The Queen and her ladies sit in the garden trying to think of something to take their minds off their grief. When the gardener and his two assistants enter, the Queen and her ladies hide in order to hear what the men say, because they "will talk of state" and the Queen wants to know what is going on.
One of the assistants asks why they should keep this garden orderly when their "sea-walled garden" (England) is full of weeds and caterpillars, and let run to waste. The gardener says that things are no longer so bad because the person who caused such conditions in England, Richard, has been brought down by Bolingbroke and his flatterers with him. The gardener laments that Richard did not tend England with as much care as.....
