This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out (…)
Like to a tenement or pelting farm (…)
[This land] whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
[and] that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

– John of Gaunt in Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1