In one of the few soliloquies in this play, Richard uses metaphor to reflect on his extreme isolation in prison.
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 humors like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented.
Richard II is in many ways a very “public” play, and most of its scenes take place in crowded courts or halls of government. Previously surrounded by a retinue of attendants, the imprisoned Richard finds himself truly alone for the first time in the play, and he imagines himself as occupying a community of one. In this deeply metaphorical speech, the thoughts produced by his brain and the feelings produced by his soul are imagined as a father and mother who together produce an entire “generation of still-breeding thoughts.” His concerns, woes, and worries, then, are so numerous as to populate an entire “world” in his prison cell, which grows in number as each anxious thought he has produces even more similar thoughts. In this dark mood, Richard concludes that his thoughts really are like the “people of the world,” as all are discontent.
Imprisoned after his dethronement, Richard, formerly King Richard II, ironically states that time itself could use him as a clock, rather than him using a clock to measure time. In a soliloquy addressed to nobody in particular, he states:
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me;
For now hath time made me his numb’ring 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.
Richard's soliloquies while alone in prison are deeply meditative, reflecting upon both his present conditions and the broader uncertainty of his life as a deposed monarch. In this speech Richard describes the sense of despair that he has experienced in prison after being stripped of his crown and separated from his wife. While he had once "wasted time" by failing to secure his kingship, he now imagines, ironically, that time "doth waste" him, as he has nothing to do while in prison except count the minutes.
Further, while ordinarily a person uses a clock to measure time, he suggests with some heavy irony that time has turned him into a "numb'ring clock" as his "thoughts are minutes" and his “sighs” are so regular that they could be used to measure time with the mechanical precision of a clock or watch. Locked away in prison, Richard has no way to determine the time except by using his own internal emotional states as a guide.
