Act 2, Scene 3

The Wolds in Gloucestershire.

[Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with Forces.]
Henry Bolingbroke
1111 How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now?
Earl of Northumberland
1112 Believe me, noble lord,
1113 I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire.
1114 These high wild hills and rough uneven ways
1115 Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome;
1116 And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
1117 Making the hard way sweet and delectable.
1118 But I bethink me what a weary way
1119 From Ravenspurgh to Cotswold will be found
1120 In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company,
1121 Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd
1122 The tediousness and process of my travel.
1123 But theirs is sweeten'd with the hope to have
1124 The present benefit which I possess;
1125 And hope to joy is little less in joy
1126 Than hope enjoy'd: by this the weary lords
1127 Shall make their way seem short, as mine hath done
1128 By sight of what I have, your noble company.
Henry Bolingbroke
1129 Of much less value is my company
1130 Than your good words. But who comes here?
[Enter HARRY PERCY.]
Earl of Northumberland
1131 It is my son, young Harry Percy,
1132 Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever.
1133 Harry, how fares your uncle?
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1134 I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his health of you.
Earl of Northumberland
1135 Why, is he not with the Queen?
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1136 No, my good lord; he hath forsook the court,
1137 Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd
1138 The household of the King.
Earl of Northumberland
1139 What was his reason?
1140 He was not so resolv'd when last we spake together.
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1141 Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor.
1142 But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh,
1143 To offer service to the Duke of Hereford;
1144 And sent me over by Berkeley, to discover
1145 What power the Duke of York had levied there;
1146 Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh.
Earl of Northumberland
1147 Have you forgot the Duke of Hereford, boy?
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1148 No, my good lord; for that is not forgot
1149 Which ne'er I did remember; to my knowledge,
1150 I never in my life did look on him.
Earl of Northumberland
1151 Then learn to know him now; this is the duke.
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1152 My gracious lord, I tender you my service,
1153 Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young;,
1154 Which elder days shall ripen, and confirm
1155 To more approved service and desert.
Henry Bolingbroke
1156 I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure
1157 I count myself in nothing else so happy
1158 As in a soul remembering my good friends;
1159 And as my fortune ripens with thy love,
1160 It shall be still thy true love's recompense.
1161 My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.
Earl of Northumberland
1162 How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir
1163 Keeps good old York there with his men of war?
Henry Percy (Hotspur)
1164 There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees,
1165 Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard;
1166 And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour;
1167 None else of name and noble estimate.
[Enter Ross and WILLOUGHBY.]
Earl of Northumberland
1168 Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby,
1169 Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.
Henry Bolingbroke
1170 Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues
1171 A banish'd traitor; all my treasury
1172 Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enrich'd,
1173 Shall be your love and labour's recompense.
Lord Ross
1174 Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.
Lord Willoughby
1175 And far surmounts our labour to attain it.
Henry Bolingbroke
1176 Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor;
1177 Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,
1178 Stands for my bounty. But who comes here?
[Enter BERKELEY.]
Earl of Northumberland
1179 It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess.
Lord Berkeley
1180 My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you.
Henry Bolingbroke
1181 My lord, my answer is—to Lancaster;
1182 And I am come to seek that name in England;
1183 And I must find that title in your tongue
1184 Before I make reply to aught you say.
Lord Berkeley
1185 Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not my meaning
1186 To raze one title of your honour out:
1187 To you, my lord, I come, what lord you will,
1188 From the most gracious regent of this land,
1189 The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on
1190 To take advantage of the absent time,
1191 And fright our native peace with self-borne arms.
[Enter YORK, attended.]
Henry Bolingbroke
1192 I shall not need transport my words by you;
1193 Here comes his Grace in person.
1194 My noble uncle!
[Kneels.]
Duke of York
1195 Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,
1196 Whose duty is deceivable and false.
Henry Bolingbroke
1197 My gracious uncle—
Duke of York
1198 Tut, tut!
1199 Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle:
1200 I am no traitor's uncle; and that word 'grace'
1201 In an ungracious mouth is but profane.
1202 Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs
1203 Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground?
1204 But then more 'why?' why have they dar'd to march
1205 So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
1206 Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war
1207 And ostentation of despised arms?
1208 Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence?
1209 Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,
1210 And in my loyal bosom lies his power.
1211 Were I but now lord of such hot youth
1212 As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself
1213 Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,
1214 From forth the ranks of many thousand French,
1215 O! then how quickly should this arm of mine,
1216 Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise the
1217 And minister correction to thy fault!
Henry Bolingbroke
1218 My gracious uncle, let me know my fault:
1219 On what condition stands it and wherein?
Duke of York
1220 Even in condition of the worst degree,
1221 In gross rebellion and detested treason:
1222 Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come
1223 Before the expiration of thy time,
1224 In braving arms against thy sovereign.
Henry Bolingbroke
1225 As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford;
1226 But as I come, I come for Lancaster.
1227 And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace
1228 Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye:
1229 You are my father, for methinks in you
1230 I see old Gaunt alive: O! then, my father,
1231 Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd
1232 A wandering vagabond; my rights and royalties
1233 Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away
1234 To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
1235 If that my cousin king be King in England,
1236 It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster.
1237 You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin;
1238 Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
1239 He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father
1240 To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay.
1241 I am denied to sue my livery here,
1242 And yet my letters-patents give me leave.
1243 My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold;
1244 And these and all are all amiss employ'd.
1245 What would you have me do? I am a subject,
1246 And challenge law: attorneys are denied me;
1247 And therefore personally I lay my claim
1248 To my inheritance of free descent.
Earl of Northumberland
1249 The noble Duke hath been too much abus'd.
Lord Ross
1250 It stands your Grace upon to do him right.
Lord Willoughby
1251 Base men by his endowments are made great.
Duke of York
1252 My lords of England, let me tell you this:
1253 I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs,
1254 And labour'd all I could to do him right;
1255 But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
1256 Be his own carver and cut out his way,
1257 To find out right with wrong, it may not be;
1258 And you that do abet him in this kind
1259 Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.
Earl of Northumberland
1260 The noble Duke hath sworn his coming is
1261 But for his own; and for the right of that
1262 We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
1263 And let him never see joy that breaks that oath!
Duke of York
1264 Well, well, I see the issue of these arms:
1265 I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
1266 Because my power is weak and all ill left;
1267 But if I could, by him that gave me life,
1268 I would attach you all and make you stoop
1269 Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
1270 But since I cannot, be it known unto you
1271 I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;
1272 Unless you please to enter in the castle,
1273 And there repose you for this night.
Henry Bolingbroke
1274 An offer, uncle, that we will accept:
1275 But we must win your Grace to go with us
1276 To Bristol Castle, which they say is held
1277 By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
1278 The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
1279 Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away.
Duke of York
1280 It may be I will go with you; but yet I'll pause,
1281 For I am loath to break our country's laws.
1282 Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are.
1283 Things past redress are now with me past care.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1114syntax grammar
“These high wild hills and rough uneven ways / Draws out our miles”
The subject 'ways' is plural but the verb 'Draws' is singular — in Elizabethan English a compound subject followed by a singular verb was common when the items were felt as a single unit or when the verb preceded the subject. Modern readers expect 'draw.'
TLN 1132historical topical
“Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever”
Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, is Northumberland's younger brother. At this moment he has broken from Richard's court — 'Broken his staff of office' (line 1137) — and openly joined Bolingbroke's cause, a defection that strengthens the rebellion significantly. 'Whencesoever' means 'wherever [he is coming] from,' acknowledging that Percy does not know his brother's exact route.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 1137historical topical
“Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd / The household of the King”
The Lord Steward of the royal household carried a white staff as the physical badge of his office. To 'break' it was the ritual act of resigning — or being dismissed from — the post; the fragments were traditionally thrown into the grave when the monarch died. Worcester's breaking of his staff is a formal, public repudiation of Richard's service.
TLN 1152wordplay
“I tender you my service, / Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young”
Hotspur uses 'tender' twice in quick succession with different meanings: first as a verb meaning 'offer' (to tender = to formally present), then as an adjective meaning 'young and inexperienced.' The doubling is deliberate self-deprecation — he is offering something still unripe.
TLN 1176archaic vocab
“Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor; / Which, till my infant fortune comes to years”
The 'Exchequer' was England's royal treasury and court of revenue (named for the chequered cloth on which accountants counted money). Bolingbroke wryly calls 'thanks' the only exchequer — the only treasury — available to a poor man, promising his allies that real payment will come once his fortunes mature. 'Infant fortune comes to years' means 'once my fledgling luck reaches maturity' — as a minor child does when reaching legal age.
TLN 1181historical topical
“My lord, my answer is—to Lancaster; / And I am come to seek that name in England”
When Berkeley addresses Bolingbroke as 'Duke of Hereford,' Bolingbroke corrects him sharply: he will only answer to 'Lancaster' — his father John of Gaunt's title, which he inherited on Gaunt's death but which Richard illegally withheld. By insisting on the Lancaster title, Bolingbroke makes a precise legal claim: he is not a rebel returning from exile, but a duke reclaiming his rightful inheritance.
historical Edward III and his seven sons
TLN 1186archaic vocab
“To raze one title of your honour out”
'Title' here means a tittle — the tiny dot or stroke that distinguishes one letter from another in a manuscript (from Latin titulus). 'Raze' means to scratch or scrape out, as a scribe erases writing. Berkeley insists he has no intention of removing even the smallest mark of Bolingbroke's honour — not one jot. The line anticipates Bolingbroke's response that he will only answer to 'Lancaster.'
TLN 1199rhetorical device
“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”
York refuses to be softened by Bolingbroke's courtly forms of address. The construction 'Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle' — repeating a noun as both noun and verb — is a forceful rhetorical move called anthimeria (using one part of speech as another). He also puns on 'grace': the formal title for a royal duke, the divine quality of moral goodness, and the favour he refuses to show. In a traitor's mouth the word is hollow.
TLN 1208historical topical
“Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence? / Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind, / And in my loyal bosom lies his power”
'Anointed' means consecrated with holy oil at the coronation -- a ceremony that made the king not just a political ruler but God's appointed deputy on earth. York's point is that Richard's physical absence in Ireland does not create a vacancy: his sacred authority, deposited in his regent York, remains in England. Attacking the regent is attacking the king.
historical The divine right of kings
TLN 1241archaic vocab
“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”
Three legal terms in quick succession: 'sue my livery' means to go to court to claim formal delivery of one's inherited lands (a feudal heir had to petition the Crown to receive his estate, called 'suing out livery'); 'letters-patents' are official royal documents granting a right or privilege — here the document recording Bolingbroke's leave to reclaim his inheritance through a legal agent; 'distrain'd' means seized by legal authority as a pledge or penalty. Together they make Bolingbroke's complaint precise: he has been legally denied what his own royal paperwork entitles him to.
TLN 1271archaic vocab
“I do remain as neuter”
'Neuter' here means neutral — York formally declares he will take neither side. The word is from Latin neuter ('neither the one nor the other'); in Elizabethan usage it was applied to a person who stayed out of a dispute. York's position is a political impossibility in civil war, and he implicitly knows it: he has just admitted his forces are too weak to arrest Bolingbroke, and within lines he invites Bolingbroke's army into Berkeley Castle for the night — a neutrality that is effectively capitulation.
TLN 1278archaic vocab
“The caterpillars of the commonwealth, / Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away”
'Caterpillars of the commonwealth' was an established political insult in Shakespeare's England for parasites who stripped the state of its wealth — as caterpillars devour leaves. Here Bolingbroke applies it to Bushy, Bagot, and their allies, Richard's favourites who are accused of exploiting royal favour for personal profit. The gardening metaphor ('weed and pluck away') continues the play's sustained image of England as a garden that has been badly tended.
TLN 1283rhetorical device
“Things past redress are now with me past care”
York closes the scene with a maxim built on emphatic repetition: he restates 'past redress' so that the second clause turns it into a conclusion -- once harm is past fixing, anguish over it serves no purpose. The logic is stoic resignation, and the line is nearly proverbial in form, deliberately so: York packages defeat as wisdom.