Richard II (Vol. 39) | R. P. Draper (essay date 1989)
R. P. Draper (essay date 1989)
SOURCE: "Wasted Time in Richard II," in Critical Survey, Vol. I, No. 1, 1989, pp. 33-42.
[In the essay below, Draper demonstrates the ways in which Richard's use of language reflects the downward spiral of his career as king.]
In his last great soliloquy before his murder in the castle of Pomfret Richard II debates with himself the tragic irony and pathos of his situation as a king and no king, one who has enjoyed the greatest power accorded to man on earth and yet now sees himself reduced to nothingness. 'I wasted time,' he reflects, 'and now doth time waste me' (V.5.49). The figure of speech is typically rhetorical. Its technical name is anti-metabole, a 'cross' figure in which words are repeated in inverse order: abba—in this instance 'waste' and 'time', followed by 'time' and 'waste'. There is also a third element of repetition in the form of the first-person singular which is a little...
[The entire page is 5080 words long]
Navigate
