CARLISLE       Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king

Hath power to keep you king in spite of all.

The means that heavens yield must be embraced

And not neglected; else heaven would

And we will not: heaven’s offer we refuse,

The proffered means of succours and redress.

AUMERLE      He means, my lord, that we are too remiss

Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,

Grows strong and great in substance and in friends.        (3.2.27-35)

It’s not impossible that Carlisle—that is, the Bishop of Carlisle—has been a silent presence in earlier court scenes, but this is in fact his first speech in the play. (Carlisle is a historical figure, one of Richard’s close friends and supporters. His name, alas not in the play or in speech prefixes, is Thomas Merk or Merke.) And here he’s being just a bit gnomic, or at least syntactically compressed. The first two sentences are straightforward: Fear not, my lord. That power that made you king hath power to keep you king in spite of all. Your kingship is divinely ordained; God made you king, and in spite of all, whatever happens, nothing can change that. God is on your side.

But Carlisle is also a canny politician. The divine right of kings notwithstanding, the means that heavens yield must be embraced and not neglected. Heaven helps those that help themselves; you’d better do everything you can, seize every opportunity, and not just rely on right and the divine will. You need to get a grip, be practical. (Stop talking to trees and flowers, man.) If you don’t do everything you can, take control of every means and resource at your disposal, then you risk not being able to do God’s will, to do what heaven would, what God desires. You need to become active in seeking your own security and safety, otherwise you are, in effect, turning your back on whatever aid, succours, redress that heaven is offering, and thus on the power that your divine right confers.

Carlisle is being pretty obscure (as multiple editors confirm, emending the passage in various ways), and also repetitive, so it’s just as well that Aumerle, perhaps a little impatiently, offers a gloss: He means, my lord, that we are too remiss. We’re hanging back, we’re being passive, reactive, perhaps complacent, whilst Bolingbroke, through our security, our complacency, perhaps even our over-confidence in our power, and that right is on our side—he’s growing strong and great in substance and in friends. He has wealth, and power, and an ever-increasing number of allies and supporters.