Richard II Language and Communication Quotes Page 1

Yikes! Sometimes, we get the feeling that Henry wishes he could make his words cause physical harm to his enemies, especially when he says to Mowbray, "With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat" (1.1.2). Unlike Richard, who always talks about his power and divinity without ever proving anything, Henry has no patience for words; he's all about action. Here he says he's going to "prove" what his tongue says with a weapon: his sword. Language is insufficient for Henry; it has to be "proven" or made concrete by acts.

The play is obsessed with the difference between words and deeds. Here Mowbray emphasizes that he can offer more than just "cold words" to prove his innocence. He's trying to keep Henry Bolingbroke from characterizing him as "all talk," and states that language won't resolve their disagreement. Henry and Mowbray agree on that much, despite being enemies. Unlike them, Richard will try to resolve the dispute through verbally commanding that they make peace. As king, he has come to believe that his words are actions. He's wrong, of course, and his order that the two be friends fails to heal the cracks developing in the kingdom.

Something else worth noting here is the way Mowbray is a master of reversals. First he says words don't matter, but then he cleverly finds a way to talk anyway – he won't be "hushed." Then he tells the king that his respect for him "curbs," or stops, him from saying all he wants to about Henry. But then of course he goes on to do exactly that!

Mowbray says that even worse than his physical banishment from England is his banishment from his own language. First he compares his tongue, which can only speak English, to a useless or out-of-tune instrument. The king, he says, has metaphorically imprisoned his tongue within his mouth, since whatever freedom it had is lost the moment he leaves England and can no longer communicate with other men.