Richard II by William Shakespeare Read Free Book Online Page A

else
But that I was a journeyman to grief?
    GAUNT     All places that the eye of heaven visits
    Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
Think not the king did banish thee,
But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour
And not the king exiled thee; or suppose
Devouring pestilence hangs in our air
And thou art flying to a fresher clime:
Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
To lie that way thou go’st, not whence thou comest:
Suppose the singing birds musicians,
The grass whereon thou tread’st the presence strewed,
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.
    Following 3.2.28:
    The means that heaven yields must be embraced,
And not neglected; else, if heaven would,
And we will not, heaven’s offer we refuse,
The proffered means of succour and redress.
    Following 4.1.52:
    LORD     I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;
    And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holloaed in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun: there is my honour’s pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou darest.
    AUMERLE     Who sets me else? By heaven, I’ll throw at all:
    I have a thousand spirits in one breast,
To answer twenty thousand such as you.

OATHS FROM THE QUARTO
    The following oaths were altered in the Folio text as a result of the Parliamentary Act to Restrain the Abuses of Players (spelling has been modernized in this list):
                       
1597 QUARTO
FOLIO
1.1.188
O God defend my soul
O, heaven defend my soul
1.2.37
God’s is the quarrel for God’s substitute
Heaven’s is the quarrel, for heaven’s substitute
1.2.43
To God the widow’s champion
To heaven, the widow’s champion
1.3.18
(Which God defend …)
Which heaven defend
1.3.37
To prove by God’s grace,
To prove, by heaven’s grace
1.3.78
God, in thy good cause
Heaven in thy good cause
1.3.85
How ever God or Fortune
However, heaven or fortune
1.3.101
… and God defend the right
And heaven defend thy right!
1.3.174
that y’owe to God,
that you owe to heaven
1.3.177
so help you truth and God
so help you truth and heaven
1.3.198
But what thou art, God, thou, and I, do know
But what thou art heaven, thou, and I, do know
1.4.58
Now put it (God) in the physician’s mind
Now put it, heaven, in his physician’s mind
1.4.63
Pray God we may make haste
Pray heaven we may make haste
2.1.240
Now afore God
Now, afore heaven,
2.2.41
God save your majesty,
Heaven save your majesty!
2.2.78
Uncle, for God’s sake
Uncle, for heaven’s sake,
2.2.99
God for his mercy
Heav’n for his mercy!
2.2.101
I would to God,
I would to heaven—
3.1.37
For God’s sake fairly
For heaven’s sake, fairly
3.2.55
God for his Ric[hard]:
Heaven for his Richard
3.2.150
For God’s sake let us
For heaven’s sake let us
3.4.108
Pray God the plants
I would the plants
4.1.8
Marry God forbid
Marry, heaven forbid!
4.1.127
Stirred up by God
Stirred up by heaven
5.2.80
God for his mercy!
Heaven for his mercy,
5.3.4
I would to God
I would to heaven,
5.3.73
… for God’s sake let me in
For heaven’s sake, let me in
5.3.132
I pardon him as God shall pardon me
I pardon him as heaven shall pardon me
5.3.148
I pray God make thee new
I pray heaven make thee new

SCENE-BY-SCENE ANALYSIS
ACT 1 SCENE 1
    The scene begins in medias res, emphasizing that the events of the play are part of a much wider span of English history, also shown by many references to the past, present, and future.
    Lines 1–151: Gaunt has brought his son, Henry Bullingbrook, Duke of Hereford, to court to make his accusations against Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Richard has the two men called “Face to face / And frowning brow to brow,” introducing recurrent themes of opposition/conflict and