Act 5, Scene 5 — Richard II — Study Shakespeare

The argument Richard alone in Pomfret Castle prison, populating his solitude with thoughts. Music plays — he meditates on time, then turns bitter. A Groom visits briefly to report seeing Barbary, Richard's horse, carry Bolingbroke at his coronation. The Keeper arrives and refuses to taste Richard's food on Exton's orders. Richard strikes him. Exton arrives with armed servants. Richard fights them, kills two, is struck down by Exton. His dying words: 'Mount, mount, my soul.' Exton immediately regrets it.

Enter Richard.

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

I have been studying how I may compare

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.

My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,

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,

For no thought is contented. The better sort,

As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed

With scruples, and do set the word itself

Against the word, as thus: “Come, little ones”;

And then again:

“It is as hard to come as for a camel

To thread the postern of a needle’s eye.”

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot

Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails

May tear a passage through the flinty ribs

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

Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame

That many have and others must sit there;

And in this thought they find a kind of ease,

Bearing their own misfortunes on the back

Of such as have before endured the like.

Thus play I in one person many people,

And none contented. Sometimes am I king;

Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,

And so I am. Then crushing penury

Persuades me I was better when a king;

Then am I kinged again, and by and by

Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke,

And straight am nothing. But whate’er I be,

Nor I nor any man that but man is

With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased

With being nothing.

I have been studying how I may compare

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.

My brain I’ll prove the female to my soul,

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,

For no thought is contented. The better sort,

As thoughts of things divine, are intermixed

With scruples, and do set the word itself

Against the word, as thus: “Come, little ones”;

And then again:

“It is as hard to come as for a camel

To thread the postern of a needle’s eye.”

Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot

Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails

May tear a passage through the flinty ribs

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

Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame

That many have and others must sit there;

And in this thought they find a kind of ease,

Bearing their own misfortunes on the back

Of such as have before endured the like.

Thus play I in one person many people,

And none contented. Sometimes am I king;

Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,

And so I am. Then crushing penury

Persuades me I was better when a king;

Then am I kinged again, and by and by

Think that I am unkinged by Bolingbroke,

And straight am nothing. But whate’er I be,

Nor I nor any man that but man is

With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased

With being nothing.

i have been studying how i may compare

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.

my brain i’ll prove the female to my soul,

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,

for no thought is contented. the better sort,

as thoughts of things divine, are intermixed

with scruples, and do set the word itself

against the word, as thus: “come, little ones”;

and then again:

“it is as hard to come as for a camel

to thread the postern of a needle’s eye.”

thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot

unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails

may tear a passage through the flinty ribs

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

who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame

that many have and others must sit there;

and in this thought they find a kind of ease,

bearing their own misfortunes on the back

of such as have before endured the like.

thus play i in one person many people,

and none contented. sometimes am i king;

then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,

and so i am. then crushing penury

persuades me i was better when a king;

then am i kinged again, and by and by

think that i am unkinged by bolingbroke,

and straight am nothing. but whate’er i be,

nor i nor any man that but man is

with nothing shall be pleased till he be eased

with being nothing.

I have been studying how I may compare This prison

"I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out." The rhetorical confession followed by immediate defiance. Richard admits the comparison breaks down logically, then proceeds anyway. This is his method throughout: acknowledge the impossibility, perform anyway.

"Thus play I in one person many people, / And none contented." The summary of the entire soliloquy, and one of Richard's most lucid self-assessments. He has always been performing. Now the audience is gone and he is performing for himself — and none of the performances satisfy.

"With nothing shall be pleased till he be eased / With being nothing." The ending is deliberately vertiginous: the only satisfaction available is the satisfaction of having no self left to dissatisfy. Richard has been arriving at this conclusion since the abdication, but only in the prison does he say it plainly.

Why it matters The prison soliloquy is Richard's final extended speech, and it does something no earlier speech does: it thinks rather than performs. For four acts Richard has used language to manage his audience — the court, the rebels, the queen. Alone in Pomfret, there is no audience. The rhetorical structures remain (his brain cannot stop making them) but the purpose has changed. He is genuinely trying to solve the problem of solitary existence. The solution he arrives at — that nothing satisfies until nothing is all you are — is the play's darkest wisdom, and he arrives at it by himself, in a room, working it out.

↩ Callback to 4-1 The prison soliloquy's 'Thus play I in one person many people' echoes Richard's theatrical self-awareness in the abdication scene — 'I'll give my jewels for a set of beads' — but here the performance is private, the audience gone.

Music do I hear? [_Music_.]

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

To check time broke in a disordered string;

But for the concord of my state and time

Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;

For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock.

My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar

Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,

Whereto my finger, like a dial’s point,

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.

Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is

Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,

Which is the bell. So sighs and tears and groans

Show minutes, times, and hours. But my time

Runs posting on in Bolingbroke’s proud joy,

While I stand fooling here, his Jack o’ the clock.

This music mads me! Let it sound no more;

For though it have holp madmen to their wits,

In me it seems it will make wise men mad.

Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me,

For ’tis a sign of love; and love to Richard

Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.

Enter a Groom of the stable.

First appearance

GROOM

A minor figure who earns enormous power by being the only person in the play who comes to Richard simply out of loyalty. He has no speech of his own worth quoting — he just shows up. 'My tongue dares not, that my heart shall say' is the most economical exit line Shakespeare ever wrote.

GROOM GROOM

Hail, royal Prince!

hail, royal prince!

Hail, royal Prince!

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

Thanks, noble peer.

The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.

What art thou, and how comest thou hither

Where no man never comes but that sad dog

That brings me food to make misfortune live?

Thanks, noble peer.

The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.

What art thou, and how comest thou hither

Where no man never comes but that sad dog

That brings me food to make misfortune live?

thanks, noble peer.

the cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.

what art thou, and how comest thou hither

where no man never comes but that sad dog

that brings me food to make misfortune live?

Thanks, noble peer. The cheapest of us is ten groa

GROOM ≋ verse GROOM

I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,

When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,

With much ado at length have gotten leave

To look upon my sometimes royal master’s face.

O, how it erned my heart when I beheld

In London streets, that coronation day,

When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,

That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,

That horse that I so carefully have dressed.

I was a poor groom of thy stable, king,

When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York,

With much ado at length have gotten leave

To look upon my sometimes royal master’s face.

O, how it erned my heart when I beheld

In London streets, that coronation day,

When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary,

That horse that thou so often hast bestrid,

That horse that I so carefully have dressed.

i was a poor groom of thy stable, king,

when thou wert king; who, travelling towards york,

with much ado at length have gotten leave

to look upon my sometimes royal master’s face.

o, how it erned my heart when i beheld

in london streets, that coronation day,

when bolingbroke rode on roan barbary,

that horse that thou so often hast bestrid,

that horse that i so carefully have dressed.

I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, When thou

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,

How went he under him?

Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend,

How went he under him?

rode he on barbary? tell me, gentle friend,

how went he under him?

Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend, How we

GROOM GROOM

So proudly as if he disdained the ground.

so proudly as if he disdained the ground.

So proudly as if he disdained the ground.

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.

Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down,

Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck

Of that proud man that did usurp his back?

Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,

Since thou, created to be awed by man,

Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,

And yet I bear a burden like an ass,

Spurred, galled and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.

So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.

Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down,

Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck

Of that proud man that did usurp his back?

Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee,

Since thou, created to be awed by man,

Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse,

And yet I bear a burden like an ass,

Spurred, galled and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke.

so proud that bolingbroke was on his back!

that jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;

this hand hath made him proud with clapping him.

would he not stumble? would he not fall down,

since pride must have a fall, and break the neck

of that proud man that did usurp his back?

forgiveness, horse! why do i rail on thee,

since thou, created to be awed by man,

wast born to bear? i was not made a horse,

and yet i bear a burden like an ass,

spurred, galled and tired by jauncing bolingbroke.

So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! That ja

"Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee" The sudden reversal is the heart of the speech. Richard starts by accusing the horse of betrayal, catches himself, apologizes — and then immediately redirects the anger back at Bolingbroke. The horse becomes a mirror for Richard's own situation: made to be ridden, bearing what he must bear.

Why it matters The Barbary horse speech is the strangest grief in the play. Richard has lost his crown, his queen, his country, his freedom. And he is grieving a horse. But the grief is real and its logic is perfect: if even the horse he fed and loved now carries Bolingbroke with pride, then there is nowhere left in the world that holds Richard's shape. The speech ends in one of Shakespeare's sharpest rhymes: 'Spurred, galled and tired by jauncing Bolingbroke' — Richard the unridden king, ground down to pack-animal status.

↩ Callback to 5-2 The Duchess of York described Bolingbroke's coronation procession in 5-2: dust thrown on Richard, cheers for Bolingbroke. The Groom's account of Barbary completing that picture — Richard's own horse carried the new king with pride.

Enter Keeper with a dish.

KEEPER. [_To the Groom_.]

Fellow, give place. Here is no longer stay.

RICHARD RICHARD

If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.

if thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.

If thou love me, ’tis time thou wert away.

GROOM GROOM

My tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.

my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.

My tongue dares not, that my heart shall say.

"My tongue dares not, that my heart shall say." The Groom's exit line is one of the most compressed emotional statements in the play. He cannot say 'I love you' or 'I am loyal to you' — it would be treasonous in the new order. So he says that he cannot say it, which says everything. The scene turns on this: the only person who comes to Richard out of pure love leaves without being able to say so.

[_Exit._]

First appearance

KEEPER

Another minor figure caught between orders from above and basic decency below. He is not cruel — he calls Richard 'My lord' — but he follows Exton's instruction. He is complicit without intending it. His 'Help, help, help!' is the alarm that brings the armed men in.

KEEPER KEEPER

My lord, will’t please you to fall to?

my lord, will’t please you to fall to?

My lord, will’t please you to fall to?

RICHARD RICHARD

Taste of it first as thou art wont to do.

taste of it first as thou art wont to do.

Taste of it first as thou art wont to do.

KEEPER ≋ verse KEEPER

My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,

Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary.

My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton,

Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary.

my lord, i dare not. sir pierce of exton,

who lately came from the king, commands the contrary.

My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton, Who late

"Sir Pierce of Exton, / Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary." The Keeper doesn't know he's announcing Richard's death sentence. He is reporting an order about food protocol. But the refusal to taste the food — the ancient protection against poison — signals to Richard that the protection has been removed. This is how sovereigns kill people: by administrative omission.

🎭 Dramatic irony The audience has just seen scene 5-4, where Exton decided to interpret Henry's words as an order to kill Richard. The Keeper doesn't know this. Richard doesn't know this. But the audience knows that the refusal to taste food is the first administrative step of a murder already decided upon.

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!

Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.

The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee!

Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.

the devil take henry of lancaster and thee!

patience is stale, and i am weary of it.

The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee! Patien

"Patience is stale, and I am weary of it." Richard's last coherent line before the fight. He has counselled patience throughout Acts 3 and 4 — resigned patience, performative patience. Now he declares it finished. The staling is exact: patience has been his posture so long it has gone rotten.

Why it matters Richard's declaration that patience has gone stale is the culmination of his entire arc. Since the deposition he has been advising himself and others to accept, to resign, to be philosophical. 'Patience is stale' is what that philosophy costs: at some point, continued acceptance is indistinguishable from complicity in your own destruction. The rage that follows — physical, impulsive, fatal — is Richard being alive in the only way left to him.

[_Strikes the Keeper._]

KEEPER KEEPER

Help, help, help!

help, help, help!

Help, help, help!

Enter Exton and Servants, armed.

RICHARD ≋ verse RICHARD

How now! What means death in this rude assault?

Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument.

How now! What means death in this rude assault?

Villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument.

how now! what means death in this rude assault?

villain, thy own hand yields thy death’s instrument.

How now! What means death in this rude assault? Vi

[_Snatching a weapon and killing one._]

Go thou and fill another room in hell.

[_He kills another, then Exton strikes him down._]

That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire

That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand

Hath with the King’s blood stained the King’s own land.

Mount, mount, my soul! Thy seat is up on high,

Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.

[_Dies._]

EXTON ≋ verse EXTON

As full of valour as of royal blood!

Both have I spilled. O, would the deed were good!

For now the devil that told me I did well

Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.

This dead king to the living king I’ll bear.

Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.

As full of valour as of royal blood!

Both have I spilled. O, would the deed were good!

For now the devil that told me I did well

Says that this deed is chronicled in hell.

This dead king to the living king I’ll bear.

Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.

as full of valour as of royal blood!

both have i spilled. o, would the deed were good!

for now the devil that told me i did well

says that this deed is chronicled in hell.

this dead king to the living king i’ll bear.

take hence the rest, and give them burial here.

As full of valour as of royal blood! Both have I s

"For now the devil that told me I did well / Says that this deed is chronicled in hell." Exton's internal devil — the voice that urged him on — has changed its testimony the moment the deed is done. Shakespeare is precise about this: the temptation vouches for the action beforehand and condemns it afterward. The guilt is designed in.

Why it matters Exton's closing speech does what Shakespeare often does at the end of violent scenes: gives the perpetrator a moment of genuine recognition. He is not a monster who celebrates. He is a man who acted on what he thought was a clear invitation and discovers, in the instant after, that the clarity was self-deception. 'Would the deed were good' — four words that contain his entire situation. He cannot unmake it. He can only carry it to the king who inspired it.

[_Exeunt._]

The Reckoning

Sixty chunks — the play's longest death scene. It earns every one. Richard's opening soliloquy is the last great rhetorical flourish of a man who has been performing his grief for four acts: here he is genuinely alone, genuinely thinking. The prison is the world stripped bare. He cycles king / beggar / nothing — and lands on nothing. The Groom's visit is the one moment of human warmth the play allows Richard in his fall. The Barbary horse speech is the strangest grief: betrayal by an animal who carries no guilt. The death is abrupt, physical, final. He dies fighting. He is more alive in those twelve seconds than he has been in three acts. Exton's closing couplets are some of the most uncomfortable in Shakespeare — a man announcing to an empty room that he wishes he hadn't done what he just did.

If this happened today…

A man in solitary confinement fills his cell with imaginary conversations. He plays all the parts — the confident one, the resigned one, the angry one. Music drifts in from somewhere. He listens to it for a long time, then asks them to turn it off. A stable hand who used to work for him gets special clearance for a fifteen-minute visit — comes to say he saw his old boss's horse carry the new man at the inauguration. The prisoner makes a speech about the horse. Then they send someone to tell him the food hasn't been inspected and he can't eat it yet. He hits the man. Six guys in body armor come in. He takes one of their weapons. He dies anyway.

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