What is the good of being a king if I have to put up with my cousin Henry for a whole evening!

ANNE. My dear, we can’t help it. He and Mary—.

RICHARD. Mary too!

ANNE.—are staying in the Palace for the night, on the way to Hereford. We couldn’t very well not ask them to supper.

RICHARD. I won’t have it! I simply refuse.

ANNE. I don’t very much like Mary.

RICHARD. (_thawing after a moment to a grudging smile_). Oh, very well. But I warn you that I shall be intolerable to him.

ANNE. You know that when the time comes you will be charming to him.

RICHARD. Possibly. I wonder if he will be thinking as unmentionable things about me as I am about him, all the time we are being polite to each other. A grim thought!

ANNE. (_with a darling smile_). Good-bye. I’m glad you like my dress.

CURTAIN


SCENE II

A council chamber, the Palace of Westminster, the hour being the same as in the previous scene. An informal conference is in progress, which has become momentarily more informal during the two hours of argument which have passed. The council are grouped round an oblong table. The King’s place at the bead of the table is empty.. There are present:

JOHN OF GAUNT, DUKE OF LANCASTER; a good-looking man of middle age, who carries himself with the confidence of a practised diplomat.

THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER; a solider and less composed edition of his brother LANCASTER. He has the restlessness of all irritable men, and a perpetual air of being about to explode. An uncomfortable person.

THE EARL OF ARUNDEL; who is the prototype of all those retired soldiers who believe that the world is going to the dogs. A stupid-looking individual, with small suspicious eyes which seem always searching for slights.

THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY; ARUNDEL’S brother; as bland as his brother is prickly.

ROBERT DE VERE, EARL OF OXFORD; a dark young man with a withdrawn air. He is even better-looking than RICHARD, but lacks that flame of spirit which illumines RICHARD to the most careless observer. If ROBERT DE VERE has vulnerable places, they are carefully bidden and protected by his good-humoured, cynical indifference.

MICHAEL DE LA POLE, Chancellor of England; elderly and white-haired, but shrewd; and, after many years of Courts and Governments, no more easily discomposed than LANCASTER.

SIR SIMON BURLEY; once the King’s tutor and now Warden of Dover Castle; a ruddy, good-natured person with a smile always in his eye.

EDMUND, DUKE OF YORK, the King’s third uncle; a pale, self-indulgent creature, deprecatory and devoid of resolution.

 

GLOUCESTER.(_in full spate_)…disgraceful that we should be exposed to this. A ridiculous proposition to begin with, and hysteria to end with! You are far too lenient with him, Lancaster.

LANCASTER. My dear brother, I have neither jurisdiction nor influence over him. Our respective enemies have seen to that.

GLOUCESTER. Well, De la Pole; surely you can control him? Or you, Burley; you brought him up.