And e’en as Judas sold his master Christ,
So did my kingdom chaffer for my crown,
And so deliver’d me to Bolingbroke.
Fool. Is’t he that hath thy crown?
King Richard. ’Tis he, my sometime subject, Bolingbroke:
He hath my crown and kingdom both, and I
Of all sad monarchs most disconsolate.
Fool. Then have we here a pair of kings lacking both crowns and kingdoms to wear ’em in. These be but evil times for kings or fools either; and to my thinking there’s not so great a difference betwixt a fool and a king, save that the fool may chance be the wiser man of the two. Of a surety there was little wit a going begging when these twain put their golden crowns from off their simple skulls. Though I’m but a fool, and no wise man, I were but a fool indeed were I to change places with a king.
Enter King Henry VI.
King Henry. What sayest thou of kings? Kings are but men,