Mowbray

Play

Richard II

Summary

Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, is Bolingbroke's antagonist in the trial by combat that opens the play. Richard II stops the duel and banishes both men — Mowbray permanently. Mowbray's grief at exile is particularly poignant because he will never be able to speak his native English tongue again; he dies abroad before he can return. His banishment foreshadows Richard's own later deposition.

Notable Quotations

"The language I have learn'd these forty years, / My native English, now I must forgo: / And now my tongue's use is to me no more / Than an unstringed viol or a harp; / Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up, / Or, being open, put into his hands / That knows no touch to tune the harmony." *(1.3)*

"A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, / And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth: / A dearer merit, not so deep a maim / As to be cast forth in the common air, / Have I deserved at your highness' hands." *(1.3)*

Cross-references

• Richard II — the play
• Richard II — the king who banishes him
• Bolingbroke — his accuser
• Histories