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Question
Explain the following line with reference to the context in about 5 to 8 line:
“How can you say to me, I am a king?”
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Solution
- Reference: This line is from the poem “The Hollow Crown” by William Shakespeare. The poem is an excerpt from the play “Richard II”.
- Context: King Richard says these words to his loyal nobles when he talks about the power of death over monarchs.
- Explanation: British subjects usually believe that a king is born with a divine right to rule. People respect his crown as a symbol of great power. After he is deposed from power, Henry II realizes the bitter truth that he is in no way different from ordinary subjects. He also has wanted, a need for friends, and the compulsion to taste grief. Nobody can escape death.
- Comment: Death – the only thing inevitable in life.
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The historical background:
The poem is an extract from William Shakespeare’s play King Richard the Second. The play is based on true events that occurred towards the end of the 14th century.
Richard II was crowned the King of England in the year 1367. He continued to be the British Monarch until 1399, when he was deposed by his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, who crowned himself King Henry the Fourth in the same year. Shakespeare’s play is a dramatic rendition of the last two years of King Richard II’s life. In this brief span of time, he was ousted from his royal position and sent to prison, where he died in captivity.
The following extract is set in the Coast of Wales. King Richard and some of his followers awaited the arrival of the Welsh army [after facing defeat at the hands of his cousin, Bolingbroke], of about 10000 warriors. But to their shock and surprise, they received the message that the army was not coming to their rescue. His followers tried to boost their King’s courage against the news, only in vain. When Richard came face to face with the reality of his terrible fate, he spoke the following verse, famously known as the “Hollow Crown” speech in theatrical circles. In it, King Richard is reminded of the power of Death that overshadows everything else, including the power of rulers, and renders them as powerless as any commoner at a moment’s notice.
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