Sorry I haven't been deligent here. I've had a very busy period at work and I was just too tired to really think through threads that require brain energy.
But there are a couople of more points I wanted to highlight about Act II before I move on.
In scene 2, the Duke of York is faced with the disintegration of the kingdom while the King is away:
Quote:
God for his mercy! what a tide of woes
Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
I know not what to do: I would to God,
So my untruth had not provoked him to it,
The king had cut off my head with my brother's.
What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland?
How shall we do for money for these wars?
Come, sister,--cousin, I would say--pray, pardon me.
Go, fellow, get thee home, provide some carts
And bring away the armour that is there.
Exit Servant
Gentlemen, will you go muster men?
If I know how or which way to order these affairs
Thus thrust disorderly into my hands,
Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen:
The one is my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again
Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd,
Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
Well, somewhat we must do. Come, cousin, I'll
Dispose of you.
Gentlemen, go, muster up your men,
And meet me presently at Berkeley.
I should to Plashy too;
But time will not permit: all is uneven,
And every thing is left at six and seven.
His nephew Bolingbroke has re-entered the kingdom despite the banishment. And York feels the tension of a tough decision, support the King or Bolingbroke.
Both are my kinsmen:
Quote:
The one is my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again
Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd,
Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.
I think this squares the conflict face to face for the first time: it's the King's right of power versuses the justice of Bolingbroke's cause.
And in scene III, York meets up with Bolingbroke and asks him why he has violated his banishment agreement.
Quote:
DUKE OF YORK
Tut, tut!
Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle:
I am no traitor's uncle; and that word 'grace.'
In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs
Dared once to touch a dust of England's ground?
But then more 'why?' why have they dared to march
So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
Frighting her pale-faced villages with war
And ostentation of despised arms?
Comest thou because the anointed king is hence?
Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,
And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth
As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
O, then how quickly should this arm of mine.
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee
And minister correction to thy fault!
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
My gracious uncle, let me know my fault:
On what condition stands it and wherein?
DUKE OF YORK
Even in condition of the worst degree,
In gross rebellion and detested treason:
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come
Before the expiration of thy time,
In braving arms against thy sovereign.
And Bolingbroke provides an answer:
Quote:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford;
But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye:
You are my father, for methinks in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father,
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
A wandering vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck'd from my arms perforce and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be King of England,
It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father,
To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to sue my livery here,
And yet my letters-patents give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold,
And these and all are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And I challenge law: attorneys are denied me;
And therefore, personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.
Bolingbroke rationalizes that he comes not as Duke of Hereford, in which title he was banished, but that since his father's death he is now Duke of Lancaster (the title has changed) and he comes in that name and the banishment does not apply. That is the legal maneuvering, but really he is coming to claim his father's property from which the King has attempted to appropriate.
And finally we have a brief dialogue in scene 4 where a captain and the Earl of Salisbury discuss the state of the kingdom. The King has been so absent from the immediate needs that the Captain is actually surprised that he is alive.
Quote:
Captain
'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-faced moon looks bloody on the earth
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad and ruffians dance and leap,
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Farewell: our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assured Richard their king is dead.
Richard's army has dispersed because they think him dead. So how will Richard fight? We see with just what incompetence Richard has led. And the earl follows with a short soliloquy:
Quote:
EARL OF SALISBURY
Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind
I see thy glory like a shooting star
Fall to the base earth from the firmament.
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe and unrest:
Thy friends are fled to wait upon thy foes,
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.
"I see thy glory as a shooting star/fall to the base earth from the firmament." That line characterizes Richard's fall. It's sort of mythological, connected to the heavens and the gods. Richard is etherial, from the sky, incapable of dealing with the base earthly realities. He went to conquor Ireland for the glory of the heavens, but he neglected his immediate realities. Bolingbroke does not think of the heavens; he thinks of the earth.
