LORD MARSHAL        [to Bolingbroke] What is thy name, and wherefore com’st thou hither

Before King Richard in his royal lists?

Against whom com’st thou, and what’s thy quarrel?

Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven.

BOLINGBROKE          Harry of Hereford, Lancaster and Derby

Am I, who ready here do stand in arms

To prove by God’s grace and my body’s valour

In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk,

That he is a traitor foul and dangerous

To God of heaven, King Richard and to me;

And as I truly fight, defend me heaven.

LORD MARSHAL        On pain of death, no person be so bold

Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists,

Except the Marshal and such officers

Appointed to direct these fair designs. (1.3.31-45)

Again, everyone knows who this is: Bolingbroke, formally introducing himself and stating his cause, just as Mowbray has already done. He must be invited to do so by the Lord Marshal, who also emphasizes that King Richard is ultimately in charge here; these are the royal lists. Like Norfolk, Bolingbroke names himself (he has more titles/counties than Mowbray: Hereford, Lancaster and Derby) and emphatically states his purpose and resolution, asking for heavenly protection. He has to echo or even repeat what Mowbray has said, because the occasion within the action of the play demands it; there are forms of words which belong to this trial of chivalry. But the repetitions and echoes are also part of the larger pattern of doubles and pairs in the play: at the moment, it’s Mowbray and Bolingbroke, but soon (spoiler) Mowbray will be gone, and the play’s central pairing will become Bolingbroke and Richard himself. The Lord Marshal, it seems, is completely in control, and he takes his role and the occasion very seriously. No one must interfere with the process, no one must be so bold or daring hardy as to touch the lists: the spectators must all keep their distance, on pain of death. The only people allowed to approach or touch the lists, the barriers separating the combatants, are the Marshal himself and such officers appointed to direct these fair designs, this formal, honourable trial by combat. Implicitly, even the King must remain aloof, and leave it to the officers in charge.