Sem. Good mafter Vernon, it is well objected If I have feweft, I subscribe in silence.

Plan. And I.

Ver. Then for the truth and plainnefs of the cafe,
I pluck this pale and maiden bloffom here,
Giving my verdict on the white rofe fide.

Som. Well, well, come on, who elfe?
Lawyer. Unlefs my ftudy and my books be falfe,
The argument you held was wrong in you;

[To Somerfet..

In fign whereof I pluck a white rose too.
Plan. Now Somerfet, where is your argument?
Som. Here in my fcabbard, meditating that
Shall dye your white rofe to a bloody red.
Plan. Now by this maiden bloffom in my hand;

the white Rofe fide:

Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,uess
Left bleeding you do paint the white rofe red,
And fall on my fide fo against your will.

Ver. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, .

Opinion fhall be furgeon to my hurt,

And keep me on the fide where ftill-Lament et démuls ai Som. Well, well, Oct 6, cum é sin

*a bloody reds

Plan. Mean time your cheeks do counterfeit our Roses, For pale they look with fear, as witneffing The truth on our fide.

Som. No, Plantagenets

"Tis not for fear but anger, that thy cheeks
Blufh for pure fhame to counterfeit our Rofes,
And yet thy tongue will not confefs thy error.
Plan. Hath not thy Rofe a canker, Somerset ?
Som Hath not thy Rofe a thorn, Plantagenet?
Plan. Ay, harp and piercing to maintain his truth;
Whiles thy confuming canker eats his falfhood.

Sam. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding Rofess
That fhall maintain what I have faid is true,
Where falfe Plantagenet dare not be seen..
Plan. Now by this maider

my words

Ifcorn thee and thy a paffion, peevish boy... Suf. Turn not thy fcorns this way, Plantagenet. Plan. Proud Pool, I will, and fcorn both him and thee, 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, Somerset His grandfather was Lyonel Duke of Clarence, Third fon to the third Edward King of England: Spring creftlefs 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 On any plot of ground in Chriftendom. Was not thy father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, For treafon headed in our late King's days? And by his treason ftand'st not thou attainted, Gorrupted and exempt from antient gentry? His trefpafs yet lives guilty in thy blood, And till thou be restor❜d, thou art a yeoman. Plan. My father was attached, not attainted, Condemn'd to die for treafon, but no traitor And that I'll prove on better men than Somerfet, Were growing time once ripen'd to my will. For your partaker Pool, and you your felf, 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 still And know us by these colours for thy foes: For these my friends in fpight of thee shall wear. -Plan. And by my foul, this pale and angry rofe 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

h

Suf. Go forward, and be choak'd with thy ambition:

And fo farewel until I meet thee next.

* fashion.

[Exit

3

Sams

Som. Have with thee, Pool: farewel, ambitious

Richard. [Exit. Plan. How I am brav'd, and must perforce en

dure it!

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

I will not live to be accounted Warwick.
Mean time in fignal of my love to thee,
Against proud Somerfet and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rofe.
And here I prophefie; this brawl to-day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,
Shall fend between the red rofe and the white
A thousand fouls to death and deadly night."

'Mor

Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and jailors.

Kerdying Mortimer here kell himself.

IND keepers of my weak decaying age,

Ev'n like a man new haled from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment.
And thefe grey locks, the purfuivants of death,
Neftor-like aged in an age of care,
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. da yd me

-death and deadly night.

Plan. Good mafter Vernon I am bound to you,

That you on my

Thefe

behalf would pluck a flow'r e il lima behalf ftill will I wear the fame.

Ver. In your berfire et La

Lawyer. And

Plan. Thanks, gentle Sir.

Come, let us four to dinner'; I dare fay This quarrel will drink blood another day. "SCENE.

[Exeunt.

Thefe eyes like lamps whose wasting oil is spent
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent.

Weak fhoulders over-born with burthening grief, sh
And pithlefs arms, like to a wither'd vine

That droops his fapless branches to the ground:
Yet are these feet whofe ftrengthlefs ftay is numb,
(Unable to fupport this lump of clay) Loog (90lm ir
Swift-winged with defire to get a grave, 10 ton!
As witting I no other comfort have some sol bak
But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come
We fent unto the Temple, to his chamber,
And answer was return'd that he will come...ni 'i

Mor. Enough; my foul then fhall be fatisfy'd. Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine, mai Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign, man (Before whofe glory I was great in arms,) This loathfom fequeftration have I had;

70%

And ev❜n fince then hath Richard been obscur'd, viso
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance.niuos adi
But now the arbitrator of despairs, domorod
Juft death, kind umpire of men's miferies,
With fweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence.
I would his troubles, likewife were expir'd,

That so he might recover what was loft. Bunovnobod

1

Enter Richard Plantagenet, ndiyì

Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. I Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come? Plan. I, 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 spend my latest gasp.

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. First lean thine aged back against mine arm,
And in that eafe I'll tell thee my difpleasure.

This

This day, in argument upon a cafe,

Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me:
Amongst which terms he us'd his lavish tongue,
And did upbraid me with my father's death 5*
Which obloquy fet bars before my tongue,
Elfe with the like I had requited 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 imprison'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. Difcover more at large what cause 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 first begotten, and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that descent.
During whofe reign the Piercies of the north,
Finding his ufurpation moft unjuft,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne.
The reafon mov'd these 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 heroick line.
But mark; as in this haughty great attempt
They laboured to plant the rightful heir,...
1.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

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