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1. 
   linda-allen Teacher
   High School - 10th Grade

   This line is from the play Richard II. It occurs in Act V, scene 5, in Richard's soliloquy contemplating his imprisonment.

   KING RICHARD.
   I have been studying how I may compare
   This prison where I live unto the world
   And for because the world is populous,
   And here is not a creature but myself,
   I cannot do it
   ........................
   Music do I hear?
   Ha, ha! keep time. How sour sweet music is
   When time is broke and no proportion kept!
   So is it in the music of men's lives.
   And here have I the daintiness of ear
   To check time broke in a disorder'd string;
   But, for the concord of my state and time,
   Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
   I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
   For now hath time made me his numbering clock:
   My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar
   Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
   Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,
   Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
   ......................
   This music mads me; let it sound no more;
   For though it have holp madmen to their wits,
   In me it seems it will make wise men mad.
   Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
   For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
   Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.

   Richard, who once had everything as king of England, now has nothing.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/richard-ii/act-v-summary-analysis

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   Posted by linda-allen on Monday April 7, 2008 at 6:13 AM