QUOTES FROM THE BARD

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
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?

DUTCH:
Bedekt uw hoofd, drijft niet door huldebrenging
Den spot met vleesch en bloed; verzaakt den eerbied,
Gebruik en vorm en statig plichtbetoon

MORE:

Antic=Buffoon, practising odd gesticulations (a fool in old farces, whose main purpose was to disrupt the more serious actors)
Tradition=Traditional practices, established or customary homage (‘state’ and ‘pomp’)
Humoured=Indulged
Mock=Treat with exaggerated respect (hence solemn reverence)
Subjected=(a) turned into a subject under the dominion of the king; (b) subjugated, exposed
Monarchize=Play at being King (OED cites this from Nashe (1592) suggesting a mockery that is not so evident in this use of the term)

Compleat:
To humour=Involgen, believen, opvolgen, naar den mond spreeken
Tradition=Overleevering van leerstukken of gevoelens
Mock=Bespotting, beschimping
Subject=Onderworpen; onderdaan

Topics: equality, status, order/society, respect, custom