Shall yield the other in the right opinion.

Som. Good master Vernon, it is well objected; If I have fewest, I subscribe in filence.

Plan. And I.

Ver. Then for the truth and plainness of the cafe, I pluck this pale and maiden bloffom here, Giving my verdict on the white rofe fide.

Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off,
Left, bleeding, you do paint the white rofe red;
And fall on my fide fo against your will.

Ver. If I, my Lord, for my opinion bleed,
Opinion shall be furgeon to my hurt;
And keep me on the fide, where still I am.
Som. Well, well, come on; who else?

Lawyer. Unless my study and my books be false, The argument, you held, was wrong in you;

[To Somerset. In fign whereof I pluck a white rose too.

Plan. Now, Somerfet, where is your argument?
Som. Here in my fcabbard, meditating that

Shall dye your white rose to a bloody red.

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

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

Som. No, Plantagenet,

'Tis not for fear, but anger, that thy cheeks
Blush for pure fhame to counterfeit our Rofes;
And yet thy tongue will not confess 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,

9 Well objected.] Properly thrown in our way, justly proposed.

That

That fhall maintain what I have faid is true,
Where falfe Plantagenet dare not be seen.

Plan. Now by this maiden bloffom in my hand, 'I fcorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.

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, Se
merfet,

His grandfather was Lyonel Duke of Clarence,
Third fon to the third Edward King of England;
Spring crestlefs Yeomen from fo deep a root?

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 Christendom. Was not thy father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, For treafon headed in our late King's days? And by his treason stand'st not thou attainted, Corrupted and exempt from ancient 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 yourself,
I'll note you in my book of memory,

To scourge you" for this apprehenfion ;
Look to it well and fay, you are well warn'd.

Som. Ah, thou fhalt find us ready for thee ftill,
And know us by thefe colours for thy foes;
For these my friends, in spite of thee fhall wear.
Plan. And by my foul, this pale and angry rose,
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.

Suf. Go forward, and be choak'd with thy ambition: And fo farewell, until I meet thee next.

[Exit. Som. Have with thee, Pool: farewell, ambitious

Richard.

[Exit. Plan. How am I brav'd, and must perforce endure it! 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 Glofter,
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,
Against proud Somerfet and William Pool,
Will I upon thy party wear this rofe.
And here I prophefy; this brawl to day,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple-garden,

5 To Scourge you for this Apprehenfion.] Tho' this Word poffeffes all the Copies, I am perfuaded, it did not come from the Author. I have ventur'd to read, Reprehenfion: and Plantagenet means, that Somerfet had repre

hended or reproach'd him with his Father, the Earl of Cambridge's Treason.

THEOBALD.

6 for this apprehenfion;] Apprehenfion, i. e. opinion.

WARBURTON.

Shall

Shall fend, between the red rofe and the white,
Athousand 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 still will I wear the fame.
Lawyer. And fo will I.

Plan. Thanks, gentle Sir.

Come let us four to dinner; I dare say,

This quarrel will drink blood another day. [Exeunt.

Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and Jailors.

Mor.

K

IND keepers of my weak decaying age, 'Let dying Mortimer here reft himself. Ev'n like a man new haled from the rack, So fare my limbs with long imprisonment: And these grey locks, the purfuivants of death, Neftor-like aged in an age of care,

8

Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

These eyes, like lamps whofe wafting oil is fpent,
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent.

*

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

7 Let dying Mortimer here reft bimflf. I know not whether Milton did not take from this hint the lines with which he opens his tragedy.

• This Edmund Mortimer, when K. Richard II. set out upon his

fatal irish expedition, was declared by that Prince heir Apparent to the Crown: for which Reafon K. Henry IV. and V. took Care to keep him in rifon during their whole Reigns. THEO. * Exigent, end,

But

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 shall be fatisfy'd.
Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine.
Since Henry Monmouth firft began to reign,
Before whofe glory I was great in arms,
This loathfom fequeftration have I had;
And ev'n fince then hath Richard been obfcur'd,
Depriv'd of honour and inheritance
But now the arbitrator of defpairs,

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. Mr. Richard Plantagenet, my friend? Is he come ? Plan. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us❜d, Your nephew, late defpifed Richard, comes.

Mor. Direct mine arms, I may embrace his neck, And in his bofom fpend 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 didft thou fay, of late thou wert defpis'd?

Plan. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm, And in that ease I'll tell thee my + Disease. 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,

* Umpire of mifery.] That is, he that terminates or concludes mifery. The expreffion VOL. IV.

is harsh and forced.
+ Difeafe feems to be here
uneasiness or discontent.
M m

Elfe