Plan. My father was attached, not attainted;
Condemn'd to die for treafon, but no traitor;
And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset,
Were growing time once ripen'd to my will.
For your partaker Pool, and you yourself,
I'll note you in my book of memory,

6

To fcourge you for this apprehenfion; Look to it well, and fay, you are well warn'd.

Som. Ah, thou fhalt find us ready for thee still, And know us by thefe colours for thy foes; For these my friends, in fpight of thee, fhall wear. Plan. And by my foul, this pale and angry rofe, As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate, Will I for ever and my faction wear; Until it wither with me to my grave, Or flourish to the height of my degree.

Suf. Go forward, and be choak'd with thy ambition : And fo farewel, until I meet thee next. Som. Have with thee, Pool: farewel,

Richard.

[Exit. ambitious

[Exit.

Plan. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure 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 Glofter,
And if thou be not then created York,
I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Mean time, in fignal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerfet and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose.
And here I prophefy; this brawl to day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,

Shall fend, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand fouls to death and deadly night.

Plan. Good mafter Vernon, I am bound to you;
That you on my behalf would pluck a flow'r.
Ver. In your behalf ftill will I wear the fame.
Lawyer. And fo will I.

Plan. Thanks, gentle Sir.

Come, let us four to dinner; I dare fay,
This quarrel will drink blood another day.

[Exeunt.

Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and jailors.
IND keepers of my weak decaying age,

Mor. K

7 Let dying Mortimer here reft himself.
Ev'n like a man new haled from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment :
And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death,
Neftor-like aged in an age of care,

8

Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

These eyes, like lamps whose wafting oil is spent,
Wax dim, as drawing to their * exigent.
Weak fhoulders over-born with burd'ning grief,
And pithlefs arms, like to a wither'd vine
That droops his faplefs branches to the ground.
Yet are these feet, whofe ftrengthlefs ftay is numb,
Unable to fupport this lump of clay,
Swift-winged with defire to get a grave;
As witting, I no other comfort have.

7 Let dying Mortimer here rest bimfelf. I know not whether Milton did not take from this hint the lines with which he opens his tragedy.

8 This Edmund Mortimer, when K. Richard II. fet out upon his

fatal Irish expedition, was declared by that Prince Heir Apparent to the Crown: for which Reafon K. Henry IV. and V. took Care to keep him in Prifon during their whole Reigns. THEO. • Exigent, end.

But

But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?

Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my Lord, will come;
We fent unto the Temple, to his chamber,
And answer was return'd that he will come.

Mor. Enough; my foul then fhall be fatisfy'd.
Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine.
Since Henry Monmouth firit began to reign,
Before whofe glory I was great in arms,
This loathfom fequeftration have I had;
And ev'n fince then hath Richard been obscur'd,
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance;

But now the arbitrator of despairs,

Juft death, kind *umpire of men's miferies,
With fweet enlargement doth difmifs me hence.
I would, his troubles likewile were expir'd,
That fo he might recover what was loft.

Enter Richard Plantagenet.

Keep. My Lord, your loving nephew now is come. Mer. Richard Plantagenet, my friend? Is he come? Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd, Your nephew, late defpifed Richard, comes.

Mor. Direct mine arms, I may embrace his neck, And in his bofom fpend my latest gafp.

Oh, tell me, when my lips do touch his cheeks,
That I may kindly give one fainting kiss.

And now declare, fweet ftem from York's great ftock,
Why didft thou fay, of late thou wert defp.s'd?

Plan. Firft, lean thine aged back against mine arm, And in that cafe I'll tell thee my Difeafe.

This, day, in argument upon a cafe,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerfet and me,
Amongst which terms he us'd his lavish tongue,
And did upbraid me with my father's death,
Which obloquy fet bars before my tongue,

Umpire of mifery.] That is, he that terminates or concludes mifery. The expreffion VOL. IV.

is harsh and force 1.

Difaffeems to be here una finess or dfientent. M m

Elfe

Elfe with the like I had requited him.
Therefore, good uncle, for my father's fake,
In honour of a true Plantagenet,

And for alliance' fake, declare the cause
My father Earl of Cambridge loft his head.

Mor. This caufe, fair nephew, that imprifon'd me,
And hath detain'd me all my flow'ring youth
Within a loathfome dungeon there to pine,
Was curfed inftrument of his decease.

Plan. Difcover more at large what caufe that was, For I am ignorant and cannot guefs.

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 coufin Richard, Edward's fon
The first begotten, and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that defcent.
During whofe reign the Percies of the north,
Finding his ufurpation moft unjust,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne.
The reafon mov'd thefe 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 Lyonel Duke of Clarence, the third fon
To the Third Edward; whereas Bolingbroke
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but the 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
After his father Bolingbroke did reign,
Thy father, Earl of Cambridge, then deriv'd
From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,
Marrying my fifter, that thy mother was;
Again in pity of my hard distress

Haughty is high.

Lea

Levied an army, weening to redeem
And re-inftal me in the Diadem:
But as the reft fo fell that noble Earl,
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title refted, were fuppreft.

Plan. Of which, my Lord, your honour is the laft. Mor. True; and thou feeft, that I no iffue have; And that my fainting words do warrant death. Thou art my heir. The reft I wish thee gather; But yet be wary in thy ftudious care.

Plan. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me;
But yet, methinks, my father's execution
Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.

Mor. With filence, nephew, be thou politick:
Strong-fixed is the Houfe 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 fettled place.

Plan. Ŏ uncle, would fome part of my young years
O
Might but redeem the paffage of your age!

Mor. Thou doft then wrong me, as that flaught'rer doth,

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

And fo farewel; and fair be all thy hopes,

And profp'rous be thy life, in peace and war! [Dies. Plan. And peace, no war, befal thy parting foul! In prifon haft thou spent a pilgrimage,

And, like a hermit, over paft thy days.