Ah, more Royals, more plotting, more overthrowing.
King Richard II didn't hold my interest as well, I'm not sure if its because I'm tired of the drama of the royals or because Richard was so entitled and so wishy-washy.
When he learns his army has deserted him in the face of a rebellion he loses all hope and tries to deny his prior entitled royal actions (improper taxation to citizens, improper seizing of others' property/money); someone tells him to not be such a cry baby and "man up" until someone else tells him that his allies have been executed and then he gives up completely.
Act III, Scene 2
King Richard:...For God's sake let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings:
***
For you have but mistook me all this while.
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me I am a king?
Carlisle: My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail.
King Richard: Thou child'st me well...
This ague fit of fear is over-blown;
An easy task it is to win our own.
***
Go to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away;
A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharged; and let them go...
Then you have the Dukes and Lords going at it with a gage-throwing (gloves or hoods) fit - even having to borrow some when they've thrown down all they own:
Bagot: My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue
Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
Aumerle: What answer shall I make to this base man?...
With the attainder of his slanderous lips.
Fitzwater: If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest;
And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
Aumerle: Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.
Percy: Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true
In this appeal as thou art all unjust;
Surrey: As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true.
Fitzwater: Surrey, thou liest.
Surrey: Dishonorable boy!
That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword
That it shall render vengeance and revenge...
Fitzwater: ...As I intend to thrive in this new world,
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal.
Aumerle: Some honest Christian trust me with a gage
That Norfolk lies....
I probably liked old man John of Gaunt best. When he tried to tell his son to look on the brighter side of his ten year banishment:
Gaunt:...or suppose
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
And thou art flying to a fresher clime....
Suppose the singing birds musicians,
The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,
The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
Than a delightful measure or a dance;
For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
Or when he's dying and gives a famous love of England speech:
Gaunt: 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
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...
***
This royal throne of kings, this scept'red 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,
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 of defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England....
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world...
And to end with some words of warning from the deposed King Richard:
Richard: The love of wicked men converts to fear;
That fear to hate; and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.
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