Act 1, Scene 3

Open Space, near Coventry. Lists set out, and a Throne.

[Enter the Lord Marshal and AUMERLE.]
Lord Marshal
283 My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?
Duke of Aumerle
284 Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in.
Lord Marshal
285 The Duke of Norfolk, sprightfully and bold,
286 Stays but the summons of the appelant's trumpet.
Duke of Aumerle
287 Why then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay
288 For nothing but his Majesty's approach.
[Enter KING RICHARD, who takes his seat on his Throne; GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN, and Others, who take their places. A trumpet is sounded, and answered by another trumpet within. Then enter MOWBRAY, in armour, defendant, preceeded by a Herald.]
King Richard II
289 Marshal, demand of yonder champion
290 The cause of his arrival here in arms:
291 Ask him his name, and orderly proceed
292 To swear him in the justice of his cause.
Lord Marshal
293 In God's name and the king's, say who thou art,
294 And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms,
295 Against what man thou comest, and what thy quarrel.
296 Speak truly, on thy knighthood and thy oath;
297 As so defend thee heaven and thy valour!
Thomas Mowbray
298 My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
299 Who hither come engaged by my oath,—
300 Which God defend a knight should violate!—
301 Both to defend my loyalty and truth
302 To God, my King, and my succeeding issue,
303 Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me;
304 And, by the grace of God and this mine arm,
305 To prove him, in defending of myself,
306 A traitor to my God, my King, and me:
307 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!
[He takes his seat.]
[Trumpet sounds. Enter BOLINGBROKE, appellant, in armour, preceeded by a Herald.]
King Richard II
308 Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,
309 Both who he is and why he cometh hither
310 Thus plated in habiliments of war;
311 And formally, according to our law,
312 Depose him in the justice of his cause.
Lord Marshal
313 What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither
314 Before King Richard in his royal lists?
315 Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel?
316 Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!
Henry Bolingbroke
317 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
318 Am I; who ready here do stand in arms,
319 To prove by God's grace and my body's valour,
320 In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
321 That he's a traitor foul and dangerous,
322 To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me:
323 And as I truly fight, defend me heaven!
Lord Marshal
324 On pain of death, no person be so bold
325 Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,
326 Except the Marshal and such officers
327 Appointed to direct these fair designs.
Henry Bolingbroke
328 Lord Marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's hand,
329 And bow my knee before his Majesty:
330 For Mowbray and myself are like two men
331 That vow a long and weary pilgrimage;
332 Then let us take a ceremonious leave
333 And loving farewell of our several friends.
Lord Marshal
334 The appellant in all duty greets your highness,
335 And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.
[Descends from his throne.]
King Richard II
336 We will descend and fold him in our arms.
337 Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,
338 So be thy fortune in this royal fight!
339 Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed,
340 Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.
Henry Bolingbroke
341 O! let no noble eye profane a tear
342 For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear.
343 As confident as is the falcon's flight
344 Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.
345 My loving lord, I take my leave of you;
346 Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;
347 Not sick, although I have to do with death,
348 But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.
349 Lo! as at English feasts, so I regreet
350 The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet:
351 O thou, the earthly author of my blood,
352 Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
353 Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up
354 To reach at victory above my head,
355 Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers,
356 And with thy blessings steel my lance's point,
357 That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat,
358 And furbish new the name of John a Gaunt,
359 Even in the lusty haviour of his son.
John of Gaunt
360 God in thy good cause make thee prosperous!
361 Be swift like lightning in the execution;
362 And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
363 Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
364 Of thy adverse pernicious enemy:
365 Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant, and live.
Henry Bolingbroke
366 Mine innocency and Saint George to thrive!
[He takes his seat.]
[Rising.]
Thomas Mowbray
367 However God or fortune cast my lot,
368 There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
369 A loyal, just, and upright gentleman.
370 Never did captive with a freer heart
371 Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace
372 His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
373 More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
374 This feast of battle with mine adversary.
375 Most mighty liege, and my companion peers,
376 Take from my mouth the wish of happy years.
377 As gentle and as jocund as to jest
378 Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast.
King Richard II
379 Farewell, my lord: securely I espy
380 Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.
381 Order the trial, Marshal, and begin.
[The KING and the Lords return to their seats.]
Lord Marshal
382 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
383 Receive thy lance; and God defend the right!
[Rising.]
Henry Bolingbroke
384 Strong as a tower in hope, I cry 'amen'.
[To an officer.]
Lord Marshal
385 Go bear this lance to Thomas,
386 Duke of Norfolk.
First Herald
387 Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
388 Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself,
389 On pain to be found false and recreant,
390 To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
391 A traitor to his God, his King, and him;
392 And dares him to set forward to the fight.
Second Herald
393 Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,
394 On pain to be found false and recreant,
395 Both to defend himself, and to approve
396 Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
397 To God, his sovereign, and to him disloyal;
398 Courageously and with a free desire,
399 Attending but the signal to begin.
Lord Marshal
400 Sound trumpets; and set forward, combatants.
[A charge sounded.]
Lord Marshal
401 Stay, the King hath thrown his warder down.
King Richard II
402 Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,
403 And both return back to their chairs again:
404 Withdraw with us; and let the trumpets sound
405 While we return these dukes what we decree.
[A long flourish.]
[To the Combatants.]
King Richard II
406 Draw near,
407 And list what with our council we have done.
408 For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
409 With that dear blood which it hath fostered;
410 And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect
411 Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' swords;
412 And for we think the eagle-winged pride
413 Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
414 With rival-hating envy, set on you
415 To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
416 Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;
417 Which so rous'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums,
418 With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
419 And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
420 Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace
421 And make us wade even in our kindred's blood:
422 Therefore we banish you our territories:
423 You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life,
424 Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields
425 Shall not regreet our fair dominions,
426 But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Henry Bolingbroke
427 Your will be done. This must my comfort be,
428 That sun that warms you here shall shine on me;
429 And those his golden beams to you here lent
430 Shall point on me and gild my banishment.
King Richard II
431 Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom,
432 Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
433 The sly slow hours shall not determinate
434 The dateless limit of thy dear exile;
435 The hopeless word of 'never to return'
436 Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.
Thomas Mowbray
437 A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
438 And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
439 A dearer merit, not so deep a maim
440 As to be cast forth in the common air,
441 Have I deserved at your highness' hands.
442 The language I have learn'd these forty years,
443 My native English, now I must forgo;
444 And now my tongue's use is to me no more
445 Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
446 Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up
447 Or, being open, put into his hands
448 That knows no touch to tune the harmony:
449 Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
450 Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips;
451 And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance
452 Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
453 I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
454 Too far in years to be a pupil now:
455 What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death,
456 Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?
King Richard II
457 It boots thee not to be compassionate:
458 After our sentence plaining comes too late.
Thomas Mowbray
459 Then thus I turn me from my country's light,
460 To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.
[Retiring.]
King Richard II
461 Return again, and take an oath with thee.
462 Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;
463 Swear by the duty that you owe to God,—
464 Our part therein we banish with yourselves—
465 To keep the oath that we administer:
466 You never shall, so help you truth and God!—
467 Embrace each other's love in banishment;
468 Nor never look upon each other's face;
469 Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
470 This louring tempest of your home-bred hate;
471 Nor never by advised purpose meet
472 To plot, contrive, or complot any ill
473 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land.
Henry Bolingbroke
474 I swear.
Thomas Mowbray
475 And I, to keep all this.
Henry Bolingbroke
476 Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy:—
477 By this time, had the king permitted us,
478 One of our souls had wand'red in the air,
479 Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh,
480 As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
481 Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm;
482 Since thou hast far to go, bear not along
483 The clogging burden of a guilty soul.
Thomas Mowbray
484 No, Bolingbroke: if ever I were traitor,
485 My name be blotted from the book of life,
486 And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
487 But what thou art, God, thou, and I, do know;
488 And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.
489 Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray;
490 Save back to England, all the world's my way.
[Exit.]
King Richard II
491 Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes
492 I see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect
493 Hath from the number of his banish'd years
494 Pluck'd four away.—
[To BOLINGBROKE.]
King Richard II
495 Six frozen winters spent,
496 Return with welcome home from banishment.
Henry Bolingbroke
497 How long a time lies in one little word!
498 Four lagging winters and four wanton springs
499 End in a word: such is the breath of kings.
John of Gaunt
500 I thank my liege that in regard of me
501 He shortens four years of my son's exile;
502 But little vantage shall I reap thereby:
503 For, ere the six years that he hath to spend
504 Can change their moons and bring their times about,
505 My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light
506 Shall be extinct with age and endless night;
507 My inch of taper will be burnt and done,
508 And blindfold death not let me see my son.
King Richard II
509 Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live.
John of Gaunt
510 But not a minute, king, that thou canst give:
511 Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
512 And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow;
513 Thou can'st help time to furrow me with age,
514 But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage;
515 Thy word is current with him for my death,
516 But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.
King Richard II
517 Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,
518 Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave.
519 Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower?
John of Gaunt
520 Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
521 You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather
522 You would have bid me argue like a father.
523 O! had it been a stranger, not my child,
524 To smooth his fault I should have been more mild.:
525 A partial slander sought I to avoid,
526 And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.
527 Alas! I look'd when some of you should say
528 I was too strict to make mine own away;
529 But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue
530 Against my will to do myself this wrong.
King Richard II
531 Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so:
532 Six years we banish him, and he shall go.
[Flourish. Exit KING RICHARD and Train.]
Duke of Aumerle
533 Cousin, farewell: what presence must not know,
534 From where you do remain let paper show.
Lord Marshal
535 My lord, no leave take I; for I will ride,
536 As far as land will let me, by your side.
John of Gaunt
537 O! to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words,
538 That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends?
Henry Bolingbroke
539 I have too few to take my leave of you,
540 When the tongue's office should be prodigal
541 To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.
John of Gaunt
542 Thy grief is but thy absence for a time.
Henry Bolingbroke
543 Joy absent, grief is present for that time.
John of Gaunt
544 What is six winters? They are quickly gone.
Henry Bolingbroke
545 To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten.
John of Gaunt
546 Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure.
Henry Bolingbroke
547 My heart will sigh when I miscall it so,
548 Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.
John of Gaunt
549 The sullen passage of thy weary steps
550 Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set
551 The precious jewel of thy home return.
Henry Bolingbroke
552 Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make
553 Will but remember me what a deal of world
554 I wander from the jewels that I love.
555 Must I not serve a long apprenticehood
556 To foreign passages, and in the end,
557 Having my freedom, boast of nothing else
558 But that I was a journeyman to grief?
John of Gaunt
559 All places that the eye of heaven visits
560 Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
561 Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
562 There is no virtue like necessity.
563 Think not the king did banish thee,
564 But thou the king. Woe doth the heavier sit,
565 Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.
566 Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour,
567 And not the King exil'd thee; or suppose
568 Devouring pestilence hangs in our air,
569 And thou art flying to a fresher clime.
570 Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it
571 To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st.
572 Suppose the singing birds musicians,
573 The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd,
574 The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more
575 Than a delightful measure or a dance;
576 For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite
577 The man that mocks at it and sets it light.
Henry Bolingbroke
578 O! who can hold a fire in his hand
579 By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
580 Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
581 By bare imagination of a feast?
582 Or wallow naked in December snow
583 By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?
584 O, no! the apprehension of the good
585 Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:
586 Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more
587 Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.
John of Gaunt
588 Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way.
589 Had I thy youth and cause, I would not stay.
Henry Bolingbroke
590 Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu;
591 My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!
592 Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,
593 Though banish'd, yet a true-born Englishman.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 284historical topical
“longs to enter in”
A 'list' was the fenced arena set up for a judicial duel. Combatants stood outside the barrier until formally summoned; to 'enter in' was to pass through the gate and commit to the fight. The Coventry duel of September 1398 is recorded in Holinshed's Chronicles.
historical Trial by combat and the gage
TLN 291historical topical
“orderly proceed / To swear him in the justice”
'Swear him in the justice of his cause' means administer an oath that he fights in a just quarrel. Before combat, each man was required to swear on the Gospels that his charge was true and that he carried no forbidden charms or sorcery — standard procedure in medieval trial-by-battle.
historical Trial by combat and the gage
TLN 303archaic vocab
“the Duke of Hereford that appeals me”
'Appeals' here is a legal term meaning accuses or challenges, not makes an emotional plea. To 'appeal' someone of treason was the formal act of accusing them in a way that demanded trial by combat as the mode of proof.
TLN 310archaic vocab
“plated in habiliments of war”
'Habiliments' means equipment, clothing, or gear; 'habiliments of war' is battle-armour and its accessories. 'Plated' means wearing plate armour. Richard's formal question asks who this armed man is and why he has come in full military kit.
TLN 312archaic vocab
“Depose him in the justice of his cause”
Here 'depose' does not mean to remove from power. It means to examine under oath — the same root as 'deposition' in a legal proceeding, where a witness makes a sworn statement. Richard instructs the Marshal to question Bolingbroke formally and put him on oath about his grievance.
TLN 330cultural context
“like two men / That vow a long and weary pilgrimage”
A pilgrimage was a long, penitential journey to a saint's shrine, undertaken as a religious duty often after a solemn vow. Bolingbroke compares himself and Mowbray to pilgrims who have sworn to complete a hard journey before they can say farewell to friends — a metaphor for the oath-bound seriousness of the duel they are about to fight.
TLN 339historical topical
“my blood; which if to-day thou shed, / Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead”
Richard tells Bolingbroke that if he dies in the duel, the king can grieve but cannot avenge him — because the duel is a judicial proceeding authorized by God, and whatever outcome it reaches is by definition just. A king is forbidden to undo God's judgment by retaliating against the victor.
historical Trial by combat and the gage
TLN 349cultural context
“as at English feasts, so I regreet / The daintiest last”
Bolingbroke compares his farewells to the structure of a formal English dinner, where sweet or delicate dishes were served last rather than first. He has saved the most emotional goodbye — to his father John of Gaunt — for the end, as the sweetest and most precious.
TLN 351rhetorical device
“thou, the earthly author of my blood, / Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate”
'Author of my blood' means the originator of his bloodline — his father. 'In me regenerate' means reborn in him. Bolingbroke is saying that Gaunt's own spirit lives again, renewed and energized, inside his son's body — which is why fighting now doubles Gaunt's honour as well as his own.
TLN 357archaic vocab
“enter Mowbray's waxen coat”
'Waxen coat' is not literally wax armour: 'waxen' means soft, penetrable, or yielding. Bolingbroke prays that his lance will pierce Mowbray's armour as easily as if it were wax — a wish for easy, decisive victory.
TLN 358archaic vocab
“furbish new the name of John a Gaunt”
'Furbish' means to polish or burnish — to make bright again something that has grown dull. 'John a Gaunt' is the colloquial form of John of Gaunt. Bolingbroke wants his victory to restore fresh glory to his father's name, as a swordsmith polishes old armour back to a shine.
TLN 363archaic vocab
“amazing thunder on the casque”
'Casque' is a helmet; 'amazing' in Elizabethan usage means stupefying or stunning — literally putting one into a daze or maze — not merely impressive. Gaunt prays that Bolingbroke's blows will stun Mowbray senseless with their force.
TLN 366cultural context
“Mine innocency and Saint George to thrive”
Saint George was the patron saint of England and of the Order of the Garter — the highest chivalric order, founded by Edward III in the 1340s. Invoking him in battle was standard for English knights. Bolingbroke calls on his innocence and England's patron saint as twin guarantees of victory.
TLN 370archaic vocab
“captive with a freer heart / Cast off his chains of bondage and embrace / His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement”
'Enfranchisement' means freedom, liberation, or the restoration of rights — the opposite of being chained. Mowbray says he welcomes this battle more gladly than any prisoner ever welcomed release from chains. 'Golden uncontrolled enfranchisement' piles up three words for perfect, unconstrained liberty.
TLN 401historical topical
“the King hath thrown his warder down”
A 'warder' was a short baton or staff of authority carried by a marshal or judge at a tournament or duel. Throwing it down was the official signal to halt the combat immediately — overriding all other proceedings. Richard's gesture at this moment is his sole power over the judicial duel: once he casts it down, the fight must stop.
historical Trial by combat and the gage
TLN 412rhetorical device
“the eagle-winged pride / Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts”
'Eagle-winged pride' is a compressed metaphor: pride that soars as high as an eagle, too high for safety. 'Sky-aspiring' is a compound adjective meaning reaching for the sky — straining beyond proper limits. Richard's speech here works through a long chain of subordinate clauses ('for that... and for... and for...') listing reasons for his decision before delivering the verdict.
TLN 433archaic vocab
“The sly slow hours shall not determinate / The dateless limit of thy dear exile”
'Determinate' here means to end, put a term to, or conclude — not to determine in the sense of deciding. 'Dateless limit' is an oxymoron: a 'limit' normally has an end, but 'dateless' means without a fixed date, endless. Together the phrase means a sentence of banishment with no set expiry — exile until death.
TLN 445rhetorical device
“an unstringed viol or a harp, / Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up / Or, being open, put into his hands / That knows no touch to tune the harmony”
A 'viol' is a bowed string instrument (smaller than a cello, played on the lap). Mowbray develops a sustained metaphor comparing his tongue, robbed of English, to a musical instrument that cannot be played: unstrung, locked in its case, or handed to someone who cannot play it. Language without a community of speakers is as useless as a beautiful instrument with no one to play it.
TLN 449rhetorical device
“engaol'd my tongue, / Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips”
'Engaoled' means imprisoned. A 'portcullis' is the heavy iron-grated gate that drops vertically to seal a castle gateway. Mowbray imagines his tongue as a prisoner locked inside his mouth — doubly barred, first by the teeth and then by the lips, as if his mouth were a castle sealed with two successive iron gates.
TLN 457archaic vocab
“It boots thee not to be compassionate: / After our sentence plaining comes too late”
'It boots thee not' means it does you no good, it profits nothing. 'Plaining' means lamenting or complaining (from the French 'plaindre'). Richard is telling Mowbray coldly: complaining after the sentence has been passed is useless.
TLN 485biblical allusion
“My name be blotted from the book of life, / And I from heaven banish'd as from hence”
The 'book of life' is a biblical image: God keeps a register of those who will be saved, and to be 'blotted out' of it means to be damned. Mowbray swears his most extreme oath — if he were ever a traitor, may he be erased from God's register and cast out of heaven itself, just as he is being cast out of England.
TLN 491archaic vocab
“in the glasses of thine eyes / I see thy grieved heart”
'Glasses' here means mirrors, not drinking vessels. In Elizabethan usage, a 'glass' was most commonly a mirror (made of polished metal or backed glass). Richard tells Gaunt that he can read his grief in Gaunt's eyes, which reflect and reveal his inner pain as a mirror reflects an outward face.
TLN 497historical topical
“How long a time lies in one little word! / Four lagging winters and four wanton springs / End in a word: such is the breath of kings”
Bolingbroke marvels that the king's spoken word — the 'breath' of his command — can annihilate four years as if they never existed. 'Breath of kings' captures the absolute power of royal speech: what a king says becomes law, however much real time or suffering it costs others.
historical The king's two bodies
TLN 520rhetorical device
“Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour”
This is a sententious maxim — a brief, pointed saying meant to capture a general truth. Gaunt frames his own inconsistency as the inexorable nature of things: what tastes sweet going down turns bitter once it must be digested. He agreed to Bolingbroke's banishment in his role as judge, but now that he must live with it as a father, the sweetness of appearing impartial has curdled.
TLN 550archaic vocab
“foil wherein thou art to set / The precious jewel of thy home return”
A 'foil' was a thin sheet of bright metal placed behind a gemstone in its setting to make the gem sparkle more brilliantly. Gaunt tells Bolingbroke to think of the exile as the dull foil that will make his eventual homecoming shine all the more by contrast — suffering makes joy more vivid.
TLN 555cultural context
“Must I not serve a long apprenticehood / To foreign passages, and in the end, / Having my freedom, boast of nothing else / But that I was a journeyman to grief”
Bolingbroke compares his exile to an apprenticeship — the period an artisan or tradesman spent under a master, working for no wages, before gaining the 'freedom' (licence to work independently) of his trade. A 'journeyman' had finished his apprenticeship and worked for day-wages but had not yet become a master. Bolingbroke's bitter joke: he will complete a long 'apprenticeship' to suffering but earn only the title 'journeyman to grief' — never a master of anything better.
TLN 578rhetorical device
“who can hold a fire in his hand / By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? / Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite / By bare imagination of a feast? / Or wallow naked in December snow / By thinking on fantastic summer's heat”
Bolingbroke demolishes Gaunt's consoling advice with a three-part rhetorical question: can you hold fire painlessly by thinking of cold mountains? Can you feel full by imagining food? Can you be warm in snow by picturing summer? Each example makes the same point — physical reality cannot be overridden by imagination, however vivid. Real suffering cannot be thought away.
TLN 590rhetorical device
“England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu; / My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet”
Bolingbroke's farewell personifies England as both mother (the source of his identity and blood) and nurse (the one who has fed and sustained him). 'That bears me yet' means the ground that still carries him, still supports his weight — he is still physically on it even as he says goodbye. The apostrophe to the literal ground under his feet is the play's first instance of the extended 'England as sacred earth' imagery central to the whole work.