Afterwards, he gives his own character to Percy, in these words:
I thank thee, gentle Percy, and be sure
I count myself in nothing else so happy,
As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends;
And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love's recompense.
We know how he afterwards kept his promise. His bold assertion of
his own rights, his pretended submission to the king, and the
ascendancy which he tacitly assumes over him without openly claiming
it, as soon as he has him in his power, are characteristic traits of
this ambitious and politic usurper. But the part of Richard himself
gives the chief interest to the play. His folly, his vices, his
misfortunes, his reluctance to part with the crown, his fear to keep
it, his weak and womanish regrets, his starting tears, his fits of
hectic passion, his smothered majesty, pass in succession before us,
and make a picture as natural as it is affecting. Among the most
striking touches of pathos are his wish, 'O that I were a mockery
king of snow to melt away before the sun of Bolingbroke', and the
incident of the poor groom who comes to visit him in prison, and
tells him how 'it yearned his heart that Bolingbroke upon his
coronation day rode on Roan Barbary. We shall have occasion to
return hereafter to the character of Richard II in speaking of Henry
VI.
Pages:
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211