King Richard II Act 2

In which the valiant Duke of Gaunt, bending beneath the weight of age and grief, utters a solemn lament upon England’s state, revealing a realm leased out in shame and beset by flattery and folly, whilst the embittered lords and kin wrestle with divided loyalties and the rising tides of rebellion. As tempests of war and sorrow gather, noble York, uneasy and torn, faces the fierce advance of Bolingbroke with wavering resolve amid a land that mourns its fading sun and awaits the unfolding of dark unrest.