Even like a man new haled from the rack, quence of poffeffing the honour of Clare, in the county of Thomond. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, who married Philippa the duke's only daughter, fucceeded him in the government of Ireland, and died in his office, at St. Dominick's Abbey, near Cork, in December 1381. His fon, Roger Mortimer, was twice Vicegerent of Ireland, and was flain at a place called Kenles, in Offory, in 1398. Edmund his fon, the Mortimer of this play, was, as has been already mentioned, Chief Governor of Ireland, in the years 1423, and 1424, and died there in 1425. His nephew and heir, Richard Duke of York, (the Plantagenet of this play,) was in 1449 constituted Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for ten years, with extraordinary powers; and his fon George Duke of Clarence (who was afterwards murdered in the Tower) was born in the Caftle of Dublin, in 1450. This prince filled the fame office which fo many of his ancestors had poffeffed, being conftituted Chief Governor of Ireland for life, by his brother King Edward IV. in the third year of his reign. Since this note was written, I have more precisely afcertained the age of Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March, uncle to the Richard Plantagenet of this play. He was born in December 1392, and confequently was thirty-two years old when he died. His ancestor, Lionel Duke of Clarence, was married to the daughter of the Earl of Ulfter, but not in 1360, as I have faid, but about the year 1353. He probably did not take his title of Clarence from his great Irish poffeffions, (as I have fuggefted) but rather from his wife's mother, Elizabeth le Clare, third daughter of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Glofter, and fister to Gilbert de Clare, the last (of that name) Earl of Glofter, who founded Clare Hall in Cambridge. The error concerning Edmund Mortimer, brother-in-law to Richard Earl of Cambridge, having been "kept in captivity untill he died,” seems to have arisen from the legend of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Yorke, in The Mirrour for Magifirates, 1575, where the following lines are found: "His curfed fon enfued his cruel path, "And kept my guiltless cousin strait in duranče, So fare my limbs with long imprisonment: "For when king Henry, of that name the fift, "He, from Sir Edmund all the blame to shift, MALONE. It is objected that Shakspeare has varied from the truth of hiftory, to introduce this fcene between Mortimer and Richard Plantagenet; as the former ferved under Henry V. in 1422, and died unconfined in Ireland, in 1424. In the third year of Henry the Sixth, 1425, and during the time that Peter Duke of Coimbra was entertained in London, "Edmonde Mortimer (fays Hall) the laft erle of Marche of that name (which longe tyme had bene reftrayned from hys liberty, and fynally waxed lame,) difceased without yffue, whofe inheritance difcended to lord Richard Plantagenet," &c. Holinfhed has the fame words; and these authorities, though the fact be otherwise, are fufficient to prove that Shakspeare, or whoever was the author of the play, did not intentionally vary from the truth of history to introduce the present fcene. The hiftorian does not, indeed, exprefsly say that the Earl of Márch died in the Tower; but one cannot reasonably fuppofe that he meant to relate an event which he knew had happened to a free man in Ireland, as happening to a prisoner during the time that a particular perfon was in London. But, whereever he meant to lay the fcene of Mortimer's death, it is clear that the author of this play understood him as representing it to have happened in a London prifon; an idea, if indeed his words will bear any other conftruction, a preceding paffage may ferve to corroborate: "The erle of March (he has obferved) was ever kepte in the courte under fuch a keper that he could nether doo or attempte any thyng agaynfte the kyng wythout his knowledge, and dyed without iffue.' I am aware, and could easily fhow, that fome of the most interesting events, not only in the Chronicles of Hall and Holinfhed, but in the Hiftories of Rapin, Hume, and Smollet, are perfectly fabulous and unfounded, which are nevertheless constantly cited and regarded as incontrovertible facts. But, if modern writers, ftanding, as it were, upon the fhoulders of their predeceffors, and poffeffing 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 Sandford to confult, who could have And thefe grey locks, the pursuivants of death,' Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. Thefe eyes,-like lamps whose wafting oil is spent,'- Weak fhoulders, overborne with burd'ning grief; no access to the treasuries of Cotton or Harley, nor were permitted the inspection of a public record? If this were the cafe with the hiftorian, what can be expected from the dramatist? He naturally took for fact what he found in hiftory, and is by no means answerable for the misinformation of his authority. RITSON. 8 Let dying Mortimer here reft himfelf.] I know not whether Milton did not take from this hint the lines with which he opens his tragedy. JOHNSON. Rather from the beginning of the last scene of the third Act of the Phoeniffe of Euripides:. Tirefias. “ Ηγε πάροιθε, θύγατερ, ὡς τυφλῶ ποδὶ 66 Οφθαλμὸς εἶ σὺ, ναυβάταισιν ἀστρον ὡς. « Δευρ ̓ εἰς τὸ λευρὸν πέδον ίχνος τιθεῖσ' ἐμὸν," &c. STEEVENS. -purfuivants of death,] Purfuivants. The heralds that, forerunning death, proclaim its approach. JOHNSON. I like lamps whofe wafting oil is spent,] So, in King Richard II: My oil-dry'd lamp, and time-bewafted light—." STEEVENS. as drawing to their exigent :] Exigent, end. JOHNSON. So, in Doctor Dodypoll, a comedy, 1600: STEEVENS. 3 And pithlefs arms,] Pith was used for marrow, and figuratively, for ftrength. JOHNSON. In the first of these fenfes it is used in Othello : "For fince these arms of mine had seven years' pith—." And, figuratively, in Hamlet: "And enterprizes of great pith and moment-." STEEVENS. Yet are these feet-whofe ftrengthless stay is numb, 1 KEEP. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come: We fent unto the Temple, to his chamber; MOR. Enough; my foul fhall then be fatisfied.- But now, the arbitrator of despairs, Just death, kind umpire of men's miferies,5 4 Since Henry Monmouth firft began to reign,This loathfome fequeftration have I had ;] Here again, the author certainly is miftaken. See p. 73, n. 7. MALONE. S the arbitrator of defpairs, Juft death, kind umpire of men's miferies ;] That is, he that terminates or concludes mifery. The expreffion is harsh and forced. JOHNSON. The fame idea is expreffed with greater propriety in Romeo and Juliet: ""Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife STEEVENS. Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET. 1 KEEP. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. MOR. 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 spend my latter gafp: O, tell me, when my lips do touch his cheeks, Why didft thou fay-of late thou wert despis'd? arm; And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my difeafe." late-defpifed—] i. e. lately despised. M. MASON. Tll tell thee my difeafe.] Difeafe feems to be here uneafinefs, or difcontent. JOHNSON. It is fo used by other ancient writers, and by Shakspeare in Coriolanus. Thus likewife, in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. III. C. V: "But labour'd long in that deep ford with vain disease." That to difeafe is to disturb, may be known from the following paffages in Chapman's verfion of the Iliad and Odyfey: "But brother, hye thee to the hips, and Idomen disease.” i. e. wake him. B. VI. edit. 1598. Again, Ody. Book VI: - with which he declin'd "The eyes of any waker when he pleas'd, "And any fleeper, when he wifh'd, difeas'd." Again, in the ancient metrical history of The Battle of Floddon : "He thought the Scots might him difeafe "With conftituted captains meet." STEEVENS. |