Against proud Somerset, and William Poole,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose:
And here I prophecy,-This brawl to-day
Grown to this faction, in the Temple garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
"A"thousand souls to death and deadly night.

Jen

Plan. Good master Vernon, I am bound to you,
That you on my behalf would pluck a flower.
Ver. In your behalf still will I wear the same:
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.

SCENE V.

The same. A Room in the Tower.

[Exeunt.

Enter MORTIMER,3 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 of death,
Nestor-like aged, in an age of care,
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

4

These eyes,-like lamps whose wasting oil is spent,5Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent:"

3 Enter Mortimer,] Mr. Edwards, in his MS. notes, observes, that Shakspeare has varied from the truth of history, to introduce this scene between -Mortimer and Richard Plantagenet. Edmund Mortimer served under Henry V in 1422, and died unconfined in Ireland in 1424. Holinshed says, that Mortimer was one of the mourners at the funeral of Henry V.

His uncle Sir John Mortimer, was indeed prisoner in the Tower, and was executed not long before the Earl of March's death, being charged with an attempt to make his escape in order to stir up an insurrection in Wales. Steevens.

pursuivants of death,] Pursuivants. The heralds that, forerunning death, proclaim its approach. Johnson.

5

11:

-like lamps whose wasting oil is spent,] So, in King Richard

"My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewasted light-" Steevens. 6 as drawing to their exigent:] Exigent, end. Johnson. VOL. X. F

Weak shoulders, overborne with burd'ning grief;
And pithless arms, like to a wither'd vine

7

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?

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.
Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
(Before whose glory I was great in arms,)
This loathsome sequestration have I had;3
And even since then hath Richard been obscur❜d;
Depriv'd of honour 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 expir'd,

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,

Your nephew, late-despised1 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.—

7 And pithless arms,] Pith was used for marrow, and figuratively, for strength. Johnson.

8 Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign.

This loathsome sequestration have I had;] Here again, the author certainly is mistaken. See p. 52, n. 1. Malone.

9 the arbitrator of despairs,

Fust death, kind umpire of men's miseries;] That is, he that terminates or concludes misery. The expression is harsh and forced. Johnson.

late-despised] i. e. lately despised. M. Mason.

And now declare, sweet stem from York's great stock, Why didst thou say-of late thou wert despis'd?

Plan. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm;
And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease.2
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 honour of a true Plantagenet,

And for alliance' sake,-declare the cause

My father, earl of Cambridge, lost his head.

Mor. That cause, fair nephew, that imprison'd me, And hath detain'd me, all my flow'ring youth, Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine, Was cursed instrument 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 nephew Richard;3 Edward's son,

2

· I'll tell thee my disease.] Disease seems to be here un.. easiness, or discontent. Johnson.

It is so used by other ancient writers, and by Shakspeare in Coriolanus. Thus likewise, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III, c. v: "But labour'd long in that deep ford with vain disease.”

3

Steevens.

his nephew Richard;] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read-his cousin-but without necessity. Nephew has sometimes the power of the Latin nepos, and is used with great laxity among our ancient English writers. Thus in Othello, Iago tells Brabantio he shall "have his nephews (i. e. the children of his own daughter) neigh to him." Steevens.

It would be surely better to read cousin, the meaning which nephew ought to have in this place. Mr. Steevens only proves that the word nephews is sometimes used for grand-children, which is very certain. Both uncle and nephew might, however, formerly signify cousin. See the Menagiana, Vol. II, p. 193. In The Second Part of the troublesome Raigne of King John, Prince Henry calls his cousin the Bastard, "uncle." Ritson.

I believe the mistake here arose from the author's ignorance; and that he conceived Richard to be Henry's nephew. Malone.

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,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne:
The reason 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 Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son5
To king Edward the third, whereas he,
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroick line.

But mark; as, in this haughty great attempt,
They laboured 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 deriv'd
From famous Edmund Langley, duke of York,—
Marrying my sister, that thy mother was,
Again, in pity of my hard distress,
Levied an army;7 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 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: 8

4

young king Richard -] Thus the second folio. The first omits-king, which is necessary to the metre. Steevens. 5 the third son] The article-the, which is necessary to the metre, is omitted in the first folio, but found in the second. Steevens.

6 in this haughty great attempt,] Haughty is high. Johnson. 7 Levied an army;] Here is again another falsification of history. Cambridge levied no army, but was apprehended at Southampton, the night before Henry sailed from that town for France, on the information of this very Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.

Malone.

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.9
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. Ŏ, uncle, 'would some part of my young years

Might but redeem the passage of your age!1

Mor. Thou dost then wrong me; as the slaught'rer doth,

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

And so farewel; and fair be all thy hopes!2

And prosperous be thy life, in peace, and war!

[Dies.

Plan. And peace, no war, befal thy parting soul!

In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,

8 Thou art my heir; the rest, I wish thee gather:] The sense is-I acknowledge thee to be my heir; the consequences which may be collected from thence, I recommend it to thee to draw.

Heath. 9 And, like a mountain, not to be remov'd.] Thus Milton, Par. Lost, Book IV:

Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremov'd." Steevens.

10, uncle, 'would some part of my young years

Might but redeem &c.] This thought has some resemblance to that of the following lines, which are supposed to be addressed by a married lady who died very young, to her husband. The inscription is, I think, in the church of Trent:

"Immatura perî; sed tu diuturnior annos

"Vive meos, conjux optime, vive tuos." Malone. This superstition is very ancient: Some traces of it may be found in the traditions of the Rabbins; it is enlarged upon in the Alcestes of Euripides; and such offers ridiculed by Juvenal, Sat. XII, Dion Cassius in Vit. Hadrian, fol. edit. Hamburgh, Vol. II, p. 1160, insinuates, “That Hadrian sacrificed his favourite Antinous with this design." See Reismari Annotat. in loc: "De nostris annis, tibi Jupiter augeat annos," said the Romans to Augustus. See Lister's Journey to Paris, p. 221. Vaillant.

2 and fair &c.] Fair is lucky, or prosperous. So we say, a fair wind, and fair fortune. Johnson.