Bolingbroke: The Man Who Doesn't Say What He Wants
First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
Bolingbroke returns from exile to reclaim his inheritance: the Duchy of Lancaster, which Richard seized after John of Gaunt died. He insists, at every stage, that this is all he wants. Whether he is telling the truth is the play's central question, and the play never answers it.
He says less than Richard, moves more, and wins. His competence is shown through contrast with Richard's eloquence. By the time he accepts the crown in Act 4, Scene 1, the transition has happened around him in a way he could perhaps have stopped, if he had wanted to.
As Henry IV, he inherits two more plays' worth of guilt and instability. The murder of Richard (which he seems to sanction obliquely in Act 5, Scene 4) haunts the rest of the tetralogy. He never speaks of it directly.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“I come but for mine own.”
Henry Bolingbroke — Act 3, Scene 3
“Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?”
Henry Bolingbroke — Act 5, Scene 4