Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.
These eyes like lamps whose wasting oil is spentWax dim, as drawing to their exigent:
Weak shoulders, over-borne with burth'ning 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?
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 then shall be satify'd-
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,
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.
Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come.
Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend? Is he come ?
Plant, 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 400
Oh, tell me, when my lips do touch his cheeks,
That I may kindly give one fainting kiss. om, v And now declare, sweet stem from York's great stock, Why didst thou say of late thou wert despis'd ?... Plant. First, lean thine aged back against mine tud tana sitas I
And, in that case, I'll tell thee my disease,
This day, in argument upon a case, fub lon
Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me: 01
Among which terms, he us'd his lavish tongue, 410
And did upbraid me with my father's death;
Which obloquy set bars before my tongue,
Else with the like I had requited him: bruodi i van
Therefore, good uncle for my father's sake, kt
In honour of a true Plantagenet, Dow it bil
And for alliance' sake-declare the cause grib.
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..
Plant. 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; 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 kind 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,
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 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 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 theẻ gather : But yet be wary in thy studious care.
460 Plant. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me: But yet, methinks, my father's execution cool. 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. But now thy uncle is removing hence ; av As princes do their courts, when they are cloy'd With long continuance in a settled place. 2016Plant. O, uncle, would some part of my young years Might but redeem the passage of your age! 11:471 Mor. Thou dost then wrong me; as the slaught❜rer
Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.
Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good w dzi77
Only, give order for my funeral; 10 to yoriqitur 1.
And so farewel; and fair be all thy hopes signs
And prosperous be thy life, in peace, and war! [Dies.
Plant. And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul!
In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,ers of NIE A
And like a hermit over-pass'd thy days. 97.69480
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. V
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 restored to my blood,
Or make my ill the advantage of my good.
The Parliament. Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXE TER, GLOSTER, WINCHESTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and RICHARD PLANTAGENET. GLOSTER offers to put up a Bill; WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it.
COM'ST thou with deep premeditated lines,
With written pamphlets studiously devis'd,
Humphrey of Gloster? if thou canst accuse,
Or aught intendst to lay unto my charge,
Do it without invention suddenly; o enorogo
As I with sudden and extemporal speech
Purpose to answer what thou canst object.
Glo. Presumptuous priest this place commands my patience, 15 marid
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
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