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Som. Here in my fcabbard, meditating that

Shall dye your white rofe to a bloody red.

Plan. Mean time, your cheeks do counterfeit our
Rofes;

For pale they look with fear, as witneffing
The truth on our fide.

Som. No, Plantagenet,

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

Som. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding Rofes,
That fhall maintain what I have faid is true,
Where falfe Plantagenet dare not be feen.

Plan. Now by this maiden bloffom in my hand, I fcorn thee and thy Faction, peevish boy. (13) 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, Somerfet. His grandfather was Lyonel Duke of Clarence, Third fon to the third Edward King of England: Spring crestless Yeomen from fo deep a root?

(13) I fcorn thee and thy paffion, peevish boy.] The old Copies read, Fabion which the Epithet peevish, I prefume, induc'd Mr. Pope to change into Paffion. But I dare fay, I have reftor'd the true Word, Faction: i. e. I.fcorn thee, and those that uphold thee. Somerset had faid but just before,

Well, I'll find Friends to wear my bleeding Rofes.

And Plantagenet lays a little after;

this pale and angry Rose

Will I for ever and Faction wear;

my

Befides, if Faction were not the true Reading, why fhould Suffolk immediately reply,

Turn not thy Scorns this way, Plantagenet ?

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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 my words 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 treafon ftand'ft not thon attainted,
Corrupted and exempt from antient gentry ?
His trefpafs yet lives guilty in thy blood;
And, till thou be reftor'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 Somerset,
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 reprehenfion; (14).
Look to it well, and fay, you are well warn'd.

P

Som. Ah, thou fhalt find us ready for thee ftill,
And know us by thefe colours for thy foes:
For these my friends, in fpight of thee, fhall 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.

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

And fo farewel, until I meet thee next.

[Exit.

Som. Have with thee, Pool farewel, ambitious Rickard.:

[Exit.

Plan. How I am brav'd, and muft perforce endure it !

War. This blot, that they object against your house, Shall be wip'd out in the next Parliament,

(14) To Scourge you for this Apprehenfion.] Tho' this Word poffeffes all the Copies, I am perfwaded, it did not come from the Author. I have ventur'd to read, Reprehenfion and Plantagenet means, that Somerfet had reprehended or reproach'd him with his Father the Earl of Cambridge's Treafon.

Call'd

Call'd for the truce of Winchefter 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,
Againft proud Somerset and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rose.
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.

Plan. Good mafter Vernon, I am bound to you;
That you on my behalf would pluck a flow'r.
Ver. In your behalf ftill will I wear the fame.
Lawyer. And fo will I.

Plan. Thanks, gentle Sir.

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

Mor.

SCENE, a Prison.

Exeunt.

Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and jailors.

K

IND keepers of my weak decaying age, (15) Let dying Mortimer here reft himself. Ev'n like a man new haled from the rack, So fare my limbs with long imprisonment:

(15) This Edmund Mortimer, when K. Richard II. fet out upon his fatal Irish Expedition, was declared by that Prince Heir Apparent to the Crown: for which Reason K. Henry IV. and V. took Care to keep him in Prison during their whole Reigns. Mortimer's Pretenfions to the Crown, by Defcent, in Right of his Mother, stood thus.

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And thefe grey locks, the pursuivants of death,
Neftor-like aged in an age of care,

Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

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

Weak shoulders over-born with burthening grief,
And pithlefs arms, like to a wither'd vine
That droops his fapless branches to the ground:
Yet are these feet, whofe ftrengthless stay is numb,
(Unable to fupport this lump of clay)
Swift-winged with defire to get a grave;
As witting, I no other comfort have.

But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?
Keep. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come;
We fent unto the Temple, to his chamber;
And anfwer was return'd, that he will come.
Mor. Enough; my foul then fhall be fatisfy'd.
Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine.
Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
(Before whose glory I was great in arms,)
This loathfom fequeftration have I had;
And, ev❜n fince then, hath Richard been obscur'd,
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance.

But now the arbitrator of despairs,

Juft death, kind umpire of men's miferies,
With fweet enlargement doth difmifs me hence.
I would, his troubles likewife were expir'd,
That fo he might recover what was loft!

Enter Richard Plantagenet.

Keep. My lord, your loving nephew now is come.
Mor. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come?
Plan. I, noble uncle, thus ignobly us❜d,
Your nephew, late-despised Richard, comes.

Mor. Direct mine arms, I may embrace his neck,
And in his bofom spend my latest gafp.

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 didst thou fay, of late thou wert defpis'd?

Plan.

Plan. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm,
And in that ease I'll tell thee my Difeafe.
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;
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 caufe
My father Earl of Cambridge loft his head.

Mor. This caufe, fair nephew, that imprifon'd me
And hath detain'd me all my flow'ring youth
Within a loathsome dungeon there to pine,
Was curfed inftrument of his decease.

Plant Discover more at large what caufe that was,
For I am ignorant and cannot guess.

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 cousin Richard, Edward's fon;
The firft-begotten, and the lawful heir
Of Edward King, the third of that descent.
During whose reign the Percies of the north,
Finding his ufurpation moft unjust,.

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne.
The reafon mov'd thefe 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;
I loft my liberty, and they their lives.
Long after this, when Henry the Fifth

After

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