his required return to
England, partly of his own admittion. He is mere minutes away from his cousin
(Exton) striking him down due to a second set of mis-information led unfortunate
events that has made Exton believe that he will gain reverance under the new found
king and his father at the head of Richard of Bordeaux's corpse. Therefore, this speech
sees the tormented and dazed last moments of the former king after possibly days of
no human conversation and shattering discomfort.

Objective:
Richards objective is not clear in this scene; although tormented he doesn't seek
revenge, although religiouse he doesn't pray for forgiveness, although often cowardly
he doesn't seem to fear his situation, nr pride in it. I believe one of the only ways to
describe Richard's manners of speech is the genuine belief his life has lost mean. In
short, he wants to find his motivation. Lines like " I have been studying how I may
compare, This prison where I live unto the world:" make's me believe that he doesn't
believe that he belongs in his own life, whether his life as a monarch or his life as an
imprisoned criminal, he can't seem to find value in either of them, hence " 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". Not even the people in his life seem
to have bearring on him seeing as he cares very little about the death of his uncle (The
Duke of Lancaster), though it is worth mentioning that his feelings towards
Bolingbroke seem to change in most performances, he drifts between: blank
indifferance, requited distain ,or possibly even unrequited compation. However in all
iderations of the performance Richards primary objective can be boiled down to his
desire to get used to his new life behind bars, as in the line " With nothing shall be
pleased, till he be eased with being nothing.", I itself a sense of irony as he is within
his final hour.

Structure:
Most of Richard the Second is written in Blank Verse (Iambic Pentamiter without
ryhme), an oversion from the norm for Shakespear as his most common method is to
have nobles speak in verse and lower classes in prose. I believe this choice is made
due to how often the leads shift between social status and the subjectivity to where
they stand as to their status in each of their appearances. As mentioned above, this
speech is in blank verse, I believe this is becausee his use of iambic pentamiter arcs to
noble heritage but his lack of ryhming lends itself to the very human lack of wimsy
that he now has, as earlyier in the show there are infact moments in which Richard
speaks In traditional verse, particularly at the hight of his kingship, such as during a
lack of vicious oppositions to his throne in his company.

Richards Cell
Due to Richard being a real monarch with most of the events of the show
being accurate to how they infact happened, I was able to discover that he
was imprisoned within…
Pontefract Castle, a structure
of norman design that was
seiged and detroyed over 200
years after the events of the
play in 1645. Built and
inhabited by Ilbert De Lacy
in 1070, his reward from
William the Conqueror for
his devotion
 I imagine the cell itself would be
fairly confind and dreary with a
celindrical structure due to the
nature of a tower. Assumadly cold
based on the often assumed time
of year for this point in the show
and farely unkept, his former
kingship grants him imprisonment
in the tower but not comfort.

Chart Title
90
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