And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset, To scourge you for this apprehension": Som. Ay, thou shalt find us ready for thee still : Suf. Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition! And so farewell, until I meet thee next. [Exit. Som. Have with thee, Poole. Farewell, ambitious Richard. [Exit. Plan. How I am brav'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 Gloster : 7 Opinion.. Law. And so will I. Plan. Thanks, gentle sir. Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say, This quarrel will drink blood another day. [Exeunt. SCENE V. A Room in the Tower. Enter MORTIMER, brought in a Chair by Two Keepers. Mor. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, Let dying Mortimer here rest himself. Even like a man new haled from the rack, So fare my limbs with long imprisonment : And these grey locks, the pursuivants Nestor-like aged, in an age of care, Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. of death, These eyes-like lamps whose wasting oil is spent, Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent': Weak shoulders, overborne with burd'ning grief, 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, But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come? 1 Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come : We sent unto the Temple, to his chamber; And answer was return'd that he will come. Mor. Enough; my soul shall then be satisfied.— Poor gentleman! his wrong doth equal mine. Pursuivants are officers who attend upon heralds. Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign, But now, the arbitrator of despairs, Just death, kind umpire of men's miseries, That so he might recover what was lost. Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET. 1 Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend? Is he come? Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd, O, tell me, when my lips do touch his cheeks, Why didst thou say of late thou wert despis'd? arm; And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease.' Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me: I Uneasiness, discontent. And for alliance' sake, declare the cause 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, Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne: I was the next by birth and parentage; From Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son 2 Thinking. - And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers, Plan. Of which, my lord, your honour is the last. Mor. True; and thou seest, that I no issue have And that my fainting words do warrant death: Thou art my heir; the rest, I wish thee gather: But yet be wary in thy studious care. ; Plan. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me: But yet, methinks, my father's execution Was nothing less than bloody tyranny. Mor. With silence, nephew, be thou politick; Strong-fixed is the house 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 settled place. Plan. O, uncle, 'would some part of my young years Might but redeem the passage of your age! Mor. Thou dost then wrong me; as the slaught'rer doth, Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill. And so farewell; and fair be all thy hopes! [Dies. Plan. And peace, no war, befal thy parting soul! In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage, [Exeunt Keepers, bearing out MORTIMER. Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer, Chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort: And, for those wrongs, those bitter injuries, Which Somerset hath offer'd to my house, |