To know the cause of your abrupt departure. 30 Tal. Marry, for that she's in a wrong belief, I go to certify her Talbot's here.

Re-enter Porter with keys.

Count. If thou be he, then art thou prisoner. Tal. Prisoner! to whom?

Count. To me, blood-thirsty lord: And for that cause I train'd thee to my house. Long time thy shadow hath been thrall to me, For in my gallery thy picture hangs: But now the substance shall endure the like, And I will chain these legs and arms of thine, That hast by tyranny these many years Wasted our country, slain our citizens, And sent our sons and husbands captivate. Tal. Ha, ha, ha!

40

Count. Laughest thou, wretch? thy mirth shall turn to moan.

Tal. I laugh to see your ladyship so fond
To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow
Whereon to practise your severity.
Count. Why, art not thou the man?
Tal.
I am indeed.
Count. Then have I substance too.
Tal. No, no, I am but shadow of myself: 50
You are deceived, my substance is not here;
For what you see is but the smallest part
And least proportion of humanity:

I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here,
It is of such a spacious lofty pitch,
Your roof were not sufficient to contain't.
Count. This a riddling merchant for the

nonce:

He will be here, and yet he is not here: How can these contrarieties agree? Tal. That will I show you presently. [Winds his horn. Drums strike up: a peal of ordnance. Enter Soldiers. How say you, madam? are you now persuaded That Talbot is but shadow of himself?

These are his substance, sinews, arms and strength,

With which he yoketh your rebellious necks, Razeth your cities, and subverts your towns, And in a moment makes them desolate.

Count. Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse: I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited, And more than may be gather'd by thy shape. Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath; 70 For I am sorry that with reverence

I did not entertain thee as thou art.

Tal. Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor miscon

SCENE IV. London. The Temple-garden. Enter the EARls of Somerset, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK; RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer.

Plan. Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence?

Dare no man answer in a case of truth?

Suf. Within the Temple-hall we were too loud; The garden here is more convenient.

Plan. Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth;

Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error?
Suf Faith, I have been a truant in the law,
And never yet could frame my will to it;
And therefore frame the law unto my will.
Som. Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then,

between us

10

War. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;

Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth; Between two blades, which bears the better temper:

Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
Plan. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
The truth appears so naked on my side
That any purblind eye may find it out.

20

Som. And on my side it is so well apparell'd,
So clear, so shining, and so evident
That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye
Plan. Since you are tongue-tied and so loath
to speak,

In dumb significance proclaim your thoughts:
Let him that is a true-born gentleman
And stands upon the honor of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this brier pluck a white rose with me, 30
Som. Let him that is no coward nor no flat-

II

And pithless arms, like to a wither'd vine
That droops his sapless branches to the ground:
Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is
numb,

Unable to support this lump of clay,
Swift-winged with desire to get a grave,
As witting I no other comfort have.
But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
First Fail. Richard Plantagenet, my lord,
will come:

We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber;
And answer was return'd that he will come. 20
Mor Enough: my soul shall then be satisfied.
Poor gentleman! his wrong doth equal mine.
Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
Before whose glory I was great in arms,
This loathsome sequestration have I had;
And even since then hath Richard been ob-
Deprived of honor and inheritance.
But now the arbitrator of despairs,
Just death, kind umpire of men's miseries,
With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence:
I would his troubles likewise were expired,
That so he might recover what was lost.

Enter RICHARD Plantagenet.

[scured,

31

First Jail. My lord, your loving nephew now is come.

Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he

come?

Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly used, Your nephew, late despised Richard, comes. Mor. Direct mine arms I may embrace his neck,

And in his bosom spend my latter gasp.
O, tell me when my lips do touch his cheeks,
That I may kindly give one fainting kiss.
And now declare, sweet stem from York's great
stock,

40

Why didst thou say, of late thou wert despised? Plan. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm;

And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my discase.
This day, in argument upon a case,
Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me;
Among which terms he used his lavish tongue,
And did upbraid me with my father's death;
Which obloquy set bars before my tongue,
Else with the like I had requited him.
Therefore, good uncle, for my father's sake,
In honor of a true Plantagenet

50

And for alliance sake, declare the cause
My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head.
Mor. That cause, fair nephew, that impris-
on'd me

And hath detain'd me all my flowering youth
Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine,
Was cursed instrument of his decease. [was,
Plan. Discover more at large what cause that
For I am ignorant and cannot guess. 65
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,
Deposed his nephew Richard, Edward's son,
The first-begotten and the lawful heir
Of Edward king, the third of that descent:
During whose reign the Percies of the north,
Finding his usurpation most unjust,

Endeavor'd my advancement to the throne:
The reason moved these warlike lords to this 70
Was, for that-young King Richard thus re-
moved,

Leaving no heir begotten of his body-
I was the next by birth and parentage;
For by my mother I derived am

80

From Lionel Duke of Clarence, the third son
To King Edward the Third; whereas he
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroic line.
But mark: as in this haughty great attempt
They labored to plant the rightful heir,
I lost my liberty and they their lives.
Long after this, when Henry the Fifth,
Succeeding his father Bolingbroke, did reign,
Thy father, Earl of Cambridge, then derived
From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,
Marrying my sister that thy mother was,
Again in pity of my hard distress
Levied an army, weening to redeem
And have install'd me in the diadem:
But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl,
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title rested, were suppress'd.
Plan. Of which, my lord, your honor is the

last.

Might but redeem the passage of your age! Mor. Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer doth

109

Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.
Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good;
Only give order for my funeral:

And so farewell, and fair be all thy hopes,
And prosperous be thylife in peace and war![Dies.
Plan. And peace, no war, befall thy parting
In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage, [soul!
And like a hermit overpass'd thy days.
Well, I will lock his counsel in my
breast;
And what I do imagine, let that rest.
Keepers, convey him hence, and I myself 120
Will see his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Failers, bearing out the body
of Mortimer.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Choked with ambition of the meaner sort:
And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
Which Somerset hath offer'd to my house,
I doubt not but with honor to redress;
And therefore haste I to the parliament,
Either to be restored to my blood,
Or make my ill the advantage of my good.

[Exit..