illustrated portrait of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

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Student Question

What is the full quote of Shakespeare's "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me?"

Quick answer:

The full quote of "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me" comes from Act V, scene 5 of Shakespeare's Richard II during Richard's soliloquy on his imprisonment. The complete passage reflects Richard's realization of his squandered time and its consequences: "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."

Expert Answers

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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.

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