Henry vi part 1, p.11
Henry VI, Part 1,
p.11
Unable to support this lump of clay,
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Swift-wingèd with desire to get a grave,
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As witting I no other comfort have.
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But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
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KEEPER
Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come.
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We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber,
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And answer was returned that he will come.
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MORTIMER
Enough. My soul shall then be satisfied.
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Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine.
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Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
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Before whose glory I was great in arms,
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This loathsome sequestration have I had;
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And even since then hath Richard been obscured,
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Deprived of honor and inheritance.
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But now the arbitrator of despairs,
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Just Death, kind umpire of men’s miseries,
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With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence.
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I would his troubles likewise were expired,
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That so he might recover what was lost.
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Enter Richard
KEEPER
My lord, your loving nephew now is come.
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MORTIMER
Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come?
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PLANTAGENET
Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly used,
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Your nephew, late despisèd Richard, comes.
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MORTIMER,
Direct mine arms I may embrace his neck
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And in his bosom spend my latter gasp.
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O, tell me when my lips do touch his cheeks,
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That I may kindly give one fainting kiss.
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And now declare, sweet stem from York’s great stock,
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Why didst thou say of late thou wert despised?
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PLANTAGENET
First, lean thine agèd back against mine arm,
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And in that ease I’ll tell thee my disease.
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This day, in argument upon a case,
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Some words there grew ’twixt Somerset and me,
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Among which terms he used his lavish tongue
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And did upbraid me with my father’s death;
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Which obloquy set bars before my tongue,
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Else with the like I had requited him.
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Therefore, good uncle, for my father’s sake,
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In honor of a true Plantagenet,
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And for alliance’ sake, declare the cause
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My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head.
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MORTIMER
That cause, fair nephew, that imprisoned me
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And hath detained me all my flow’ring youth
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Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine,
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Was cursèd instrument of his decease.
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PLANTAGENET
Discover more at large what cause that was,
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For I am ignorant and cannot guess.
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MORTIMER
I will, if that my fading breath permit
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And death approach not ere my tale be done.
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Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king,
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Deposed his nephew Richard, Edward’s son,
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The first begotten and the lawful heir
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Of Edward king, the third of that descent;
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During whose reign the Percies of the north,
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Finding his usurpation most unjust,
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Endeavored my advancement to the throne.
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The reason moved these warlike lords to this
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Was, for that—young Richard thus removed,
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Leaving no heir begotten of his body—
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I was the next by birth and parentage;
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For by my mother I derivèd am
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From Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son
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To King Edward the Third; whereas he
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From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
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Being but fourth of that heroic line.
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But mark: as in this haughty great attempt
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They laborèd to plant the rightful heir,
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I lost my liberty and they their lives.
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Long after this, when Henry the Fifth,
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Succeeding his father Bolingbroke, did reign,
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Thy father, Earl of Cambridge then, derived
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From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,
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Marrying my sister that thy mother was,
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Again, in pity of my hard distress,
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Levied an army, weening to redeem
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And have installed me in the diadem.
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But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl
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And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
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In whom the title rested, were suppressed.
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PLANTAGENET
Of which, my lord, your Honor is the last.
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MORTIMER
True, and thou seest that I no issue have
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And that my fainting words do warrant death.
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Thou art my heir; the rest I wish thee gather.
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But yet be wary in thy studious care.
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PLANTAGENET
Thy grave admonishments prevail with me.
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But yet methinks my father’s execution
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Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.
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MORTIMER
With silence, nephew, be thou politic;
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Strong-fixèd is the house of Lancaster,
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And, like a mountain, not to be removed.
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But now thy uncle is removing hence,
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As princes do their courts when they are cloyed
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With long continuance in a settled place.
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PLANTAGENET
O uncle, would some part of my young years
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Might but redeem the passage of your age.
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MORTIMER
Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer doth
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Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.
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Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good;
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Only give order for my funeral.
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And so farewell, and fair be all thy hopes,
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And prosperous be thy life in peace and war.
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Dies.
PLANTAGENET
And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul.
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In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,
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And like a hermit overpassed thy days.—
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Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast,
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And what I do imagine, let that rest.—
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Keepers, convey him hence, and I myself
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Will see his burial better than his life.
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Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
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Choked with ambition of the meaner sort.
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And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
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Which Somerset hath offered to my house,
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I doubt not but with honor to redress.
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And therefore haste I to the Parliament,
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Either to be restorèd to my blood,
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Or make
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He exits.
HENRY VI
Part 1
* * *
ACT 3
ACT 3
* * *
Scene 1
Flourish. Enter King
Winchester; Richard Plantagenet
roses; and Others.> Gloucester offers to put up a bill.
Winchester snatches it, tears it.
WINCHESTER
Com’st thou with deep premeditated lines,
1
With written pamphlets studiously devised?
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Humphrey of Gloucester, if thou canst accuse
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Or aught intend’st to lay unto my charge,
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Do it without invention, suddenly,
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As I with sudden and extemporal speech
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Purpose to answer what thou canst object.
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GLOUCESTER
Presumptuous priest, this place commands my
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patience,
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Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonored me.
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Think not, although in writing I preferred
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The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
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That therefore I have forged or am not able
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Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen.
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No, prelate, such is thy audacious wickedness,
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Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks,
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As very infants prattle of thy pride.
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Thou art a most pernicious usurer,
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Froward by nature, enemy to peace,
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Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
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A man of thy profession and degree.
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And for thy treachery, what’s more manifest,
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In that thou laid’st a trap to take my life
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As well at London Bridge as at the Tower?
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Besides, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted,
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The King, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
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From envious malice of thy swelling heart.
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WINCHESTER
Gloucester, I do defy thee.—Lords, vouchsafe
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To give me hearing what I shall reply.
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If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,
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As he will have me, how am I so poor?
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Or how haps it I seek not to advance
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Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
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And for dissension, who preferreth peace
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More than I do, except I be provoked?
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No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
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It is not that that hath incensed the Duke.
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It is because no one should sway but he,
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No one but he should be about the King;
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And that engenders thunder in his breast
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And makes him roar these accusations forth.
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But he shall know I am as good—
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GLOUCESTER As good!
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Thou bastard of my grandfather!
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WINCHESTER
Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray,
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But one imperious in another’s throne?
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GLOUCESTER
Am I not Protector, saucy priest?
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WINCHESTER
And am not I a prelate of the Church?
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GLOUCESTER
Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,
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And useth it to patronage his theft.
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WINCHESTER
Unreverent Gloucester!
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GLOUCESTER Thou art reverend
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Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
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WINCHESTER
Rome shall remedy this.
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WARWICK,
My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
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SOMERSET
Ay,
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Methinks my lord should be religious,
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And know the office that belongs to such.
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WARWICK
Methinks his Lordship should be humbler.
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It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.
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SOMERSET
Yes, when his holy state is touched so near.
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WARWICK
State holy, or unhallowed, what of that?
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Is not his Grace Protector to the King?
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PLANTAGENET,
