Gaunt ...This royall throne of Kings, this sceptred Ile,This earth of maiesty, this seate of Mars,This other Eden, demy Paradice,This fortresse built by Nature for her selfe,Against infection and the hand of warre,This happy breede of men, this little world,This precious stone set in the siluer sea,Which serues it in the office of a wall,Or as moate defensiue to a house,Against the enuie of lesse happier lands.This blessed plot, this earth, this realme, this England...Is now leasde out...That England that was wont to conquer others,Hath made a shamefull conquestof it selfe...
1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]