ABSTRACT
At a memorable moment that is a key to one of Shakespeare's most popular history plays—when Parliament is called to Westminster to witness the deposition of Richard II—the newly usurped King makes an inquiry that may have puzzled, even troubled, some of the playgoers by the mid-1590s: “Good king, great king,” he asks of Bolingbroke, —and yet not greatly good — An if my word be sterling yet in England, Let it command a mirror hither straight, That it may show me what a face I have, Since it is bankrupt of his [that is, its] majesty. (4.1.253–57) 1
