Richard II, Act II, Scene 1, John of Gaunt's Speech

The young King Richard II needs money in order to pay for his expensive projects. He has adopted all kinds of sordid methods for extorting money from the people and for defrauding rich noblemen of their lands and other properties. John of Gaunt, the King's uncle, is disgusted by all of this. He is very sick and on the point of death, but he complains to everyone about what the King's conduct is doing to England. After talking in poetic language about what a great country England is, he says that it is now like a property that has been rented out. He says that England has resisted the stormy waters of the Atlantic Ocean only to be flooded in a "sea of ink" (i.e. a multitude of legal documents and proceedures).

Whenever Britons feel in a mood to glorify their country, they quote the first few lines of this passage: "This royal throne of kings....this earth, this realm, this England."

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, sceptered - ruled by a king
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!


http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/