Isabelle’s Reviews > Richard II > Status Update

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;" (V.5.49)

"Give me the crown. / Here, cousin – seize the crown. Here, cousin – / On this side, my hand; and on that side, thine. / Now is this golden crown like a deep well / That owes two buckets, filling one another, / The emptier ever dancing in the air, / The other down, unseen, and full of water. / That bucket down and full of tears am I, / Drinking my griefs whilst you mount up on high." (IV.1.180-8)

"O that I were as great / As is my grief, or lesser than my name, / Or that I could forget what I have been, / Or not remember what I must be now! / Swellest thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, / Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me." (III.3.137-141)

"Methinks King Richard and myself should meet / With no less terror than the elements / Of fire and water when their thundering shock / At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven. / Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water; / The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain / My waters - on the earth, and not on him." (III.3.54-60)

"My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes, / But presently prevent the ways to wail. / To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, / Gives in your weakness strength unto your foe, / And so your follies fight against yourself." (III.2.178-182)

"Then if angels fight, / Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right." (III.2.61-2)

"I am no traitor's uncle, and that word "grace" / In an ungracious mouth is but profane." II.3.88-9.

"Methinks I am a prophet new-inspired, / And thus, expiring, do foretell of him: / His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last; / For violent fires soon burn out themselves." (II.1.31-4)

"Or wallow naked in December snow / By thinking on fantastic Summer's heat? / O no, the apprehension of the good / Gives but the greater feeling to the worse." (I.3.298-301)

"I take my leave before I have begun; / For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done." (I.2.60-1)