His
noble cousin is right welcome hither;
And
all the number of his fair demands
Shall
be accomplisht without contradiction:
-Richard
King Richard the Second Act III
Scene iii, Line 122
This is Richard’s
answer to Bolingbroke’s demand that all his rights and properties be restored.
Bolingbroke has said that this is all he wants, and that he has no designs on
Richard’s crown. But everyone, including Richard, knows that is not true and
that by giving in to Bolingbroke’s demands it will be the beginning of the end
of Richard’s reign.
When Richard says
His noble cousin, he’s using the royal third person. What he
means is My noble cousin. Remember, Bolingbroke and Richard are
first cousins, their fathers were brothers. But both the fathers, Bolingbroke’s
dad, John of Gaunt, and Richard’s dad, the Black Prince, are long gone, leaving
this next generation of cousins to sort it out.
Spoiler alert: they’re not going to do a very good job of sorting it out.
1 comment:
Is "Royal" third person a well-known english rule/name? Or is it like a Shakespeare thing?
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