King Henry VI, Part I
ACT II SCENE V | The Tower of London. | |
[Enter MORTIMER, brought in a chair, and Gaolers] | ||
MORTIMER | Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, | |
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself. | ||
Even like a man new haled from the rack, | ||
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment. | ||
And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death, | 5 | |
Nestor-like aged in an age of care, | ||
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. | ||
These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent, | ||
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent; | ||
Weak shoulders, overborne with burthening grief, | 10 | |
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, | 15 | |
As witting I no other comfort have. | ||
But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come? | ||
First Gaoler | Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come: | |
We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber; | ||
And answer was return’d that he will come. | 20 | |
MORTIMER | Enough: my soul shall then be satisfied. | |
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: | 25 | |
And even since then hath Richard been obscured, | ||
Deprived 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: | 30 | |
I would his troubles likewise were expired, | ||
That so he might recover what was lost. | ||
[Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET] | ||
First Gaoler | My lord, your loving nephew now is come. | |
MORTIMER | Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come? | |
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly used, | 35 |
Your nephew, late despised Richard, comes. | ||
MORTIMER | 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. | 40 | |
And now declare, sweet stem from York’s great stock, | ||
Why didst thou say, of late thou wert despised? | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | First, lean thine aged back against mine arm; | |
And, in that ease, I’ll tell thee my disease. | ||
This day, in argument upon a case, | 45 | |
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. | 50 | |
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. | ||
MORTIMER | That cause, fair nephew, that imprison’d me | 55 |
And hath detain’d me all my flowering youth | ||
Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine,![]() | ||
Was cursed instrument of his decease. | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Discover more at large what cause that was, | |
For I am ignorant and cannot guess. | 60 | |
MORTIMER | I will, if that my fading breath permit | |
And death approach not ere my tale be done. | ||
Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king, | ||
Deposed his nephew Richard, Edward’s son, | ||
The first-begotten and the lawful heir, | 65 | |
Of Edward king, the third of that descent: | ||
During whose reign the Percies of the north, | ||
Finding his usurpation most unjust, | ||
Endeavor’d my advancement to the throne: | ||
The reason moved these warlike lords to this | 70 | |
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 | 75 | |
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 attempt | ||
They laboured to plant the rightful heir, | 80 | |
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, | 85 | |
Marrying my sister that thy mother was, | ||
Again in pity of my 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 | 90 | |
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers, | ||
In whom the tide rested, were suppress’d. | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Of which, my lord, your honour is the last. | |
MORTIMER | True; and thou seest that I no issue have | |
And that my fainting words do warrant death; | 95 | |
Thou art my heir; the rest I wish thee gather: | ||
But yet be wary in thy studious care. | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | Thy grave admonishments prevail with me: | |
But yet, methinks, my father’s execution | ||
Was nothing less than bloody tyranny. | 100 | |
MORTIMER | 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 | 105 | |
With long continuance in a settled place. | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | O, uncle, would some part of my young years | |
Might but redeem the passage of your age! | ||
MORTIMER | Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer doth | |
Which giveth many wounds when one will kill. | 110 | |
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] | ||
RICHARD PLANTAGENET | And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul! | 115 |
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 Gaolers, 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: | 125 | |
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. | ||
[Exit] |
Continue to 1 Henry VI, Act 3, Scene 1