RICHARD        Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears.

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir,

As he is but my father’s brother’s son,

Now by my sceptre’s awe, I make a vow

Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood

Should nothing privilege him nor partialize

The unstooping firmness of upright soul.

He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou.

Free speech and fearless I to thee allow. (1.1.115-123)

Richard, lofty and gracious, and possibly also ironic: how impartial is Richard really? What this also allows him to do is to clarify for the audience the relationships at stake here, and the setting out of the family ties can often raise a laugh: Bolingbroke is Richard’s father’s brother’s son; they are cousins—which is of course pretty damn close. And the possibility of their being brothers, and of Bolingbroke being Richard’s heir: these are crucial things to have articulated in this opening scene. Richard and Bolingbroke are often played as a pair, so to have the relationship framed here in terms of like-unlike, same-but-different is significant. It makes the point, too, that Richard does not have an heir—and that Bolingbroke could have a claim. So it’s double-edged: he is reminding Mowbray that Bolingbroke is indeed his close kin even as he’s claiming that their family ties won’t sway him in the slightest. Richard stands above all on his status as king—my sceptre’s awe, our sacred blood—but also on his upright soul, which remains unstooping (unbending, but also, perhaps, another falconry reference: soaring above the earth, not stooping to the ground). He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou, again a double-edged reminder: the two men are equal, and they are both subject to Richard. So, in this context, what free speech and fearless might mean is not straightforward. How freely, and fearlessly, can Mowbray, and indeed Bolingbroke, really speak?