Shakespeare's "this royal throne of kings" soliloquy

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2020

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today's poem is from John of Gaunt's soliloquy in Shakeapeare's Richard II.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Friday, August 7th, 2020.
0:06.2	Today's poem is by William Shakespeare, and it comes from one of his plays, Richard the
0:11.0	second, and it's one of the more famous sylliloquies than all of Shakespeare, one of my favorites.
0:15.9	It comes from Act 2, Scene 1, and these words are given.
0:21.2	The siloqui is given by John of Gaunt, who is dying.
0:25.4	And you probably know it best for its famous first line,
0:28.8	this royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle.
0:32.4	So I'm going to read about 27 lines in this soliloquy.
0:36.7	It goes like this.
0:38.7	This royal throne of kings.
0:41.5	This sceptered aisle.
0:44.2	This earth of majesty.
0:45.9	This seat of Mars.
0:48.1	This other Eden.
0:50.0	Demi Paradise.
0:51.5	This fortress built by nature for herself against infection in the hand of war.
0:56.5	This happy breed of men.
0:59.1	This little world, this precious stone set in a silver sea,
1:05.0	which serves it in the office of a wall or as a mode defensive to a house
1:08.8	against the envy of less happier lands.
1:12.9	This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, this nurse, this teeming womb of
1:20.7	royal kings feared by their breed and famous for their birth, renowned for their deeds as far
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goldberry Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goldberry Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.