RICHARD                    Marshal, demand of yonder champion

The cause of his arrival here in arms.

Ask him his name and orderly proceed

To swear him in the justice of his cause.

LORD MARSHAL        [to Mowbray] In God’s name and the King’s, say who thou art,

And why thou com’st thus knightly clad in arms,

Against what man thou com’st, and what thy quarrel.

Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath,

As so defend thee heaven and thy valour. (1.3.7-15)

The scene begins properly, with ritual: everyone knows what’s going on and who’s who, but the formalities (and the hierarchies) must be observed. We have been told that the combatants are poised and ready, full of energy and courage, but this part of the scene seems static, staid – which of course heightens the tension, but also the sense that this might all be a performance, a show (but for whose benefit?) Mowbray must give his name and give his cause, the reason for which he has come in arms to fight; the Lord Marshal must, following due process, swear him in the justice of his cause, ask him on oath to state his purpose. So the King asks the Lord Marshal and the Lord Marshal asks Mowbray: the repetition heightens the sense of ritual, but it also allows some of the key terms from the first scene to resonate around the stage: arms, knightly, knighthood, valour. Mowbray must speak truly on his knighthood and his oath, so help him God: it’s a reminder that this is no straightforward tournament, but a judicial combat, in which the victor, and so the rightness of his cause, will be determined not by his skill and bravery alone, but by God.