Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly used,

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 despised?

Plan. First, lean thine agèd back against mine arm;
And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease.7
This day, in argument upon a case,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me;
Among which terms he used 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 failing breath permit,
And death approach not ere my tale be done.
Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this King,
Deposed his cousin Richard, Edward's son,
The first-begotten and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that descent:

7 Disease was used for any uneasiness, trouble, or grief.

During whose reign, the Percies of the North,
Finding his usurpation most unjust,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne:

The reason moved these warlike lords to this

Was, for that young King Richard thus removed,
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 8
To King Edward the Third; whereas he
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroic line.
But mark as, in this haughty-great attempt,
They labouréd 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 derived
From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,
Marrying my sister, that thy mother was,
Again, in pity of my hard distress,

8 In a previous note, I have spoken of Lionel as the second son of Edward the Third, of John of Ghent as the third, of Edmund of Langley as the fourth, and of Thomas of Woodstock as the fifth. And so historians commonly speak of them. In strictness of fact, however, the second son was William of Hatfield, who died in infancy, and so is commonly passed over in history. Hence the seeming discrepancy between the numbering in my notes and what is here and in some other places stated in Shakespeare's text. Shakespeare follows Holinshed, who speaks more "by the card" than is the use of later historians.

9 That is, thinking. This is another departure from history. Cambridge levied no army; but was apprehended at Southampton, the night before Henry sailed from that town for France, on the information of this very Earl of March.

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 see'st 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.

10

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-fixed is the House of Lancaster,

And, like a mountain, not to be removed.

But now thy uncle is removing hence;

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 slaughter 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!

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

[Dies.

10 Meaning "I wish you to infer the legal consequences of this my be

quest, or the rights that justly fall to you as my heir."

Will see his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Keepers, bearing out the body of MORTIMER.

Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Choked with ambition of the meaner sort: 11
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 th' advantage 12 of my good.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. London. The Parliament-House.

Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, GLOSTER, WARWICK,
SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; The Bishop of WINCHESTER,
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others. GLOSTER offers to put
up a bill; WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it.

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

11 That is, oppressed by those who were of lower rank, or whose right to the crown was not so good as his.

12 My ill is here the wrong done to me. Advantage in the sense of occasion or vantage-ground.

1 Bill is the articles of accusation. This Parliament was held in 1426 at Leicester, though here represented to have been held in London. King Henry was now in the fifth year of his age. In the first Parliament, which was held at London shortly after his father's death, his mother, Queen Catharine, brought the young King from Windsor to the metropolis, and sat on the throne with the infant in her lap.

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 forged, 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 2 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?
Besides, 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,

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 peace
More than I do, except I be provoked?
No, my good lords, it is not that offends;

2 As and that, both pronoun and conjunction, were used indiscriminately by all the writers of Shakespeare's time.