Brendan’s Reviews > Richard II > Status Update
Brendan
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Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Where with I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favors of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry ‘All hail!’ to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he in twelve
Found truth in all but one;
— Oct 16, 2025 02:42PM
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Where with I reigned? I hardly yet have learned
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favors of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry ‘All hail!’ to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he in twelve
Found truth in all but one;
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Brendan’s Previous Updates
Brendan
is starting
“…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 feared, and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and, humored thus,
Comes at last, and with a little pin
— Oct 14, 2025 09:33PM
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 feared, and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and, humored thus,
Comes at last, and with a little pin
Brendan
is starting
“Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like the grief itself, but is not so:
For Sorrow’s eye, glazéd with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects,
Like perspectives which, rightly gazed upon,
Show nothing but confusion; eyed awry,
Distinguish form…” (II.2)
— Oct 14, 2025 08:26PM
Which shows like the grief itself, but is not so:
For Sorrow’s eye, glazéd with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects,
Like perspectives which, rightly gazed upon,
Show nothing but confusion; eyed awry,
Distinguish form…” (II.2)
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Brendan
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Oct 16, 2025 02:42PM
…I, in twelve thousand, none.” (IV.1)
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Richard is a fantastic character. He is erratic, impulsive, vain, and foolish; in our modern categorization, probably bipolar or borderline — but he is also often wise, insightful, and sympathetic despite his many faults. He is clearly no match for the self-controlled, ruthless opportunism of Bolingbroke.
“Here, cousin, seize the crown. Here, cousin,On this side my hand, on that side yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well
That owes two buckets, filling one another,
The emptier ever dancing in the air,
The other down, unseen, and full of water.
That bucket down and full of tears am I,
Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.”

