Som. Have with thee, Pool: farewel, ambitious

Richard.

[Exit.

Plan. How I am bray'd, and must perforce en

dure it!

War. This blot that they object against your house, Shall be wip'd out in the next parliament,

Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester :
And if thou be not then created York,

I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Mean time in fignal of my love to thee,
Againft proud Somerfet and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rofe.
And here I prophefie; this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,
Shall fend between the red rofe and the white
A thousand fouls to death and deadly night.

*

Mor.

SCENE VI.

Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and jailors.

Κ'

IND keepers of my weak decaying age,
Let dying Mortimer here reft himself.
Ev'n like a man new haled from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment:
And thefe grey locks, the purfuivants of death,
Neftor-like aged in an age of care,
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

-death and deadly night,

Plan. Good mafter Vernon I am bound to you,

That you on my behalf would pluck a flow'r.
Ver. In your behalf ftill will I wear the fame.
Lawyer. And fo will I.

Plan. Thanks, gentle Sir.

Come, let us four to dinner; I dare fay
This quarrel will drink blood another day.

SCENES

Thefe

[Exeunt.

Thefe eyes like lamps whofe wafting oil is spent
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent.
Weak fhoulders over-born with burthening grief,
And pithlefs arms, like to a wither'd vine
That droops his faplefs branches to the ground:
Yet are these feet whofe ftrengthless stay is numb,
(Unable to fupport this lump of clay)
Swift-winged with defire to get a grave,
As witting I no other comfort have.
But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come ;
We fent unto the Temple, to his chamber,
And answer was return'd that he will come..
Mor. Enough; my foul then fhall be fatisfy'd.
Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine."
Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
(Before whofe glory I was great in arms,)
This loathfom fequeftration have I had;
And ev'n fince then hath Richard been obfcur'd,
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance..
But now the arbitrator of defpairs,
Juft death, kind umpire of men's miferies,
With fweet enlargement doth difmifs me hence..
I would his troubles likewife were expir'd,
That fo he might recover what was lost.

Enter Richard Plantagenet.

Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come? Plan. I, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd,

Your nephew, late defpifed Richard, comes.

Mor. Direct mine arms, I may embrace his neck, And in his bofom spend my låteft gafp.

Oh tell me when my lips de touch his cheeks,
That I may kindly give one fainting kiss.

And now declare, fweet ftem from York's great ftock,
Why didst thou fay of late thou wert defpis'd?
Plan. First lean thine aged back against mine arm,
And in that eafe I'll tell thee my difpleasure.

This

This day, in argument upon a cafe,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me:
Amongst which terms he us'd his lavish tongue,
And did upbraid me with
my father's death
Which obloquy fet bars before my tongue,
Elfe with the like I had requited him.
Therefore, good uncle, for my father's fake,
In honour of a true Plantagenet,

And for alliance fake, declare the cause
My father Earl of Cambridge loft his head.

Mor. This caufe, fair nephew, that imprison'd me,
And hath detain'd me all my flow'ring youth
Within a loathfome dungeon there to pine,
Was curfed inftrument of his decease.

Plan. Discover more at large what cause that was, For I am ignorant and cannot guess.

Mor. I will, if that my fading breath permit,
And death approach not ere my tale be done.
Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this King,
Depos'd his coufin Richard, Edward's fon,
The first begotten, and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that defcent.
During whofe reign the Piercies of the north,
Finding his ufurpation moft unjust,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne.
The reafon mov'd these warlike lords to this,
Was, for that young King Richard thus remov'd
Leaving no heir begotten of his body,
I was the next by birth and parentage :
For by my mother I derived am

From Lyonel Duke of Clarence, the third fon
To the Third Edward; whereas Bolingbroke
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but the fourth of that heroick line.
But mark; as in this haughty great attempt
They laboured to plant the rightful heir,
I loft my liberty, and they their lives.
Long after this, when Henry the Fifth
After his father Bolingbroke did reign,
Thy father, Earl of Cambridge, (then deriy'd

From

From famous Edmund Langley Duke of York
Marrying my fifter that thy mother was;)
Again in pity of my hard diftrefs
Levied an army, weening to redeem
And re-inftal me in the diadem:
But as the reft, fo fell that noble Earl,
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title refted, were fuppreft.

Plan. Of which, my lord, your honour is the laft. Mor. True and thou feeft that I no iffue have, And that my fainting words do warrant death: Thou art my heir; the reft I wish thee gather: But yet be wary in thy ftudious care.

Plan. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me ::
But yet methinks my father's execution
Was nothing lefs than bloody tyranny.

Mor. With filence, nephew, be thou politick:
Strong fixed is the houfe of Lancaster,
And like a mountain, not to be remov'd,
But now thy uncle is removing hence,
As Princes do their courts when they are cloy'd
With long continuance in a fettled place.

Plan. O uncle, would fome part of my young years

Might but redeem the paffage of your age!

Mor. Thou doft then wrong me, as that flaughter doth Which giveth many wounds when one will kill. Mourn not, except thou forrow for my good; Only give order for my funeral.

[Dies.

And fo farewel; and fair be all thy hopes,
And profp'rous be thy life, in peace and war.
Plan. And peace, no war, befal thy parting foul !
In prifon haft thou fpent a pilgrimage,
And like a hermit over-paft thy days.
Well I will lock his council in my breast,
And what I do imagine let that reft.
Keepers convey him hence, and I my felf
Will fee his burial better than his life.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Choak'd with ambition of the meaner fort.

And

And for those wrongs, thofe bitter injuries
Which Somerfet hath offer'd to my house,.
I doubt not but with honour to redrefs..
And therefore hafte I to the Parliament;
Either to be restored to my blood,

Or make my will th' advantage of my good..

[Exit.

ACT II SCENE I..

The Parliament:

"

Flourish. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Gloucefter, Win. chefter, Warwick, Somerfet, Suffolk, and Richard Plantagenet. Gloucester offers to put up a bill: Winchefter fnatches it, and tears it.

C

WINCHESTER

OM'ST thou with deep premeditated lines,
With written pamphlets ftudiously devis'd'?
Humphrey of Glo'fter, if thou can't accufe
Or ought intend❜ft to lay unto my charge,
Do it without invention fuddenly;

As I with fudden and extemporal fpeech
Purpose to answer what thou canst object:

Glou. Prefumptuous Prieft, this place commands my patience,

Or thou fhould't find thou haft dishonour'd me.
Think not, altho in writing I prefer'd

The manner of thy vile outragious crimes,
That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able
Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen..
No, Prelate, fuch is thy audacious wickedness,
Thy leud, peftiferous, and diffentious pranks,
The very infants prattle of thy pride.

Thou