Suf. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat.
Som. Away, away, good William de la Pool!
We grace the yeoman by converfing with him.
War. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'ft him,
Somerfet;

His grandfather was Lyonel Duke of Clarence,
Third fon to the third Edward King of England:
Spring crefflefs yeomen from fo deep a root?

Plan. He bears him on the place's privilege †,
Or durft not for his craven heart fay 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,
For treafon headed in our late King's day?
And by his treason ftand'ft not thou attainted,
Corrupted and exempt from ancient gentry?
His trefpafs yet lives guilty in thy blood;
And till thou be reftor'd, thou art a yeoman.

Plan. My father was attached, not attainted;
Gondemn'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,
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 ftill,"
And know us by thefe colours for thy foes;
For thefe my friends, in fpight of thee, fhall wear.
Plan. And by my foul, this pale and angry role,
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 am->bition:

And fo farewell, until I meet thee next. [Exit.

†The Temple, being a religious houfe, was an afy lum, a place of exemption from violence, revenge and.. bloodshed. Johnson..

Som. Have with thee, Pool: farewell, ambitious

Richard.

[Exit.

Plan. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure it!

War. This blot, that they object against your Shall be wip'd out in the next parliament, [house, Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Glo'fter; And if thou be not then created York,

I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Mean time, in signal of my love to thee,
Againft proud Somerset and William Pool,
Will I upon thy par, wear this role.
And here I prophefy; this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,
Shall fend, between the red rofe and the white,
A thoufand fouls to death and deadly night.

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 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.
Mor. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
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 purfuivants of death,
Neftor-like aged in an age of care,

Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer *.

• 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. Theobald.

Thefe eyes, like lamps whofe wafting oil is spent,
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent t

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.

But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my Lord, will come ;.
We fent unto the Temple, o his chamber,
And anfwer 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 first began to reign,
Before whofe glory I was great in arms,
This loathfome fequeftration have I had;.
And ev'n fince then hath Richard been obfcur'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 likewife were expir'd,
That fo he might recover what was loft.

Enter Richard Plantagenet.

Keep. My Lord, your loving nephew now is come. Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend? Is hie 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

stock,

Why didft thou fay of late thou wert defpis'd? Plan. Firft, lean thine aged back against mine arm,

t Exigent, end..

And in that ease I'll tell thee my äis-ease.
This day, in argument upon a cafe,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerfet and me,
Amongst which terms he us'd his lavith tongue,
And did upbraid me with my father's death;
Which obloquy fet bars before my tongue,
Elfe with the like I had requitted 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. Discover 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 firft-begotten and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that descent.
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 heroic line.
But mark; as in this haughty great attempt
They laboured to plant the rightful heir,
I loft 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 diftrefs,
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 fupprefs'd.

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 admonishinents prevail with mes
But yet, methinks, my father's execution
Was nothing lefs than bloody tyranny.

Mor With filence, nephew, be thou politic:
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

!

Might but redeem the paffage of your age
Mor. Thou doft then wrong me, as that flaugh-
t'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 farewell; 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, overpaft thy days.
-Well, I will lock his counfel in my breast;
And what I do imagine, let that reft.
Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself
Will fee his burial better than his life.
Here dies the dufky torch of Mortimer,
Choak'd with ambition of the meaner fort.
And for thofe wrongs, thofe bitter injuries,
Which Somerfet hath offer'd to my house,