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SCENE V. A room in the Tower of London.

Enter MORTIMER, brought-in 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-halèd from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment;
And these gray locks, the pursuivants of death,
Nestor-like agèd, in an age of care,

(66)

Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer :

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

Weak shoulders, overborne with burdening 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,
As witting I no other comfort have.-

But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?

First Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come :

We sent unto the Temple, to his chamber ;(67)

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;
And even since then hath Richard been obscur'd,
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance.

But now, the arbitrator of despairs, (63)

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.

First Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. Mor. Richard Plantagenet, friend, (69) is he come ?

VOL. V.

D

Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd, Your nephew, late-despisèd 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 agèd back against mine arm;
And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease.
This day, in argument upon a case,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me;
Among which terms he us'd 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 flowering 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(70) breath permit,
And death approach not ere my tale be done.
Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king,
Depos'd 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,
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 son
To King Edward the Third; whereas he(72)
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroic 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, 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:
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 politic:
Strong-fixèd is the house of Lancaster,
And, like a mountain, not to be remov'd.
But now thy uncle is removing hence ;(78)

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 that slaughterer 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.

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

In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,

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
Will see his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Keepers, bearing out the body of 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,
I doubt not but with honour to redress;
And therefore haste I to the parliament,
Either to be restorèd to my blood,

Or make my ill(74) th' advantage of my good.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. London. The Parliament-house.

Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, GLOSTER, WARWICK, So

MERSET, and SUFFOLK; the

Bishop of WINCHESTER, RICHARD

PLANTAGENET, and others. GLOSTER offers to put up a bill;
WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it.

Win. Com'st thou with deep-premeditated lines,
With written pamphlets studiously devis'd,
Humphrey of Gloster? If thou canst accuse,
Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge,

Do it without invention, suddenly;
As I with sudden and extemporal speech
Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

Glo. Presumptuous priest! this place commands my
patience,

Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour'd me.

Think not, although in writing I preferr'd

The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able
Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen:
No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness,
Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks,
As very infants prattle of thy pride.
Thou art a most pernicious usurer;
Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
A man of thy profession and degree;
And for thy treachery, what's more manifest,—
In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life,
As well at London-bridge as at the Tower?
Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted,
The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

--

Win. Gloster, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouchsafe

To give me hearing what I shall reply.

If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,

(75)

peace

As he will have me, how am I so poor?
Or how haps it I seek not to advance
Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
And for dissension, who preferreth (76)
More than I do,-except I be provok'd?
No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
It is not that that hath incens'd the duke:
It is, because no one should sway but he;
No one but he should be about the king;
And that engenders thunder in his breast,
And makes him roar these accusations forth,
But he shall know I am as good—

As good!

Glo.
Thou bastard of my grandfather!—(77)

Win. Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray, But one imperious in another's throne?

Glo. Am I not lord(78) protector, saucy priest?
Win. And am not I a prelate of the church?
Glo. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,

And useth it to patronage his theft.

Win. Unreverent Gloster!

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