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, nor 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 120 Will see his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Jailors, bearing out the

body of Mortimer.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Choked 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 honor 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.

113. "fair be all"; Theobald; "fair befal.”—I. G.

[Exit.

123. "choked with ambition of the meaner sort," i. e. “shifted by the ambition of those whose right to the crown was inferior to his own."-Clarke.

129. “ill the advantage”; “ill," Theobald's emendation of “will” of the Ff. Collier MS., "will the advancer.”—I. G.

II-5

ACT THIRD

SCENE I

London. The Parliament-house.

Flourish. Enter King, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset, and Suffolk; the Bishop of Winchester, Richard Plantagenet, and others. Gloucester offers to put up a bill; Winchester snatches it, tears it.

Win. Comest thou with deep premeditated lines, With written pamphlets studiously devised, Humphrey of Gloucester? If thou canst ac

cuse,

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. Glou. Presumptuous priest! this place commands my patience,

10

Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonor'd me.
Think not, although in writing I preferr❜d
The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
That therefore I have forged, or am not able

Sc. 1. London. The Parliament-house. The writer in this scene combines three events separated by considerable intervals in Holinshed, and still further in reality: the riot between the followers of Gloucester and Winchester; their formal reconciliation; and the restitution of Plantagenet. The second took place not in London, but at the parliament of Leicester, 1426.-H. N. H.

20

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 are sifted The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt From envious malice of thy swelling heart. Win. Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe

To give me hearing what I shall reply.

If I were covetous, ambitious or perverse,
As he will have me, how am I so poor?

13. "Verbatim," orally.-C. H. H.

30

23. This of course refers to the affair explained in the note to Act i. sc. 3, 1. 91. Holinshed relates that upon the occasion of that furious riot "the archbishop of Canterburie and the duke of Quimbre, called the prince of Portingale, rode eight times in one daie betweene the two parties, and so the matter was staied for a time. But the bishop of Winchester, to cleere himselfe of blame so far as he might, and to charge his nephue the lord protectour with all the fault, wrote a letter to the regent of France." The regent, learning how things stood at home, made Warwick his lieutenant in France, hastened over to England, and called the parliament, which began at Leicester March 25, 1426; "where the duke of Bedford openlie rebuked the lords in generall, bicause that they in time of warre, thorough their privie malice and inward grudge, had almost mooved the people to warre and commotion, in which time all men should be of one mind, hart, and consent. In this parlement the duke of Glocester laid certeine articles to the bishop of Winchester his charge."-H. N. H.

Or how haps it I seek not to advance

Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
And for dissension, who preferreth peace
More than I do?-except I be provoked.
No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
It is not that that hath incensed 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. 40
But he shall know I am as good-

Glou.

Thou bastard of my grandfather!

As good!

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

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

And useth it to patronage his theft.

Win. Unreverent Gloster!

Glou.

Thou art reverent

Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life. 50 Win. Rome shall remedy this.

Roam thither, then.

War.
Som. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.

33. "preferreth," promotes.-C. H. H.

42. Winchester was a natural son of John of Gaunt.-C. H. H. 49. "reverent," reverend, worthy of reverence. The two forms "reverent" and "reverend" were used indiscriminately in the two senses. -C. H. H.

51, 52. The jingle between roam and Rome is common to other writers. Thus Nash, in his Lenten Stuff, 1599: "Three hundred thousand people roamed to Rome for purgatorie pills."—H. N. H.

War. Aye, see the bishop be not overborne. g Som. Methinks my lord should be religious,

And know the office that belongs to such. War. Methinks his lordship should be humbler; It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.

Som. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near. War. State holy or unhallow'd, what of that?

60

Is not his grace protector to the king? Plan. [Aside] Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue,

Lest it be said, 'Speak, sirrah, when you should;
Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?'
Else would I have a fling at Winchester.
King. Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester,
The special watchmen of our English weal,
I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
To join your hearts in love and amity.
O, what a scandal is it to our crown,

That two such noble peers as ye should jar! 70
Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell
Civil dissension is a viperous worm

That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.
[A noise within, 'Down with the tawny-coats!'
What tumult 's this?

War.

An uproar, I dare warrant,

Begun through malice of the bishop's men.

[A noise again, 'Stones! stones!"

Enter Mayor.

May. O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry,

53. "Ay, see"; Rowe's emendation of "I, see" of the Ff.; Hanmer, "I'll see."-I. G.