King Richard the Second

The purest treasure mortal times afford

Is spotless reputation;

   --- King Richard II  I, i, 177

mortal times: our earthly lives

Mine honor is my life, both grow in one,

Take honor from me, and my life is done.

    --- King Richard II  I, i, 182

榮譽即生命，兩者合一，

奪去我榮譽，生命就完畢。

830

The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet:

    --- King Richard II  I, iii, 68

The daintiest: i.e. the best thing

(Go I to fight:) truth hath a quiet breast.

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 96

How long a time lies in one little word!

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 213

輕輕一句話 包含了日子一長串！little: few

Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 236

sour: bitter

For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite

The man that mocks at it and sets it light.

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 292

gnarling: snarling

O, who can hold a fire in his hand

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite

By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow

By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?

O no, the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 294

fantastic: imaginary  apprehension: conception, imagination

Where e’er I wander, boast of this I can,

Though banished, yet a true-born Englishman.

  --- King Richard II  I, iii, 308

(O but they say) the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention like deep harmony.

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 5

harmony: music, tuneful sound

The setting sun, and music at the close,

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,

Writ in remembrance more than things long past.

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 12

close: harmonic close, cadence

For violent fires soon burn out themselves;

Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 34

England, bound in with the triumphant sea,

Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege

Of watery Neptune,

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 61

Neptune: God of the sea; (hence) the sea

840

That England, that was wont to conquer others,

Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 65

wont: used to doing something

A lunatic lean-witted fool,

Presuming on an ague’s privilege,

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 115

lean-witted: poor in intellect

The ripest fruit first falls,

  --- King Richard II  II, i, 153

最成熟的果實先掉落，

Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,

  --- King Richard II  II, ii, 14

每個悲傷的外形有二十個影子， substance: form, shape.  i.e. for each real grief there are twenty imaginary griefs.

I count myself in nothing else so happy

As in a soul remembering my good friends,

  --- King Richard II  II, iii, 46

Evermore thank’s the exchequer of the poor,

  --- King Richard II  II, iii, 65

感謝向來是窮人的財寶， Gratitude is always the treasury of the poor (because they can make no other kind of payment in return for favors).

Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle.

  --- King Richard II  II, iii, 87

Grace: gratify, delight

Things past redress are now with me past care.

  --- King Richard II  II, iii, 171

past redress: beyond the possibility of remedy or aid

I see thy glory like a shooting star

Fall to the base earth from the firmament.

  --- King Richard II  II, iv, 19

Eating the bitter bread of banishment,

  --- King Richard II  III, i, 21

Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king;

  --- King Richard II  III, ii, 54

rude: wild.  balm: the oil used to anoint a king at his coronation

O, call back yesterday, bid time return,

  --- King Richard II  III, ii, 69

bid: to order somebody

The worst is death, and death will have his day.

  --- King Richard II  III, ii, 103

850

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 poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,

All murthered-- for within the hollow crown

That rounds the mortal temples of a king

Keeps Death his court,

  --- King Richard II  III, ii, 152

model: mould, shape.  paste: pie crust.  ghosts: i.e. of kings.  murthered: murdered.  rounds: encircles

Comes at the last, and with a little pin

Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

  --- King Richard II  III, ii, 169

He is come to open

The purple testament of bleeding war;

  --- King Richard II  III, iii, 93

purple testament: blood-red will

O that I were as great

As is my grief, or lesser than my name!

Or that I could forget what I have been!

Or not remember what I must be now!

  --- King Richard II  III, iii, 136

852

I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,

My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,

My gay apparel for an almsman’s gown,

  --- King Richard II  III, iii, 147

我要拿我的珠寶換一串祈禱的念珠，

拿我金碧輝煌的宮殿去換一間茅屋，

拿我光鮮的袍服換一件布衣，  set of beads: rosary.  gay: bright or showy. almsman’s gown: i.e. the mean garb of one who lives on alms or charity

And my large kingdom for a little grave,

A little little grave, an obscure grave--

  --- King Richard II  III, iii, 153

obscure: lowly, mean

Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,

And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars

Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound.

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 139

tumultuous: in a state of disorder.  with: by means of.  confound: destroy

So Judas did to Christ; but He, in twelve,

Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.

God save the king! Will no man say amen?

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 170

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.

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 184

owes: owns, has.  whilst: while

You may my glories and my state depose,

But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 192

depose: take away

(Though) some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,

Showing an outward pity,

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 239

(O that I were) a mockery king of snow,

  --- King Richard II  IV, i, 260

mockery: imitation, counterfeit representation, unreal appearance

As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious.

  --- King Richard II  V, ii, 23

idly: indifferently

860

How sour sweet music is

When time is broke and no proportion kept!

So is it in the music of men’s lives.

  --- King Richard II  V, v, 42

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;

For now hath time made me his numbering clock:

My thoughts are minutes,

  --- King Richard II  V, v, 49

This music mads me, let it sound no more,

  --- King Richard II  V, v, 61

mads: maddens

863

Mount, mount, my soul! Thy seat is up on high,

Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.

  --- King Richard II  V, v, 111