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| Character | Richard II?Queen Isabel?Northumberland?? | |
|---|---|---|
| Scene type / Who are | Friends, Colleagues | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Period | Renaissance | |
| Genre | Historical, Drama | |
| Description | Queen Isabel meets her husband Richard II on his way to the Tower of London | |
| Location | ACT V, Scene 1 | |
Summary
The play is about the fall from power and death of Richard II and the rise of the first king of the house of Lancaster, Henry Bolingbroke, who will become Henry IV.
In the first scene we find Richard II acting as a judge for a dispute between Henry Bolingbroke, the king's cousin and son of John of Gaunt, and Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk. Henry Bolingbroke accuses Thomas Mowbray of being a traitor and conspiring against the king. Eventually they decide to fight in a duel. At first the king accepts but then decides to banish them from England, Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for six years.
Richard II becomes less and less popular among the nobility, especially when John Gaunt dies and he seizes all his properties and money to fund his war with Ireland.
They plan to overthrow the king and help Bolingbroke to return to England secretly. When Richard leaves to fight in Ireland, Henry Bolingbroke invades the north coast of England with an army. Richard eventually returns and Bolingbroke claims his lands back at first and then claims the crown. He becomes Henry IV and Richard is taken prisoner.
In this scene Queen Isabel meets her husband Richard II as he is taken to the Tower of London to be jailed and then executed. She laments the fact that her husband has changed a lot. As they meet, Richard advices her to forget about her past and move to France and enter a convent. She gets angry because Richard is resigned to go to prison and he replies that his fate is sealed and he can't change it. Suddenly Northumberland, a lord who fought against Richard on Bolingbroke's side, enters and informs them that Bolingbroke no longer wants to send Richard to the Tower of London but to the Pomfret castle. Richard and Isabel bid farewell to each other.
In the first scene we find Richard II acting as a judge for a dispute between Henry Bolingbroke, the king's cousin and son of John of Gaunt, and Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk. Henry Bolingbroke accuses Thomas Mowbray of being a traitor and conspiring against the king. Eventually they decide to fight in a duel. At first the king accepts but then decides to banish them from England, Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for six years.
Richard II becomes less and less popular among the nobility, especially when John Gaunt dies and he seizes all his properties and money to fund his war with Ireland.
They plan to overthrow the king and help Bolingbroke to return to England secretly. When Richard leaves to fight in Ireland, Henry Bolingbroke invades the north coast of England with an army. Richard eventually returns and Bolingbroke claims his lands back at first and then claims the crown. He becomes Henry IV and Richard is taken prisoner.
In this scene Queen Isabel meets her husband Richard II as he is taken to the Tower of London to be jailed and then executed. She laments the fact that her husband has changed a lot. As they meet, Richard advices her to forget about her past and move to France and enter a convent. She gets angry because Richard is resigned to go to prison and he replies that his fate is sealed and he can't change it. Suddenly Northumberland, a lord who fought against Richard on Bolingbroke's side, enters and informs them that Bolingbroke no longer wants to send Richard to the Tower of London but to the Pomfret castle. Richard and Isabel bid farewell to each other.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| [SCENE I. London. A street leading to the Tower.] [Enter QUEEN and Ladies] 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 II 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 lodged in thee, When triumph is become an alehouse guest? KING RICHARD II 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 awaked, the truth of what we are Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet, To grim Necessity, and he and I 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 stricken down. QUEEN What, is my Richard both in shape and mind Transform'd and weaken'd? hath Bolingbroke deposed 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'erpower'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like, Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod, And fawn on rage with base humility, Which art a lion and a king of beasts? KING RICHARD II A king of beasts, indeed; if aught but beasts, I had been still a happy king of men. Good sometime 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 and others] NORTHUMBERLAND My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is changed: You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower. And, madam, there is order ta'en for you; With all swift speed you must away to France. KING RICHARD II Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne, The time shall not be many hours of age More than it is ere foul sin gathering head Shalt break into corruption: thou shalt think, Though he divide the realm and give thee half, It is too little, helping him to all; And he shall think that thou, which know'st the way To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again, Being ne'er so little urged, another way To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy danger and deserved death. NORTHUMBERLAND My guilt be on my head, and there an end. Take leave and part; for you must part forthwith. KING RICHARD II Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate A twofold marriage, 'twixt my crown and me, And then betwixt me and my married wife. Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me; And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made. Part us, Northumberland; I toward the north, Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime; My wife to France: from whence, set forth in pomp, She came adorned hither like sweet May, Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day. QUEEN And must we be divided? must we part? KING RICHARD II Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart. QUEEN Banish us both and send the king with me. NORTHUMBERLAND That were some love but little policy. QUEEN Then whither he goes, thither let me go. KING RICHARD II So two, together weeping, make one woe. Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here; Better far off than near, be ne'er the near. Go, count thy way with sighs; I mine with groans. QUEEN So longest way shall have the longest moans. KING RICHARD II Twice for one step I'll groan, the way being short, And piece the way out with a heavy heart. Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief, Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief; One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part; Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart. QUEEN Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part To take on me to keep and kill thy heart. So, now I have mine own again, be gone, That I might strive to kill it with a groan. KING RICHARD II We make woe wanton with this fond delay: Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say. [Exeunt] |
