Will fee his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Keepers, bearing out MORTIMER. Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer, Chok'd with ambition of the meaner fort:And, for those wrongs, thofe bitter injuries, Which Somerfet hath offer'd to my houfe,I doubt not, but with honour to redress: And therefore hafte I to the parliament; Either to be restored to my blood,

Or make my ill the advantage of my good.

[Exit.

Chok'd with ambition of the meaner fort:] So, in the preceding fcene:

"Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition."

STEEVENS.

We are to understand the fpeaker as reflecting on the ill fortune of Mortimer, in being always made a tool of by the Percies of the North in their rebellious intrigues; rather than in afferting his claim to the crown, in fupport of his own princely ambition. WARBURTON.

8 Or make my

ill-] In former editions:

Or make my will th' advantage of my good.

So all the printed copies; but with very little regard to the poet's meaning. I read :

Or make my ill th' advantage of my good.

Thus we recover the antithefts of the expreffion. THEOBALD.
My ill, is my ill ufage. MALONE.

This fentiment resembles another of Falstaff, in the Second Part of King Henry IV: "I will turn difeafes to commodity."

STEEVENS.

ACT III. SCENE I.

The Parliament - House.

The fame. Flourib. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, GLOSTEr, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the Bishop of Winchester, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and Others. GLOSTER offers to put up a bill; Winchefter fnatches it, and tears it.

2

WIN. Com't thou with deep premeditated lines, With written pamphlets ftudiously devis'd, Humphrey of Glofter? if thou canst accufe, Or aught intend 'ft to lay unto my charge, Do it without invention fuddenly; As I with fudden and extemporal speech Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

GLO. Prefumptuous prieft! this place commands my patience,

Or thou should'ft find thou haft difhonour'd me.
Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able

9 The Parliament-Houfe.] This parliament was held in 1426 at Leicester, though the author of this play has represented it to have been held in London. King Henry was now in the fifth year of his age. In the first parliament which was held at London fhortly after his father's death, his mother Queen Katharine brought the young King from Windfor to the metropolis, and fat on the throne of the parliament-house with the infant in her lap. MALONE.

2

put up a bill;] i. e. articles of accufation, for in this fenfe the word bill was sometimes used. So, in Nashe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596: "That's the caufe we have fo manie bad workmen now adaies: put up a bill against them next parliament." MALONE.

Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen:
No prelate; fuch is thy audacious wickedness,
Thy lewd, peftiferous, and diffentious pranks,
As very infants prattle of thy pride.
Thou art a moft pernicious ufurer;
Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
Lafcivious, wanton, more than well befeems
A man of thy profeffion, and degree;
And for thy treachery, What's more manifeft?
In that thou laid'ft a trap to take my life,
As well at London bridge, as at the Tower?
Befide, I fear me, if thy thoughts were fifted,
The king, thy fovereign, is not quite exempt
From envious malice of thy fwelling heart.

WIN. Glofter, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouchfafe

To give me hearing what I thall reply.
If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverfe,3
As he will have me, How am I fo poor?
Or how haps it, I feek not to advance
Or raife myself, but keep my wonted calling?
And for diffention, Who preferreth peace
More than I do,-except I be provok'd?
No, my good lords, it is not that offends;
It is not that, that hath incens'd the duke:
It is, because no one fhould fway but he;
No one, but he, fhould be about the king;
And that engenders thunder in his breaft,
And makes him roar thefe accufations forth.
But he fhall know, I am as good-

GLO.

As good? Thou baftard of my grandfather! *—

3 If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverfe,] I fuppofe this redundant line originally food

Were I covetous, ambitious, &c. STEEVENS.

4 Thou baftard of my grandfather!] The Bishop of Winchester

WIN. Ay, lordly fir; For what are you, I pray, But one imperious in another's throne?

GLO. Am I not the protector,' faucy priest? WIN. And am not I a prelate of the church?

GLO. Yes, as an outlaw in a caftle keeps, And ufeth it to patronage his theft.

WIN. Unreverent Glofter!

GLO.

Thou art reverent

Touching thy fpiritual function, not thy life.
WIN. This Rome fhall remedy."

Roam thither then."

WAR.
SOM. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
WAR. Ay, fee the bishop be not overborne.

8

was an illegitimate fon of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by Katharine Swynford, whom the duke afterwards married.

MALONE.

the protector,] I have added the article-the, for the fake

STEEVENS.

6 This Rome shall remedy.] The old copy, unmetricallyRome ball remedy this.

The tranfpofition is Sir Thomas Hanmer's. STEEVENS.

7 Roam thither then.] Roam to Rome. To roam is fuppofed to be derived from the cant of vagabonds, who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome. JOHNSON.

66

The jingle between roam and Rome is common to other writers. So, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599: three hundred thousand people roamed to Rome for purgatorie pills," &c.

STEEVENS.

Som. My lord, it were your duty to forbear. &c.] This line, in the old copy, is joined to the former hemiftich spoken by Warwick. The modern editors have very properly given it to Somerset for whom it seems to have been defigned.

Ay, fee the bishop be not overborne,

was as erroneously given in the next fpeech to Somerset, instead of Warwick, to whom it has been fince reftored.

STEEVENS.

The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

SOM. Methinks, my lord fhould be religious, And know the office that belongs to fuch.

WAR. Methinks, his lordship fhould be humbler;

It fitteth not a prelate fo to plead.

SOM. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near. WAR. State holy, or unhallow'd, what of that? Is not his grace protector to the king?

PLAN. Plantagenet, I fee, muft hold his tongue; Left it be faid, Speak, firrah, when you should; Muft your bold verdict enter talk with lords? Elfe would I have a fling at Winchester.

[Afide.

K. HEN. Uncles of Glofter, and of Winchester,
The special watchmen of our English weal;
I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
To join your hearts in love and amity.
O, what a fcandal is it to our crown,

That two fuch noble peers as ye, fhould jar!
Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell,
Civil diffention is a viperous worm,

That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.-
[A noife within; Down with the tawny coats!
What tumult's this?

WAR.

An uproar, I dare warrant,

Begun through malice of the bishop's men.

[A noife again; Stones! Stones!

Enter the Mayor of London, attended.

MAY. O, my good lords,—and virtuous Henry,— Pity the city of London, pity us!

The bishop and the duke of Gloster's men,
Forbidden late to carry any weapon,

Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble-ftones;
And, banding themselves in contráry parts,