Richard II - Ben Whishaw from The Hollow Crown - A Study in Vedantic Thought
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2013
- The words of this speech are printed below.
This short clip highlights the amazing parallels between the philosophy and world view expressed by Shakespeare compared to the ancient Vedanta. How did he come up with these ideas about life?
The scene is Richard II is in prison, de-throned, and alone. He is speaking to himself, and says,
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; yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul,
My soul the father; and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world,
In humours like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd
With scruples and do set the word itself
Against the word:
As thus, 'Come, little ones,' and then again,
'It is as hard to come as for a camel
To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.'
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars
Who sitting in the stocks refuge their shame,
That many have and others must sit there;
And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortunes on the back
Of such as have before endured the like.
Thus play I in one person many people,
And none contented: sometimes am I king;
Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then am I king'd again: and by and by
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing: but whate'er I be,
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing.
When Shakespeare says,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,
As thoughts of things divine,
Compare to the Gita which says all desires only lead to more desires, in a never ending search for peace and satisfaction. Better that we think in the direction of the Divine.
And again:
"Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders; how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls,"
And, finally he says it all:
Nor I nor any man that but man is
With nothing shall be pleased, till he be eased
With being nothing.
Peace will come when the ego gives up it's struggle to be the king of our lives, and surrenders to God.
Ben Whishaw is such an incredible actor
My favorite Richard II performance. Very well done
Well done Whishaw. Pace, breaths, and pauses all timed right.
Superb! Sets the standard for performances of Richard II for this generation.
My first, one & only Richard II. Don't want any other.
Magnifico, Maestro Ben! 😘😘😘😘😘
the finest actor.
Few times have I seen a performance of someone that doesnt stick to verse where it actually works. And although there are times where it doesnt work, Wishaw does a marvellous job at this role. Simply marvellous.
This man's voice, his whole Ability, its extraordinary.
Beautifully done, Ben.
He desreved an oscar for this performance . My fav !!
This was so brilliantly acted and scene directed- I can’t understand why it wasn’t a bigger hit than it was.❤
So Brilliant. Both Wishaw and the comparison with the Gita.
La mejor actuación de Richard II
This is really a wonderful performance.
An amazing actor
Incredible
Increible actor.Hara'epoca.👀👏👏🌹🍃🌹🍃🌹🌟🌹🍃🌹🍃🌹🌟
Wow.
They should have let him live and set him up in a temple somewhere. After he lost the crown he began turning into a Buddhist guru hundreds of years before England even knew what that was.
Fantastic
Donde puedo ver a la temporada de Ricardo 2 completa por fa 😮😢😢😢😢
Ben Whishaw as the voice of Young Mr Paddington Brown Bear.
Unfortunately the soliloquy is abridged
I love this production, and Ben Whishaw is superb, but (the director's fault, not Ben's) this soliloquy is butchered. It is crucial to understanding the impact that the events of the play have made on Richard, how his earlier arrogance has changed to a humility tinged with self-pity, the extent to which he blames himself for his downfall, yet the director chose to cut over half of it. I suppose that if you don't know the play, you wouldn't notice, but it would have been better for all sorts of reasons to have left more of it in.
@P H I'm not sure about the PC thing - they left a lot of the Christian stuff in over the play as a whole. They probably cut this soliloquy a lot (a) because it's long and (b) because the second half is pretty difficult for people not that familiar with Shakespeare's English. I might be wrong, but those are what seem to me the most likely explanations.
Bah. "Vedantic thought" isn't what Shakespeare had in mind when he was writing this.
Regardless of intent one can make comparisons and find analogies between phenomena and texts. It is the basic exercise of intellect.
Low key remind me of gollum
or a zen master.. meditating, examining his thoughts, trying to find out how the mind works..