The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 4 of 9]Shakespeare, William
General
The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 4 of 9]
Shakespeare, William
English drama
_Exton._ And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me;[1879]
As who should say, 'I would thou wert the man[1880]
That would divorce this terror from my heart;'
Meaning the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go: 10
I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [_Exeunt._[1881]
SCENE V. _Pomfret castle._
_Enter_ KING RICHARD.[1882]
_K. Rich._ I have been studying how I may compare[1883]
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.[1884] 5
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,[1885]
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, 10
For no thought is contented. The better sort,[1886]
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself[1887]
Against the word:[1887][1888][1889]
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,[1888] 15
'It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'[1890]
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs[1891] 20
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[1892] 25
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,[1893]
That many have and others must sit there;[1894]
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back[1895]
Of such as have before endured the like. 30
Thus play I in one person many people,[1896]
And none contented: sometimes am I king;[1897]
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,[1898]
And so I am: then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king; 35
Then am I king'd again: and by and by[1899]
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,[1900]
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased[1901] 40
With being nothing. Music do I hear? [_Music._[1902]
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear[1903] 45
To check time broke in a disorder'd string;[1904]
But for the concord of my state and time
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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