Suf. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. Som. Away, away, good William De-la-Poole !" We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him. War. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him,Somerset : His grandfather was Lionel, duke of Clarence,9 Third son to the third Edward king of England; Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?* Plan. He bears him on the place's privilege, 2 Or durst not, for his craven heart, say thus. Som. By him that made me, I'll maintain my words On any plot of ground in Christendom: Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, To scourge you for this apprehension :4 Som. Ay, thou shalt find us ready for thee still : [Exit. Suf. Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition! And so farewell, until I meet thee next. Som. Have with thee, Pool.-Farewell, ambitious Richard. [Exit. Plan. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure it! [9] The author mistakes. Plantagenet's paternal grandfather was Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. His maternal grandfather was Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was the son of Philippa the daughter of Lionel, Dak of Clarence. The duke therfore was his maternal great great grandfather MAL. [1]. those who have no right to arms. WARB. [2] The Temple, being a religious house, was an asylum, a place of exemption, from violence. revenge, and bloodshed. JOHNS. [3] Exempt for excluded. [4] Apprehension, that is opinion, WARE 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 : Plan. Good master Vernon, I am bound to you, Plan. Thanks, gentle sir. Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say, The same. 'SCENE V. [Exeunt. A Room in the Tower. Enter MORTIMER, 4 brought in a chair by two Keepers. Mor. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, Even like a man new-haled from the rack, [4] Mr. Edwards in his MS. notes observes that Shakspeare has varied from the true 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 the V. STEEV. I am aware, and could easily show, that some of the most interesting events, not only in the Chronicles of Hall and Holinshed, but in the Histories of Rapin, Hume and Smollet, are perfectly fabulous and unfounded, which are nevertheless constantly cited and regarded as incontrovertible facts. But, if modern writers, standing as it were, upon the shoulders of their predecessors, and possessing innumerable other advantages, are not always to be depended on, what ailowances ought we not to make for those who had neither Rymer, nor Dugdale, nor Sandford to consult, who could have no access to the treasuries of Cotton or Harley, nor were permitted the inspection of a public record? If this were the case with the historian, what can be expected from the dramatist? He naturally took for fact what he found in history, and is by no means answerable for the misinformation of his authority, RITSON. [5] Pursuivants. The heralds that, forerunning death, proclaim its ap proach. JOHNS. Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. These eyes,-like lamps whose wasting oil is spent,— Weak shoulders, overborne with burd'ning grief, That droops his sapless branches to the ground :— But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come? 1 Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come : 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, 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, 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.9 This day, in argument upon a case, Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me: [7] Pith was used for marrow, and figuratively, for strength VOL. V. JOHNS. Among which terms he used his lavish tongue, And for alliance sake,-declare the cause 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, 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, Of Edward king, the third of that descent: Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne. I was the next by birth and parentage; From Lionel duke of Clarence, the third son But mark as, in this haughty great attempt, * But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl, Plan. Of which, my lord, your honour is the last. Plan. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me; Mor. With silence, nephew, be thou politic; As princes do their courts, when they are cloy'd Plan. Ŏ, 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. 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 thy life, in peace, and war! [Dies. And like a hermit overpass'd thy days.- [Exeunt Keepers bearing out MORT, [2] That is, I acknowledge thee to be my heir; the consequences which may be collected from thence, I recommend it to thee to draw. HEATH. [3] We are to understand the speaker as reflecting on the ill fortune of Mortimer, in being always made a tool of by the Percies of the North in their rebellious intrigues; rather than in asserting his claim to the crown, in support of his own princely ambition, WARR. |