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75 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;
So that, in this unjust divorce of us,
Fortune had left to both of us alike
What to delight in, what to sorrow for.
(...)
Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss;
That by misfortunes was my life prolong'd,
To tell sad stories of my own mishaps.
Speaker: Egeon
Play: Comedy of Errors, Act I, Scene I
The merchant Egeon is to be executed by Duke Solinus, because he cannot afford the fee he has to pay for being a Syracusian in Ephesus. Ephesus describes all the terrible things that have happened to his family, and there’s lot of talk of “splitting” and “divorcing” and “severing.”
Speaker 1:
Farewell till then: I will go lose myself
And wander up and down to view the city.
First Merchant
Sir, I commend you to your own content.
Speaker 1:
He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
Speaker: Antipholus of Syracuse
Play: Comedy of Errors, Act I, Scene II
Antipholus of Syracuse shows up in Ephesus. He is sad because he’s searching for his brother and mother.
Something from my notes, that Peter Platt probably said: Suggests there’s a danger with being insular, alone because there’s a larger body to find, that relationship, merging, blending is the answer. But there’s also a downside: that what will complete him will also end him. Is he losing himself by trying to find them but failing, or is he losing himself by finding them? Constantly worried that they will lose themselves. If he defines himself through the search/loss of a brother, who will he be if he succeeds?
Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.
There's nothing situate under heaven's eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:
The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,
Are their males' subjects and at their controls:
Men, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,
Indued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords:
Then let your will attend on their accords.
Speaker: Luciana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene I
Adriana and Luciana argue about men and women, husbands and wives. Luciana: Men have more power, rule, works out o’ door, rule all domains, different spheres, women’s world is that of the household,
Adriana: Is frustrated that she doesn’t know where her husband is, is jealous (probably unfounded), thinks that Luciana can’t understand because she isn’t married.
Patience unmoved! no marvel though she pause;
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more would we ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me,
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.
Speaker: Adriana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene I
Adriana and Luciana argue about men and women, husbands and wives.
Adriana: Is frustrated that she doesn’t know where her husband is, is jealous (probably unfounded), thinks that Luciana can’t understand because she isn’t married.
Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:
Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects;
I am not Adriana nor thy wife.
The time was once when thou unurged wouldst vow
That never words were music to thine ear,
That never object pleasing in thine eye,
That never touch well welcome to thy hand,
That never meat sweet-savor'd in thy taste,
Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carved to thee.
How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it,
That thou art thus estranged from thyself?
Thyself I call it, being strange to me,
That, undividable, incorporate,
Am better than thy dear self's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me!
For know, my love, as easy mayest thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulf,
And take unmingled that same drop again,
Without addition or diminishing,
As take from me thyself and not me too.
Speaker: Adriana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene II
Adriana’s drop of water speech. She thinks she is speaking to her husband, but she’s really speaking to his brother. Very intimate speech, but said to a stranger (Antipholus of Syracuse). Even good people misread. She’s talking to the wrong guy, about how he isn’t being who she needs him to be.
Using water metaphor. What happens when selves blur and blend in marriage. In her mind, he’s estranged from her and therefore from himself. They define each other. You can’t pull the drop of water out of the whole again. If you shun me, you shun yourself. When she imagines bodies and fluids and bodies mingling, it becomes even more complicated. None of it bad unless the other person betrays you. You can’t unmingle. If one person strays, both are contaminated.
How dearly would it touch me to the quick,
Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious
And that this body, consecrate to thee,
By ruffian lust should be contaminate!
Wouldst thou not spit at me and spurn at me
And hurl the name of husband in my face
And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot-brow
And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring
And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?
I know thou canst; and therefore see thou do it.
I am possess'd with an adulterate blot;
My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:
For if we too be one and thou play false,
I do digest the poison of thy flesh,
Being strumpeted by thy contagion.
Keep then far league and truce with thy true bed;
I live unstain'd, thou undishonoured.
Speaker: Adriana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act II, Scene II
Adriana’s drop of water speech. She thinks she is speaking to her husband, but she’s really speaking to his brother. Very intimate speech, but said to a stranger (Antipholus of Syracuse). Even good people misread. She’s talking to the wrong guy, about how he isn’t being who she needs him to be.
Using water metaphor. What happens when selves blur and blend in marriage. In her mind, he’s estranged from her and therefore from himself. They define each other. You can’t pull the drop of water out of the whole again. If you shun me, you shun yourself. When she imagines bodies and fluids and bodies mingling, it becomes even more complicated. None of it bad unless the other person betrays you. You can’t unmingle. If one person strays, both are contaminated.
(part of a larger speech)
And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband's office? shall, Antipholus.
Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth's sake use her with more kindness:
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;
Look sweet, be fair, become disloyalty;
Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger;
Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint;
Be secret-false: what need she be acquainted?
What simple thief brags of his own attaint?
'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed
And let her read it in thy looks at board:
Shame hath a bastard fame, well managed;
Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women! make us but believe,
Being compact of credit, that you love us;
Though others have the arm, show us the sleev
Speaker: Luciana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act III, Scene II:
Luciana talks to Antipholus of Syracuse (though she thinks he’s Ephesus) about how if he is unfaithful, he should hide it. Women thrive on appearances. He falls in love with her after this speech, further complicating the plot.
With words that in an honest suit might move.
First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.
Speaker: Luciana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene II
Luciana tells Adriana that Adriana’s “husband” has professed his love for Luciana. (Spoiler: Adriana isn’t thrilled.)
Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains
To go with us into the abbey here
And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes:
And all that are assembled in this place,
That by this sympathized one day's error
Have suffer'd wrong, go keep us company,
And we shall make full satisfaction.
Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail
Of you, my sons; and till this present hour
My heavy burden ne'er delivered.
The duke, my husband and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a gossips' feast and go with me;
After so long grief, such festivity!
Speaker: Luciana
Play: The Comedy of Errors, Act V, Scene I
Everyone is finally in one place, which causes a lot of confusion. Emilia is summoned by the Duke to untangle the mess, and after she does, invites the Duke to join the family in the Abbey where they will go over everything that’s happened, so that he will understand and spare Egeon’s life.
Nay, then, thus:
We came into the world like brother and brother;
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
Speaker: Dromio of Ephesus
Play: The Comedy of Errors Act V, Scene I:
Last exchange of the play. The two Dromios are the only characters who seem to have a definitively happy ending, and they go off hand in hand, speaking in couplets. Dromio of Syracuse is only happy to have found his brother, and doesn’t feel any of the ambivalence that other characters have expressed towards finding their “other halves,” whether those be siblings or romantic partners. They find themselves in each other.
For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster,
The honourable father to my foe
Once did I lay an ambush for your life,
A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul
But ere I last received the sacrament
I did confess it, and exactly begg'd
Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it.
This is my fault: as for the rest appeall'd,
It issues from the rancour of a villain,
A recreant and most degenerate traitor
Which in myself I boldly will defend;
And interchangeably hurl down my gage
Upon this overweening traitor's foot,
To prove myself a loyal gentleman
Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom.
In haste whereof, most heartily I pray
Your highness to assign our trial day.
Speaker: Mowbray
Play: Richard IIAct I, Scene I: Here, Mowbray is speaking to Bolingbroke and Richard regarding Bolingbroke’s allegations that he took part in the killing of the Duke of Gloucester (Richard’s uncle) and other crimes, such as embezzling. Mowbray is denying these charges. Important because Richard was involved in his uncle’s death, yet he exiles both of the men and Mowbray eventually dies in exile.
Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me;
Let's purge this choler without letting blood:
This we prescribe, though no physician;
Deep malice makes too deep incision;
Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed;
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed.
Good uncle, let this end where it begun;
We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son.
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II, Act I, Scene I:
Directly following the previous quote, Richard responds to the men throwing down their “gages.” Richard is attempting to get the men to calm down and “be ruled by him,” but he is obviously just trying to hide his own guilt in the crime. He begins to speak in rhymed couplets, indicating that he is using a more formal, kingly speech.
We were not born to sue, but to command;
Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,
At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day:
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate
The swelling difference of your settled hate:
Since we can not atone you, we shall see
Justice design the victor's chivalry.
Lord marshal, command our officers at arms
Be ready to direct these home alarms.
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II, Act I, Scene I
Act I, Scene I: concludes the scene, as Richard is setting up the duel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray that began with Bolingbroke accusing Mowbray for playing a role in the death of the Duke of Gloucester (for which Richard is guilty). Both of them are subsequently exiled for the King’s crime. He is, once again, using the royal “we” and rhyming couplets.
Therefore, we banish you our territories:
You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields
Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II, Act I, Scene III
Here Richard is giving out the sentence to Bolingbroke after halting the duel between Bolingbroke and Mowbray. He didn’t want to let these men die for his personal crime, so he chooses to exile them both.
A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness' hands.
The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:
And now my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
Or like a cunning instrument cased up,
Or, being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
And dull unfeeling barren ignorance
Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now:
What is thy sentence then but speechless death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
Speaker: Mowbray
Play: Richard II
Act I, Scene III: Mowbray is lamenting his lifelong exile from England (for Richard’s crime). He is drawing the connection between belonging to a country and language. All he has known in his life is English and he feels he cannot be English if he cannot speak it.
First, heaven be the record to my speech!
In the devotion of a subject's love,
Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,
Come I appellant to this princely presence.
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak
My body shall make good upon this earth,
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven.
Thou art a traitor and a miscreant,
Too good to be so and too bad to live,
Since the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.
Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move,
What my tongue speaks my right drawn sword may prove.
Speaker: Henry Bolingbroke
Play: Richard II
Act I, Scene I: Bolingbroke accuses Mowbray of killing the Duke of Gloucester, and criticizes his character. From the first scene of the play, so there isn’t much other context.
Speaker 1:
Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away.
To Speaker 2
Six frozen winter spent,
Return with welcome home from banishment.
Speaker 2:
How long a time lies in one little word!
Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
End in a word: such is the breath of kings.
Speaker 1: Richard, Speaker 2: Bolingbroke
Play Richard II:
Act I, Scene III: Richard is attempting to make Bolingbroke and Gaunt feel better by removing four years from Bolingbroke’s ten year exile from England. However, Gaunt (who is very old and well...gaunt) tells Richard that he will still die before his son’s return and criticizes the fact that King’s words turn into actions which have ramifications for others.
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 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.
Speaker: John of Gaunt
Play: Richard II
--
Act I, Scene III: Gaunt speaks to Bolingbroke, who is lamenting his six year exile from England. He is being poetic and philosophical, telling his son to imagine the circumstances differently-- as if he banished the King and not the other way around. Look at the positive side. He is telling him to re-shape reality in a way that suits him. Bolingbroke responds that he cannot see things this way and he cannot imagine away his misery.
O, who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more
Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore.
Speaker: Bolingbroke
Play: Richard II
--
Act I, Scene III: Gaunt speaks to Bolingbroke, who is lamenting his six year exile from England. He is being poetic and philosophical, telling his son to imagine the circumstances differently-- as if he banished the King and not the other way around. Look at the positive side. He is telling him to re-shape reality in a way that suits him. Bolingbroke responds that he cannot see things this way and he cannot imagine away his misery.
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

Landlord of England art thou now, not king;
Thy state of law is bondslave to the law,
Speaker: John of Gaunt
Play: Richard II
Act II, Scene I: Gaunt is on his death bed and he is lamenting the current state of England. Richard has been renting out land and he is sad that he must die when his country is in such a state. This relates to Richard’s problems as a ruler, as he has denigrated the country.
O my liege,
Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleased
Not to be pardon'd, am content withal.
Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands
The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford?
Is not Gaunt dead, and doth not Hereford live?
Was not Gaunt just, and is not Harry true?
Did not the one deserve to have an heir?
Is not his heir a well-deserving son?
Take Hereford's rights away, and take from Time
His charters and his customary rights;
Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;
Be not thyself; for how art thou a king
But by fair sequence and succession?
Now, afore God--God forbid I say true!--
If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,
Call in the letters patent that he hath
By his attorneys-general to sue
His livery, and deny his offer'd homage,
You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,
You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts
And prick my tender patience, to those thoughts
Which honour and allegiance cannot think.
Speaker: York
Play: Richard II
Act II, Scene I: This is York’s response to Richard’s plan to seize all of Gaunt’s land after Gaunt’s death. He argues that Gaunt was a loyal subject and that his son, Bolingbroke, should receive his land. Richard will not listen to his pleas, showing even more of his errors and cruelty as a King.
Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing but confusion, eyed awry
Distinguish form: so your sweet majesty,
Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
Find shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not: more's not seen;
Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,
Which for things true weeps things imaginary.
Speaker: Bushy
Play: Richard II
Act II, Scene II: Bushy, a trusted advisor to Richard, is talking to the Queen, who says she has a bad feeling about what is happening and mourns his absence, as he has just left for Ireland. Bushy is essentially telling her that it will all be okay and that she is just imagining things.
SPEAKER 1: Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords:
This earth shall have a feeling and these stones
Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king
Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms.
SPEAKER 2:
Fear not, my lord: that Power that made you king
Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.
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 proffer'd means of succor and redress.
SPEAKER 1: Richard, Speaker 2: Carlisle
Play: Richard II
Act III, Scene II: Richard is giving a passionate speech after he is wrongly told that Bushy and Green have betrayed him. Carlisle is assuring him that divine right put him in power, but will keep him in power; however they can’t sit back and do nothing.
No matter where; of comfort no man speak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
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?
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II
Act III, Scene II: This occurs after Richard has returned from Ireland. Here he is questioning the power of Kingship, as he is not sure if he is protected by divine right or susceptible to mortality, as all humans are. Coming to terms with his body natural as he loses his grip on the body politic.
Marry. God forbid!
Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here that is not Richard's subject?
Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
And shall the figure of God's majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God,
That in a Christian climate souls refined
Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed!
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king:
My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy:
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act;
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound;
Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls.
O, if you raise this house against this house,
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.
Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe!
Speaker: Carlisle
Play: Richard II
Act IV, Scene I: Bolded parts are the sections we discussed in class. Here, The Bishop of Carlisle, who is very loyal to Richard, is condemning Bolingbroke’s usurpation of the throne. He is condemning Bolingbroke for his insurrection of the rightful King and is warning him that generations to come will suffer because of what he is doing. He is arrested by Northumberland right after.
Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be;
Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.
Now mark me, how I will undo myself;
I give this heavy weight from off my head
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown,
With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,
With mine own breath release all duty's rites:
All pomp and majesty I do forswear;
My manors, rents, revenues I forego;
My acts, decrees, and statutes I deny:
God pardon all oaths that are broke to me!
God keep all vows unbroke that swear to thee!
Make me, that nothing have, with nothing grieved,
And thou with all pleased, that hast all achieved!
Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,
And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!
God save King Harry, unking'd Richard says,
And send him many years of sunshine days!
What more remains?
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II
Act IV, Scene I: Richard has just been asked by Bolingbroke if he is “contented to resign the crown.” Richard is putting it off and trying to maintain his power before this speech, but here he gives a speech in which he relinquishes his power. This speech is notable for how he is undecking himself of the pomp related to his rule.
Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot see:
And yet salt water blinds them not so much
But they can see a sort of traitors here.
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
I find myself a traitor with the rest;
For I have given here my soul's consent
To undeck the pompous body of a king;
Made glory base and sovereignty a slave,
Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant.
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II
Act IV, Scene I: Here, Richard has just given up his throne and calls for a looking glass. He stares into it and wonders aloud about his new identity, since he is no longer a King. He needs to know whether he still exists by looking at a mirror- that is how much being a King comprises his identity.
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 burthen like an ass,
Spurr'd, gall'd and tired by jouncing Bolingbroke.
Speaker: Richard
Play: Richard II
Act V, Scene V: Richard is being held at Pomfret castle (Henry VI is now king) and a groom comes in to speak with him. He has been soliloquizing about his own fall and loneliness. Groom still supports Richard and comes to wish him well.
They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.
The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word nor princely favour:
With Cain go wander through shades of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light.
Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe,
That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow:
Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on sullen black incontinent:
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,
To wash this blood off from my guilty hand:
March sadly after; grace my mournings here;
In weeping after this untimely bier.
Speaker: Henry Bolingbroke
Play: Richard II
Act V, Scene VI: Richard has been killed by Exton, and Exton has traveled to Henry IV with his body. Henry now denies having ordered Richard murdered, and vows to go to the Holy Land to wash off the guilt.
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way and be no more opposed
Against acquaintance, kindred and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans in those holy fields
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go:
Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree
In forwarding this dear expedience.
Speaker: King Henry IV
Play: Henry IV Part 1
Act I, scene i: Opening monologue. King Henry IV is speaking to his counselors, though many of the people who helped him rise to power in Richard II are now proving to be problematic. He is tired of the civil war that has been going on in England, and wants to unite the country, and wants to lead a crusade.
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.
Speaker: Hal
Play: Henry IV, Part 1
Act I, scene ii: Poins has convinced Hal to join him in a practical joke, where they will watch has Falstaff and others perform a robbery, and then Hal and Poins will rob Falstaff, so they can later listen to his tale and make fun of him for exaggerating. Once Hal is alone, he soliloquizes about his plan to lower everyone’s expectations of him so that he can pleasantly surprise everyone when he becomes king.
Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower,
Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then,
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we but treason? and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.
Speaker: King Henry IV
Play: henry IV 1
Act I, scene iii: Henry is in the castle. Hotspur has refused to release the prisoners he captured in Scotland, and Henry is very angry at Hotspurs rebellion. Blunt suggests executing him, but Henry notes that Hotspur’s death would not bring back the prisoners. Hotspur has demanded that Henry pay the ransom for Hotspur brother-in-law, Mortimer, who was captured after the Welsh defeated his army. Henry thinks that Mortimer may have lost the battle on purpose, and calls him a traitor. Also, Mortimer has married Glendower’s daughter.
Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him;
He never did encounter with Glendower:
I tell thee,
He durst as well have met the devil alone
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland,
We licence your departure with your son.
Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it.
Speaker: Henry IV
Play: King Henry IV
Act I, scene iii: Same scene as previous. In response to Hotspur claiming that Mortimer never faltered and it not a traitor, Henry IV says that Hotspur is lying, and that Mortimer would never fight Glendower. Henry maintains that Hotspur should release his prisoners and leaves the room.
Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' son your only mean
For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
Which I shall send you written, be assured,
Will easily be granted. You, my lord,
(To Northumberland)
Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
The archbishop.
Speaker: Earl of Worcester
Play: Henry IV 1
Act I, scene iii: After Henry has left the room, Hotspur becomes enraged that Henry will not pay the ransom for Mortimer. The only thing that can make him quiet down is the news that Worcester has a plan, which he calls his “secret book.” He wants Hotspur to make peace with the Douglas and form a Scottish alliance by giving them back all the soldiers he has captured. Northumberland is to contact the Archbishop of York, who is unhappy because Henry executed his brother for conspiring against the king’s life.
And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,
To save our heads by raising of a head;
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
The king will always think him in our debt,
And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
And see already how he doth begin
To make us strangers to his looks of love.
Speaker: Earl of Worcester
Play: Henry IV 1
Act I, scene iii: Explanation of why they want to get rid of the king, because he owes them and they are afraid that he will get rid of them.
SPEAKER 1:
As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what
cunning match have you made with this jest of the
drawer? come, what's the issue?
SPEAKER 2:
That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a
parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is
upstairs and downstairs; his eloquence the parcel of
a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the
Hotspur of the north; he that kills me some six or
seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his
hands, and says to his wife 'Fie upon this quiet
life! I want work.' 'O my sweet Harry,' says she,
'how many hast thou killed to-day?' 'Give my roan
horse a drench,' says he; and answers 'Some
fourteen,' an hour after; 'a trifle, a trifle.' I
prithee, call in Falstaff: I'll play Percy, and
that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his
wife. 'Rivo!' says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow.
Speaker 1: Poins, Speaker 2: Hal
Play: Henry IV, 1
Act II, scene v: At the Boar’s-Head Tavern. This is the payoff of the Falstaff robbery plot, and also shows how different Hal is from Hotspur. The tavern is a play space, a carnival space. Hal and Poins have pulled a prank on the barkeep, before Falstaff joins them, by calling his name out repeatedly. Hal learns how people function and how the world works through language.
I cannot choose: sometime he angers me
With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven,
A couching lion and a ramping cat,
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith. I tell you what;
He held me last night at least nine hours
In reckoning up the several devils' names
That were his lackeys: I cried 'hum,' and 'well, go to,'
But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious
As a tired horse, a railing wife;
Worse than a smoky house: I had rather live
With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates and have him talk to me
In any summer-house in Christendom.
Speaker: Hotspur
Play: Henry IV, 1
Act III, Scene I: Hotspur also comes to blows with Glendower. It is a clash of egos and they are both sure of their own greatness. Hotspur is a man of action, and he is tired of hearing of Glendower’s talk of magic and rituals. Takes place as the leaders of the rebel army are strategizing.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wonder'd at;
That men would tell their children 'This is he;'
Others would say 'Where, which is Bolingbroke?'
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dress'd myself in such humility
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast
And won by rareness such solemnity.
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state,
Mingled his royalty with capering fools,
Had his great name profaned with their scorns
Speaker: Henry IV
Play: Henry IV, 1

Act III, scene ii: Henry and Hal talk about being royals. Here, we hear what Henry thinks a king should be like and it helps us understand the tension between the two. Henry thinks that Hal cheapens the royal aura of mystery, and that if he is too much in the world, his power with the people will be diminished. However, we know that Hal is acting so that he can, once he is king, reveal himself and surprise the people positively. Both father and son are interested in fabricating wonder, and they are both deeply rooted in doubleness.
Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
In this fine age were not thought flattery,
Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general current through the world.
By God, I cannot flatter; I do defy
The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
...
He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,
The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?
Speaker: Hotspur
Play: Henry IV, 1
Act IV, scene i: Hotspur is opposite Richard, Henry and Hal in that he finds rhetorics and pretending repulsive, and would never use flattery (and is in that way also opposite Falstaff). The rebel leaders are getting ready for battle.
Cousin, I think thou art enamoured
On his follies: never did I hear
Of any prince so wild a libertine.
But be he as he will, yet once ere night
I will embrace him with a soldier's arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.
Arm, arm with speed: and, fellows, soldiers, friends,
Better consider what you have to do
Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with persuasion.
Speaker: Hotspur
Play: Henry IV, 1
Act V, scene ii: Worcester has decided not to tell Hotspur about Henry’s offer of amnesty or about Hal’s challenging him to one-on-one combat, as he does not want Hotspur to accept peace. Instead, Worcester lies and tells Hotspur that Henry has been mocking them, and Hotspur declares his wish to fight him. Now, Worcester tells him of Hal’s offer. He tells him that Hal has been saying nice things about him, but Hotspur doesn’t buy it. He thinks that Worcester has been charmed by Hal’s wildness and foolishness. Hotspur can only act, not speak.
SPEAKER 1:
Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads:
I am the Douglas, fatal to all those
That wear those colours on them: what art thou,
That counterfeit'st the person of a king?
SPEAKER 2:
The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart
So many of his shadows thou hast met
And not the very king. I have two boys
Seek Percy and thyself about the field:
But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.
Speaker 1: The Douglas, Speaker 2: King Henry IV
Play: Henry IV, 1
Act V, scene iv: The Douglas has killed Blunt thinking it was Henry, but was later told that it wasn’t. Now he finally sees the real king. There are multiple Henry IVs on the battlefield (also in historical source text). In some ways, Henry is a counterfeit king, in that he stole the crown, but also in that he is being portrayed by an actor on the stage. Shakespeare is becoming increasingly self-referential about putting history on stage.
Open your ears; for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defence,
Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
I run before King Harry's victory;
Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebel's blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me: from Rumour's tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than
true wrongs.
Speaker: Rumor
Play: Henry IV, 2
Prologue: Rumor opens the play (Rumor is a messenger--causes nations to get ready for war when no war is coming, etc) and talks about the Earl of Northumberland, who is part of the conspiracy to overthrow Henry. His son, Hotspur was just defeated by the King and Rumor is telling Northumberland that his side has won and that Hotspur is safe (lies).
For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
In poison there is physic; and these news,
Having been well, that would have made me sick,
Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enraged with grief,
Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif!
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!
Speaker: Northumberland
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act I, Scene I: This is Northumberland’s response to the third messenger that comes to him, Morton, telling him that the rebellion has lost and that Hotspur, his son, is dead at the hands of Prince Hal. He is heartbroken and and vows to take revenge.
We all that are engaged to this loss
Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
That if we wrought our life 'twas ten to one;
And yet we ventured, for the gain proposed
Choked the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And since we are o'erset, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.
Speaker: Bardolph
Play: Henry Iv, 2
Act I, Scene I: Bardolph is trying to calm Northumberland down (who has just found out that the rebellion lost and that his son is dead). He is arguing that they all knew the risks before the war began, as did Hotspur. Gambling language-- putting things out there and not knowing the outcome, which is the way he thinks about the world. Minimizing losses by having more knowledge.
Speaker 1:
By this hand thou thinkest me as far in the devil's
book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and
persistency: let the end try the man. But I tell
thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so
sick: and keeping such vile company as thou art
hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.
Speaker 2:
The reason?
Speaker 1:
What wouldst thou think of me, if I should weep?
Speaker 2:
I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
Speaker 1:
It would be every man's thought; and thou art a
blessed fellow to think as every man thinks: never
a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way
better than thine: every man would think me an
hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most
worshipful thought to think so?
Speaker 1: Hal Speaker 2: Poins
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act II, Scene II: Prince Hal has returned from Battle, accompanied by Poins. He is discussing why is so sad: His father is sick and he fears that a sincere show of affection will not be believed by his father. He cannot control his drama--almost denies himself and his father the recognition that is vital to the play.
He had no legs that practised not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To seem like him: so that in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,
In military rules, humours of blood,
He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashion'd others. And him, O wondrous him!
O miracle of men! him did you leave,
Second to none, unseconded by you,
To look upon the hideous god of war
In disadvantage; to abide a field
Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
Did seem defensible: so you left him.
Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong
To hold your honour more precise and nice
With others than with him! let them alone:
The marshal and the archbishop are strong:
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.
Speaker: Lady Percy
Play: Henry Iv, 2
Act II, Scene III: Lady Percy is angry, because Northumberland is talking about his plans to go back to war against the King. Her husband (Hotspur) just died and she is trying to persuade him not to go, by blaming Northumberland because he refused to send troops to help Hotspur at Shrewsbury. She argues that there is little point in returning to war. Calculated move to make him feel as much grief as she does about Hotspur.
How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Speaker: King Henry IV
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act III, Scene I: Discussing the difficulties of being King, because even his poorest subjects can sleep at night, but he is kept up. Concludes that power means unhappiness. Becoming aware of his weakness as King.
O God! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent,
Weary of solid firmness, melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
The happiest youth, viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
'Tis not 'ten years gone
Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and in two years after
Were they at wars: it is but eight years since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul,
Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs
And laid his love and life under my foot,
Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard
Gave him defiance.
Speaker: King Henry IV
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act III, Scene I: Here, King Henry is clearly thinking about his rebellion eight years before (now that Northumberland is rebelling) when Northumberland was his ally. He is realizing that he is not the rightful King and is not enacting the change he planned to when usurping Richard. He only has himself to blame, as he sets the precedent for rebellion, so he shouldn’t be surprised that people are taking after him.
You are well encounter'd here, my cousin Mowbray:
Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop;
And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.
My Lord of York, it better show'd with you
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text
Than now to see you here an iron man,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword and life to death.
That man that sits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abrooch
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us the speaker in his parliament;
To us the imagined voice of God himself;
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
But you misuse the reverence of your place,
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of his substitute, my father,
And both against the peace of heaven and him
Have here up-swarm'd them.
Speaker: Lancaster
Play: Henry Iv, 2
Act IV, Scene II: Lancaster is lecturing the Archbishop about taking up arms against the King when he should be at home with his bible, preaching about peace and obedience. He argues that the Archbishop is abusing his religious authority by using it to get people riled up against the King.
O my son,
God put it in thy mind to take it hence,
That thou mightst win the more thy father's love,
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it!
Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed;
And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
I met this crown; and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head.
To thee it shall descend with bitter quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation;
For all the soil of the achievement goes
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand,
And I had many living to upbraid
My gain of it by their assistances;
Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,
Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears
Thou see'st with peril I have answered;
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument: and now my death
Changes the mode; for what in me was purchased,
Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;
So thou the garland wear'st successively.
Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green;
And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
By whose fell working I was first advanced
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displaced: which to avoid,
I cut them off; and had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land,
Lest rest and lying still might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days.
More would I, but my lungs are wasted so
That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
How I came by the crown, O God forgive;
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
Speaker: King Henry IV
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act IV, Scene V: This occurs after Henry has taken the crown preemptively… King Henry forgives his son, who explains that he thought his father was already dead and wanted to yell at the crown as it killed his father. Here, Henry and his son are having a heart to heart, where he admits to stealing it like Henry did and that his plan to go to Jerusalem was just a diversionary tactic to keep people from deposing him. He asks God to forgive him. Important, because if they hadn’t had this misunderstanding, they wouldn’t understand each other so well before Henry’s death.
I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old and so profane;
But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men.
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strengths and qualities,
Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
To see perform'd the tenor of our word. Set on.
Speaker: Hal
Play: Henry IV, 2
Act V, Scene V: Hal is now King and Falstaff is at Westminster Abbey to greet his old friend. Here, the King ignores Falstaff and tells him that he does not know him, but he remembers dreaming of a fat, obscene, and ridiculous man. He says he just woke up and despises that former dream. He elaborates how he has changed now that he is King. Banishes Falstaff from himself--cannot come within ten miles, but they will receive adequate income so they don’t go back into crime. Shows how Henry does in fact become more serious when he is King, as he predicted in part I.
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
Prologue: To make up for the inadequacies of the stage, the audience has to imagine many things. We can’t do justice to the historical truth of Henry V. We can’t represent Henry V in all of his glory, so you’re going to have to fill it out with your own imagination, have to use imagination to make the story come to life. But is the chorus telling the truth? Lowers expectations, then DAZZLES us.
Never came reformation in a flood,
With such a heady currance, scouring faults
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat and all at once
As in this king.
Speaker: Canterbury
Play: Henry V
Act I, scene i: Canterbury is talking about how Hal has made such a huge change so quickly, no one knew that he would turn out so well, since Hal has spent the last two plays lowering everyone’s expectations. Useful for people who aren’t familiar to what happened in the other plays.
Speaker 1:
He seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
For I have made an offer to his majesty,
Upon our spiritual convocation
And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France, to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predecessors part withal.
Speaker 2:
How did this offer seem received, my lord?
Speaker 1:
With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
The severals and unhidden passages
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
And generally to the crown and seat of France
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
Speaker 1: Canterbury, Speaker 2: Ely
Play: Henry V
Act I, scene i: Somebody is trying to pass a bill that would take away church land and money, and the churchmen are hoping that Hal will support them. They have been made very wealthy from the land, and are afraid of losing their money and power, even though the bill would redirect this wealth to support the army and the poor. Canterbury has made the offer to invade France, which he hopes would distract Hal from passing this bill. Canterbury has pledged the support of the clergymen to this way, but actually it’s in order to keep their power/money/stuff.
Speaker 1:
Thus, then, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says that you savour too much of your youth,
And bids you be advised there's nought in France
That can be with a nimble galliard won;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.
...
Speaker 2
We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have march'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
(…)
But I will rise there with so full a glory
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; and his soul
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance
That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;
Speaker 1: First Ambassador, Speaker 2: King Henry (Hal)
Play: Henry V
Act I, Scene II: The clergymen and Hal’s advisors have all convinced him to invade France, because of his “claim” to the throne. He has just brought in the Ambassadors from France to tell them of his plans. They bring the Dauphin’s gift of tennis balls, which is a comment on Hal’s sportive and idle youth. Hal is upset at this gesture and says that he will turn them into gun stones and shoot them back.
Now all the youth of England are on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies:
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man:
Speaker: Chorus
Play: Henry V
Act II, prologue: An example of how the Chorus lies sometimes. Emphasizes honor and nobility, but this act mainly focuses on Cambridge conspiracy. Hal has betrayed Falstaff, Pistol talks about profiting from the war.
From him; and thus he greets your majesty.
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,
That you divest yourself, and lay apart
The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven,
By law of nature and of nations, 'long
To him and to his heirs; namely, the crown
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain
By custom and the ordinance of times
Unto the crown of France. That you may know
'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim,
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the dust of old oblivion raked,
He sends you this most memorable line,
In every branch truly demonstrative;
Willing to overlook this pedigree:
And when you find him evenly derived
From his most famed of famous ancestors,
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
Speaker: Exeter
Play: Henry V
Act II, scene iv: The English nobleman Exeter arrives bearing a message from King Henry. Henry has already landed in France, and he now formally demands that King Charles yield up the crown of France and all the honors and land that go with it. If Charles refuses, Henry promises to invade France and take it by force. Exeter tells Charles to consider carefully and return an answer quickly. Charles says that in the morning he will send Exeter back to his king with an answer. Exeter portrays French claim to the throne as something historical, custom, as opposed to Henry V’s natural claim.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.
Speaker: King Henry V/Hal
Play: Henry V
Act III, Scene I: Hal’s battle cry as his soldiers are preparing for the Battle at Harfleur. He compares his troops to tigers (and transforms them)--transforming one thing into another. He also uses nationalistic language and urges the men to fight for their right to be called English.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
In liberty of bloody hand shall range
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,
Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein can hold licentious wickedness
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?
Speaker: King Henry V/Hal
Play: Henry V
Act III, Scene III: Henry is addressing the Governor of Harfleur, as the town had sounded a parley. King Henry addresses him, advising him to surrender immediately. Henry declares that if the governor surrenders, the people of the town will be allowed to live; if he makes the English fight their way inside, however, the English will destroy the town, rape the women, and kill the children.
No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I
speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as I
am: the violet smells to him as it doth to me: the
element shows to him as it doth to me; all his
senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies
laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and
though his affections are higher mounted than ours,
yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like
wing. Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we
do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish
as ours are: yet, in reason, no man should possess
him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing
it, should dishearten his army.
Speaker: King Henry V
Play: Henry V
Act IV, Scene I: Hal has borrowed a plain, dirty cloak and sits by a campfire, anonymously talking to whoever walks by. Hal is amongst the soldiers and they do not recognize him. He discusses his own humanity-- arguing that the King is still a man who feels...basically defends himself. They are doubting the King’s courage and motives for war.
What infinite heart's-ease
Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy!
And what have kings, that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul of adoration?
Art thou aught else but place, degree and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?
Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
Than they in fearing.
(…)
No, thou proud dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose;
I am a king that find thee, and I know
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
Speaker: Henry V/Hal
Play: Henry V
Act IV, Scene I: After Hal talks to the soldiers and they make him vulnerable. He doesn’t know that he is going to win the battle at this point. Thinks about Richard and laments the fact that his dad didn’t get the throne naturally. The only value that he sees in being King is the rituals.
Your majesty came not like yourself: you appeared to
me but as a common man; witness the night, your
garments, your lowliness; and what your highness
suffered under that shape, I beseech you take it for
your own fault and not mine: for had you been as I
took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I
beseech your highness, pardon me.
Speaker: Williams
Play: Henry V
Act IV, scene viii: Once Williams finds out that he was speaking ill of the king to the king himself, he says that Hal can’t judge him for things that he said under false pretenses. If the king doesn’t play his part/appear as a king, how can he expect to be treated like one. Discussing theatricality very explicitly. The clothes make the king, a long way from Richard II’s essential Kingness.
No; it is not possible you should love the enemy of
France, Kate: but, in loving me, you should love
the friend of France; for I love France so well that
I will not part with a village of it; I will have it
all mine: and, Kate, when France is mine and I am
yours, then yours is France and you are mine.
Speaker: King Henry V
Play: Henry V
Act V, Scene II: Hal has met to negotiate peace with France. He has allowed Charles to keep the throne, but has a list of demands, including marrying Katherine, as this would allow their children to inherit both the English and the French throne. Here, he is reassuring her that he will not be an enemy of France any longer because he loves France now that he loves her.
Speaker 1:
God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms,
To make divorce of their incorporate league;
That English may as French, French Englishmen,
Receive each other. God speak this Amen!
ALL
Amen!
Speaker 2:
Prepare we for our marriage--on which day,
My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be!
Speaker 1: Queen Isabel, Speaker 2: King Henry V
Play: Henry V
Act V, Scene II: Isabel decides that Hal can marry Katherine, thus giving us a comedic ending. She talks about how they are joining not only their hearts, but also their kingdoms.
Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England. Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden be achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.
Speaker: Chorus
Play: Henry V
Epilogue: Chorus ends the play on a somber note, talks about how their son, Henry VI, will lose France and bring England into war. Rabbit duck scenario-- changes the way the play ends, because Isabel has just ended it on such a positive note.
Speaker 1:
Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I
am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I
would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard
heart; for, truly, I love none.
Speaker 2:
A dear happiness to women: they would else have
been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God
and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I
had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man
swear he loves me.
Speaker 1: Benedick, Speaker 2: Beatrice
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act I, Scene I: Here, Benedick and Beatrice engage in one of their first sparring matches, just after the men have gotten to Leonato’s place. This is important, because even though they say that they don’t want to be in love, they end up in love in the end of the play.
Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
'Tis certain so; the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!
Speaker: Claudio
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene I: This occurs at the masked party, in which Don John and Borachio pretend not to recognize Claudio and speak to him as though he were Benedick. Their scheme involves telling Claudio that Don Pedro is after Hero, in order to stir the pot and make Claudio mad. This invokes the theme of noting.
Speaker 1:
Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges.
But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not
know me! The prince's fool! Ha? It may be I go
under that title because I am merry. Yea, but so I
am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed: it
is the base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice
that puts the world into her person and so gives me
out. Well, I'll be revenged as I may.
Speaker 2:
Now, signior, where's the count? did you see him?
Speaker 1:
Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady Fame.
I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a
warren: I told him, and I think I told him true,
that your grace had got the good will of this young
lady; and I offered him my company to a willow-tree,
either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or
to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped.
Speaker 1: Benedick, Speaker 2: Don Pedro
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene I: After the plot of Borachio and Don John, Benedick finds out that is not true. In the first speech, he is discussing how Beatrice knows him, but at the same time doesn’t know him at all after all of the nasty things she said. He plans his revenge. The second speech refers to Claudio’s sadness after the plot of Don John succeeds.
O, she misused me past the endurance of a block!
an oak but with one green leaf on it would have
answered her; my very visor began to assume life and
scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been
myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was
duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest
with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood
like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at
me.
Speaker: Benedick
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene I: This is after Beatrice has called Benedick a Prince Jester, which offends him more than she expected. It shows the differences between their war of wits-- she is more vicious at times than he is. Here, he is basically berating her character and calling her cruel. They end up falling in love, so it’s okay.
Go, then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and
the Count Claudio alone: tell them that you know
that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the
prince and Claudio, as,--in love of your brother's
honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's
reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the
semblance of a maid,--that you have discovered
thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial:
offer them instances; which shall bear no less
likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window,
hear me call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me
Claudio; and bring them to see this the very night
before the intended wedding,--for in the meantime I
will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be
absent,--and there shall appear such seeming truth
of Hero's disloyalty that jealousy shall be called
assurance and all the preparation overthrown.
Speaker: Borachio
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene II: This occurs after Don John hears that his scheme at the party failed and that Hero and Claudio will actually marry. This is Borachio’s plan to get them back, by making Claudio think that Hero is actually sleeping with someone else and is unpure.
I know that; but I would have thee hence, and here again.
I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
another man is a fool when he dedicates his
behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at
such shallow follies in others, become the argument
of his own scorn by failing in love: and such a man
is Claudio. I have known when there was no music
with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he
rather hear the tabour and the pipe: I have known
when he would have walked ten mile a-foot to see a
good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake,
carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to
speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man
and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his
words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many
strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with
these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not
be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but
I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster
of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman
is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am
well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all
graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in
my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise,
or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her;
fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not
near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good
discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall
be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and
Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour.
Character: Benedick
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene III: this occurs after Don Pedro’s scheme is plotted-- they are going to make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love. Here, Benedick wanders around the garden wondering how although he knows that love makes men into idiots, any intelligent man can fall in love. He ponders how Claudio can have turned from a plain-speaking, practical soldier into a moony-eyed lover. Benedick thinks it unlikely that he himself will ever become a lover. This is important, because he will fall in love with Beatrice.
This can be no trick: the
conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!
why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her; they say too that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy
are they that hear their detractions and can put
them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a
truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; 'tis
so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor
no great argument of her folly, for I will be
horribly in love with her. I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?
No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would
die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I
were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day!
she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in
her.
Character: Benedick
Play: Much Ado About NothingAct II, Scene III: This is after Benedick has heard Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato talking about how Beatrice loves Benedick. They were talking about how passionately Beatrice adores Benedick, and how they are afraid that her passion will drive her insane or spur her to suicide. She dares not tell Benedick, they say, for fear that he would make fun of her for it—since everyone knows what his mocking personality would do. He decides to take pity on her and love her in this speech.
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band;
For others say thou dost deserve, and I
Believe it better than reportingly.
Speaker: Beatrice
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act III, Scene I: This occurs after Hero and Ursula have done their part of Don Pedro’s plan and made sure that Beatrice hears them talking about how Benedick loves her. She cannot believe what she’s heard, but, like Benedick, decides to take pity on him and love him.
O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been,
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,
Thou pure impiety and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.
Speaker: Claudio
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act IV, Scene I: This occurs during the wedding after Claudio has been convinced by Borachio’s plan. He is condemning Hero for sleeping with someone. He compares her to the mythical character of Hero, who died for Leander, if her beauty were matched by her desires. He then condemns her, love, and beauty and promises to be wary of anything beautiful.
Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.
There, Leonato, take her back again:
Give not this rotten orange to your friend;
She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood as modest evidence
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none:
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
Speaker: Claudio
Play: Much Ado About Nothing
Act IV, Scene I: This occurs during the wedding after Claudio has been convinced by Borachio’s plan. He is condemning Hero for sleeping with someone. He compares her to the mythical character of Hero, who died for Leander, if her beauty were matched by her desires. He then condemns her, love, and beauty and promises to be wary of anything beautiful. All about reading, “I can read Hero correctly, you can’t.” Suggests that one surface can have multiple substances, one appearances can have multiple identities. But wrong on the specifics. The blush is the sign/semblance of honor, can mean honor and innocence, but here it “doesn’t.” It’s a sign of the opposite, thinks Claudio. Talks about her as an evil paradox, if she can seem this way, anyone can.