Richard II: Of comfort no man speak

I do not own anything.
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?

[@sabinedor9661]

Ben Whishaw's performance makes Shakespeare's poetic language so much easier to understand and more accessible. A remarkable and unique actor with a great gift!

[@sorrowofyoungwerther]

Dear God the ACTING. Mr Wishaw is something quite special.

[@AGMundy]

Yes he was so compelling in this. For once I actually felt sorrow for Richard. His BAFTA was well deserved. He outshone everyone in every scene he played in, even against Patrick Stewart in Lancaster's "This sceptred isle" scene. This scene and the deposition scene are moving. The first four plays of The Hollow Crown series in 2012 were all superb with the actors speaking so comfortably.

[@Pro_Butcher_Amateur_Human]

Ben Whishaw, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddlestone - truly a new generation of great Shakespearean actors. It's nice to know that after legends like Sir Ian McKellen, Kenneth Brannagh, and Laurence Olivier pass away or retire we'll still see the Bard's works given life by wonderful actors who love his writings.

[@carmencollor1224]

Absolutely perfect. What a performance.

[@EricaNernie]

Simply briliant

[@davidsouth9979]

Saw a clip of Mark Rylance performing this speech, he seemed to play it for laughs, at the beginning anyway. This is much more believable IMO. This performance as a whole should surely go down in acting history although he doesn’t seem to be actually acting, the sign of greatness.

[@seamusandpat]

That's the thing acting, plays and characters, there are a myriad of ways of putting the words and the meaning across. It is also the reason why Shakespeare can be played in any age or state and be thoroughly relevant to the age.

[@robertovasani]

Watching him on This is Going to Hurt, what an amazing actor

[@FreakyTeeth]

Richard the 2nd was so prophetic...

[@robertkingston6164]

*Shakespeare's incredibly flattering fictional rendition of Richard ii. The real thing was far too venal, crass, self obsessed and basically stupid to come close to being capable of such profound reflection and wisdom.

[@isammolina4842]

Great.👀👏👏🌹🍃🌹🍃🌹🌟

[@greentombdive]

If he and Anne [of Bohemia] had had a legitimate son, his cousin, Henry [Bolingbrook - Henry VI], would never have been able to so easily depose him

[@gerardjagroo]

The child could be killed.

[@PlumGustave]

Beauuutiful.

[@Brownie2102]

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?

[@philipstevenson5166]

Is that M in his pajamas?

[@robertovasani6209]

Beats David Tennant in my opinion

[@FreyaEinde]

Stage and film are different mediums though. Both convey Richard 2 as the high drama bitch he is capably.

[@Neil-Daimond]

Hard to hide the Welsh accent but I tried! kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2WliJSmm5xnbcU

[@Meow_Zedong_1949]

Richard II looks like an Arab Sultan.

[@avian8338]

That black guy in the back ground be like: Imma bust your capacity for suspension of disbelief.

[@margaretgaskin4928]

Do you plan to go round every Shakespeare video and object to black characters in them? You must be used to it by now. Shakespeare is. Guess what? Ben Wishaw isn't really royalty either.

[@avian8338]

@@margaretgaskin4928 Do you plan to go round every Shakespeare video and object to what does not conform to your bigoted multicultural agenda? You must be used to it by now. Shakespeare, alas, is still above your attempts to bring him down. Guess what? You attempts at a clever 'snap' are neither snappy nor clever.

[@chgreengrass4934]

de Venour stay pressed whitey😂😂😂

[@avian8338]

@Caratacus Exactly. It'd be laughable if the intent behind it weren't so malicious.

[@KevTheImpaler]

I have to say it pisses me off too. I can take black actors in Othello, Titus Andronicus, maybe A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Tempest, but not one of the historical plays. I regard it as a BBC exercise at re-writing our history. Shame because the acting is great.

[@carmencollor1224]

But it is regrettable that a production of such a comendable magnitude should have succumbed to the political correctness that spoils everything in our sad times, and veered off the historical accuracy to portray characters in ethnicities that did seldom exist in Britain or France at that epoch, in such social positions.

[@alaaothman9466]

You think...the original play is...historically accurate?? Carmen pls 😭😭😭 everyone knows Shakespeare never gave a hoot about historical accuracy and if you're talking about when this play was performed during his time then I expect to see the same ire everytime a female actor is cast for the female roles in the modern adaptations of Shakespeare 💕

[@carmencollor1224]

@@alaaothman9466 I think we are talking about different aspects of historical accuracy. Shakespeare was utterly political in his "accuracies". But that is not what I was refering to.

[@Brownie2102]

I mean back in the day, the theatres used to have men playing women. There was always artistic lisence even when it was written. It doesn’t matter as long as what is spoken is true

[@TrenceA]

They found the best actors for the parts, Sophie Okenodo was marvellous as queen Margaret for instance. Should she not play a part, simply based on the colour of her skin?

[@carmencollor1224]

@@TrenceA why is this not racism or cultural appropriation? Anyway, simply because my thinking is against The political corrected trends, I will be condemned. Nobody is allowed to think and question anything anymore.