How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #1
Richard: Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul. (1.1.7).
Wow, Richard's got a serious god complex. Instead of invoking God or some other sacred symbol to swear by, he swears by himself. In other words, he's so full of himself that he can't think of anything more holy!
Quote #2
We were not born to sue but to command;
Which since we cannot do to make you friends,
Be ready as your lives shall answer it
At Coventry upon Saint Lambert's Day. (1.1.13)
This is an important moment because Richard hits a limit to his power, long before he's stripped of his crown. Because he secretly ordered Gloucester's death, and Mowbray seems to have been involved, it's extremely awkward for Richard when he can't get Mowbray and Henry Bolingbroke to drop charges. Despite his assertions of his power earlier in this scene, and despite his statement that he was born not to "sue" (beg or ask) but to command, he ends up having to give in to the men he claims he's commanding. No matter how big he talks, Richard is weak here.
Quote #3
Landlord of England art thou now, not King.
Thy state of law is bondslave to the law... (2.1.8)
O snap! Gaunt is trying to bring Richard down to earth by pointing out the emptiness of his claims to power. No matter how much Richard might proudly say he's all-powerful, what he's actually done is lease his land – a move several characters in the play identify as one of his worst mistakes. Gaunt points out that by acting as a landlord instead of a king, Richard is now subject to laws that he would have been above before.
Quote #4
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; (3.2.3)
Richard is really confident in his position as king, don't you think? Even as he's just returned to England because Henry Bolingbroke's men are gaining popularity, Richard shows us why he eventually loses the monarchy. Rather than take active steps to remain in office, Richard believes God and nature will protect the king, so he doesn't really have to bother.
Quote #5
Proud Bolingbroke, I come
to change blows with thee for our day of doom. (3.2.10)
Richard accuses Henry Bolingbroke of pride here. Hmm... seems like someone is trying to put his own flaws on someone else.
Quote #6
O God, O God, that e'er this tongue of mine
That laid the sentence of dread banishment
On yon proud man should take it off again
With words of sooth! O, that I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name!
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now! (3.3.3)
Richard regrets having banished Henry Bolingbroke, the "proud man," and wishes his tongue still had the power to reverse the sentence with soothing words. It doesn't, of course, and this leads him to reflect on just how far he's fallen and how much less painful it would be if he could just forget that he had once been king.
Quote #7
Down, down I come, like glist'ring Phaeton,
Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
In the base court? Base court where kings grow base
To come at traitors' calls and do them grace. (3.3.5)
Richard has a habit of talking about his own fall from grace in a way that makes us feel sorry for him. One of Richard's gifts in this play is his ability to evoke our pity despite the fact that he spends so little time pitying others and so much time pitying himself.
The comparison to Phaeton is interesting. Phaeton famously begged to steer his more powerful father Apollo's chariot. This didn't end well – he lost control of the horses, and the sun got so close to the earth that it nearly burned. Zeus finally had to kill Phaethon with a thunderbolt. Phaeton is in some ways a perfect symbol for Richard, who keeps getting compared unfavorably to his more powerful father and grandfather, and who, like Phaeton, is overconfident and loses control of his kingdom as a result. It's unclear, however, whether Richard means the comparison this way. His emphasis on "glist'ring Phaeton" and the fact that the sun was one of his chosen symbols both suggest that Richard might just be thinking of himself as a brilliant being in decline, whose death will scorch the earth.
Quote #8
We at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees,
Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself. (3.4.2)
The Gardener wishes Richard had been a better "gardener" of his kingdom and that he had done to his nobles what landscapers do to their trees: prune them back and keep them in check so they don't get overgrown or, in the case of the nobles, too swollen with pride. Of course, the description of something "over-proud" of its blood and ruined by too many riches applies pretty well to Richard himself.
Quote #9
Would he not stumble? would he not fall down,
Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck
Of that proud man that did usurp his back? (5.5.4)
This is what Richard says after he hears that Henry Bolingbroke rode through the streets on Richard's horse. Richard feels a little betrayed that his old horse pranced through the streets like a proud show pony. Then he wonders why his horse didn't fall, since, according to the famous passage from the Bible, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16.18). Translation: When you've got big head and think you're awesome, you're pretty much asking to be taken down a notch or two. Of course, we all know that this applies to Richard, not his horse.