| 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] |
The Essential Student History Quiz (with answers and illustrations)