O, let no noble eye profane a tear
For me, if I be gored with Mowbray's spear!
As confident as a falcon's flight
Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight...
O thou, the earthly author of my blood,
Whose youthful spirit in me regenerate
Doth with a two-fold vigour lift me up
To reach at victory above my head,
Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers,
And with thy blessing steel my lance's point
That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat
And furbish new the name of John o' Gaunt
Even in the lust haviour of his son! (1.3.59-62,69-77)
Bolingbrook begins his speech by speaking of the nobles and their profane tears that represent the misfortune that country will experience of he is struck by Mowbray's spear. The use of figurative language, through the adjective profane, provides the reader an interpretation to the importance of this fight, and the meaning it contains for all of England. If he were to lose, the noble's rights and money would be stolen in an unjust nation, with a corrupt dictatorship. If he were to win, the people's voices would be heard and King Richard would adhere to justice for the people. Shakespeare compares Bolingbroke to a "falcon's flight" to illustrate his own confident path and flight he has voluntarily taken upon himself to defeat Mowbray (1.3.61). He has chosen to hunt Mowbray and kill his unjust practices and beliefs like a predator by bringing him in front of King Richard. To further his beliefs and confidence, he addresses his father as his "early author of my blood"(1.3.69). His father raised him with the morals and values of the old order. His father demands respect throughout England, so Bolingbroke has had his blood and values planted into the soil of England even before his birth. Bolingbroke then attributes his own physical and mental strength to his father for being a man who has taught him how to reach for the impossib...