Tal. No, no, I am but shadow of myself: I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here, Your roof were not sufficient to contain it. Count. This is a riddling merchant for the nonce ; He will be here, and yet he is not here : How can these contrarieties agree? Tal. That will I show you presently. He winds a horn. Drums heard; then a peal of ordnance. How say you, madam? are you now persuaded, These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength, Count. Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse : I did not entertain thee as thou art. Tal. Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor misconstrue The outward composition of his body. What you have done, hath not offended me: But only (with your patience,) that we may Count. With all my heart; and think me honoured SCENE IV. London. The Temple garden. Enter the Earls of SOMER- Plan. Great lords, and gentlemen, what means this [4] To bruit is to proclaim with noise, to announce loudly. STEEVENS. Read a lawyer. This lawyer was probably Roger Nevyle, who was afterwards hanged. See W. Wyrcester, p. 478. _ RITSON. Dare no man answer in a case of truth? Suf. Within the Temple hall we were too loud; Plan. Then say at once, If I maintain'd the truth; Som. Judge you, my lord of Warwick, then between us. Plan. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: Som. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, So clear, so shining, and so evident, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. Plan. Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loath to speak, In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts: Let him, that is a true-born gentleman, And stands upon the honour of his birth, If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. Som. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, But dare maintain the party of the truth, Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me." War. I love no colours; and, without all colour Of base insinuating flattery, I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. Suf. I pluck this red rose, with young Somerset ; [6] This is given as the original of the two badges of the houses of York and Lancaster, whether truly or not, is no great matter. But the proverbial expression of saying a thing under the rose, I am persuaded came thence. When the nation had ranged itself into two great factions, under the white and red rose, and were perpetually plotting and counterplotting against one another, then, when a matter of faction was communicated by either party to his friend in the same quarrel, it was natural for him to add, that he said it under the rose; meaning that, as it concerned the faction it was religiously to be kept secret. WARBURTON. The rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of silence, and consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. UPTON. [7] Colours is here used ambiguously for tints and deceits. JOHNSON. 9 VOL, VI. F 2 And say, withal, I think he held the right. Ver. Stay, lords, and gentlemen; and pluck no more, Till you conclude that he, upon whose side The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree, Shall yield the other in the right opinion. Som. Good master Vernon, it is well objected;o If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence. Ver. Then, for the truth and plainness of the case, Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off; Ver. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, [TO SOM. Plan. Now, Somerset, where is your argument? Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red. Plan. Mean time, your cheeks do counterfeit our roses; For pale they look with fear, as witnessing The truth on our side. Som. No, Plantagenet, 'Tis not for fear; but anger,-that thy cheeks Som. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding-roses That shall maintain what I have said is true, Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen. Plan. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand. I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy. Suf. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. [6] Properly thrown in our way, justly proposed. JOHNSON. Suf. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. Som. Away, away, good William De-la-Poole ! We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him. my words War. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset ; To scourge you for this apprehension : Som. Ay, thou shalt find us ready for thee still : Suf. Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition! [Exit. Som. Have with thee, Poole.-Farewell, ambitious Richard. [Exit. Plan. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure it! [9] The author mistakes. Plantagenet's paternal grandfather was Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. His maternal grandfather was Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was the son of Philippa the daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. The duke therefore was his maternal great great grandfather. MALONE. i. e. those who have no right to arms. WARBURTON. The Temple, being a religious house, was an asylum, a place of exemption, from violence, revenge, and bloodshed. JOHNSON. [3] Exempt for excluded. [4] Apprehension, that is opinion. WARBURTON. War. This blot, that they object against your house, Shall be wip'd out in the next parliament, Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloster : Plan. Good master Vernon, I am bound to you, Plan. Thanks, gentle sir. Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say, SCENE V. The same. A Room in the Tower. [Exeunt. Enter MORTIMER, brought in a chair by two Keepers. Mor. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, Let dying Mortimer here rest himself. Even like a man new haled from the rack, [4] Mr. Edwards in his MS. notes observes, that Shakespeare has varied from the true history to introduce this scene between Mortimer and Richard Plantagenet. Edmund Mortimer served under Henry V. in 1422, and died unconfined in Ireland in 1424. Holinshed says, that Mortimer was one of the mourners at the funeral of Henry the V. STEEVENS. I am aware, and could easily show, that some of the most interesting events. not only in the Chronicles of Hall and Holinshed, but in the Histories of Rapin, Hume and Smollet, are perfectly fabulous and unfounded, which are nevertheless constantly cited and regarded as incontrovertible facts. But, if modern writers, standing as it were, upon the shoulders of their predecessors, and possessing innumerable other advantages, are not always to be depended on, what allowances ought we not to make for those who had neither Rymer, nor Dugdale, nor Sanford to consult, who could have no access to the treasuries of Cotton or Harley, nor were permitted the inspection of a public record? If this were the case with the historian, what can be expected from the dramatist? He naturally took for fact what he found in history, and is by no means answerable for the misinformation of his authority. RITSON. [5] Pursuivants. The heralds that, forerunning death, proclaim its approach. JOHNSON |