...like Hamlet, spends his time with his eyes downcast seeking the past which has turned to dust: Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs, Make dust our...rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. (3.2. 141-3) To summarize then, Hamlet and Richard remain haunting yet exemplary figures, each uncommon...

...Where is the Duke of York with his slapshot? RICHARD II No matter where; of comfort no man speak: Let's talk of Graves, of Worms, and Epitaphs, Make Dust...Rainy eyes Write Sorrow on the Bosom of the Earth. Our Rinks, our Lives, and all are Bolingbroke's, And nothing can we call our own, but Death. For God's...

...II warrants close attention as well; the King's commitment to tragic lyricism is well known: 'Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs, / Make dust...rainy eyes / Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth' (3.2.145-7). Yet the archly theatrical Richard Ill's fear of poetry is often overlooked: 'A bard of...

...Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate" (Othello 5.2.350-351). The childless Richard II laments "for what can we bequeath / Save our deposed bodies to.../ Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's" (Richard II 3. 2.145— 146). He might well have added that his story too belongs to Bolingbroke; in...