Richard II · Chapter
Scene I explained
Queen Isabel and King Richard II are separated by Bolingbroke's orders.
What happens
Queen Isabel and King Richard II are separated by Bolingbroke's orders. Richard is sent to Pomfret Castle instead of the Tower, and the Queen is banished to France. They share a poignant farewell, lamenting their forced separation and Richard's deposition.
Themes in this chapter
Grief and Mortality
Richard and the Queen's farewell is steeped in sorrow, with Richard likening himself to a dead man and urging the Queen to tell his lamentable tale.
Legitimacy and Usurpation
Richard's speech condemns Bolingbroke as a usurper and warns Northumberland that aiding an unrightful king leads to betrayal and death.
Loyalty and Betrayal
Richard accuses Northumberland of being a 'ladder' for Bolingbroke's ambition, highlighting the theme of betrayal among nobles.
Characters to notice
- Queen Isabel
Grieves over Richard's imprisonment and forced departure to France, pleading to stay with him.
- King Richard II
Accepts his fate with philosophical resignation, comparing himself to a tomb and a withering rose, and bids a sorrowful farewell to his queen.
- Earl of Northumberland
Delivers Bolingbroke's orders to send Richard to Pomfret and the Queen to France, and is warned by Richard of the consequences of aiding usurpation.
Key passages
“This way the king will come; this is the way To Julius Caesar’s ill-erected tower, To whose flint bosom my condemned lord Is doom’d a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke”
The Queen says the king is being taken to the Tower of London, which she calls an ill-omened prison, by the arrogant Bolingbroke.
The Queen expresses her grief and contempt for Bolingbroke's actions.
“I am sworn brother, sweet, To grim Necessity, and he and I Will keep a league till death.”
Richard tells the Queen that he has accepted his fate and will endure it until death.
Richard's resignation to his deposition and imprisonment.
“Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne”
Richard calls Northumberland the tool that helped Bolingbroke rise to power.
Richard warns Northumberland of the inevitable betrayal among usurpers.
“Doubly divorced! Bad men, you violate A twofold marriage, ’twixt my crown and me, And then betwixt me and my married wife.”
Richard laments that he is being separated from both his crown and his wife.
Richard's sense of loss and injustice at his deposition and forced separation.