In a speech heavily laden with verbal irony, Richard, who is being dethroned in favor of Henry Bolingbroke, insults Bolingbroke and the other defecting lords by pretending that he needs more time to learn how to “flatter” a King, having until this very moment been one himself. Speaking before Bolingbroke and his allies, Richard states:
I hardly yet have learned
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee.
Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favors of these men. Were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry “All hail” to me?
Richard’s language is deeply sarcastic, accusing the defectors of having until now flattered him as King. He pretends to be confused, as if he has some faint recollection of these men having treated him as King, when in fact he knows perfectly well that these very same men were, until this scene, his subjects. His request for more time to learn how to treat a monarch—"to insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee"—is intended both to shame the lords by reminding them of their previous conduct towards him and to highlight the hollowness of these deferential gestures.
His irony emphasizes the betrayal of the defectors and the falseness of their previous respect for the crown. Though Richard has surrendered the throne, he mocks and undermines Bolingbroke’s victory. After all, if those same lords once said “All hail” to Richard, how can Bolingbroke truly trust them when they say “All hail” to him?
