Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me:
Among which terms he used his lavish tongue,
And did upbraid me with his 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 cause
My father, earl of Cambridge, loft his head.

MOR. That caufe, fair nephew, that imprison'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.

PLAN. Difcover more at large what cause 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 nephew Richard; Edward's fon,

8

-his nephew Richard;] Thus the old copy. Modern editors read his coufin-but without neceffity. Nephew has fometimes the power of the Latin nepos, and is ufed with great laxity among our ancient English writers. Thus in Othello, Iago tells Brabantio-he shall "have his nephews (i. e. the children of his own daughter) neigh to him." STEEVENS.

It would be furely better to read coufin, the meaning which nephew ought to have in this place. Mr. Steevens only proves that the word nephews is fometimes used for grand-children, which is very certain. Both uncle and nephew might, however, formerly fignify coufin. See the Menegiana, Vol. II. p. 193. In The Second Part of the troublefome Raigne of King John, Prince Henry calls his coufin the Baftard, "uncle." RITSON. I believe the mistake here arose from the author's ignorance; and that he conceived Richard to be Henry's nephew.

MALONE.

The firft-begotten, and the lawful heir
Of Edward king, the third of that descent:
During whofe reign, the Percies of the north,
Finding his ufurpation most unjust,

Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne:
The reafon mov'd these 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 Lionel duke of Clarence, the third fon1
To king Edward the third, whereas he,
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroick line.

But mark; as, in this haughty great attempt,2
They laboured to plant the rightful heir,
I loft my liberty, and they their lives.
Long after this, when Henry the fifth,—
Succeeding his father Bolingbroke,-did reign,
Thy father, earl of Cambridge,-then deriv'd
From famous Edmund Langley, duke of York,-
Marrying my fifter, that thy mother was,
Again, in pity of my hard diftress,
Levied an army ;3 weening to redeem,

9

young king Richard-] Thus the fecond folio. The

firft omits-king, which is necessary to the metre.

I

STEEVENS.

the third fon-] The article-the, which is necessary to the metre, is omitted in the first folio, but found in the fecond.

STEEVENS.

2-in this haughty great attempt,] Haughty is high.

So, in the fourth A&t:

JOHNSON.

"Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage."

STEEVENS.

3 Levied an army ;] Here is again another falfification of his→ tory. Cambridge levied no army, but was apprehended at Southampton, the night before Henry failed from that town for VOL. XIII.

G

And have inftall'd me in the diadem:
But, as the reft, fo fell that noble earl,
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title rested, were fupprefs'd.

PLAN. Of which, my lord, your honour is the
laft.

MOR. True; and thou seeft, that I no iffue have; And that my fainting words do warrant death: Thou art my heir; the reft, I wish thee gather:4 But yet be wary in thy ftudious care.

PLAN. Thy grave admonishments prevail with

me:

But yet, methinks, my father's execution
Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.

MOR. With filence, nephew, be thou politick;
Strong-fixed is the houfe of Lancaster,
And, like a mountain, not to be remov❜d.5
But now thy uncle is removing hence;

As princes do their courts, when they are cloy'd
With long continuance in a settled place.

PLAN. O, uncle, 'would fome part of my young

years

Might but redeem the paffage of your age !6

France, on the information of this very Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. MALONE.

4 Thou art my heir; the reft, I wish thee gather:] The fenfe is-I acknowledge thee to be my heir; the confequences which may be collected from thence, I recommend it to thee to draw. HEATH.

And, like a mountain, not to be remov'd.] Thus Milton, Par. Loft, Book IV :

"Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremov'd." STEEVENS.

• O, uncle, 'would fome part of my young years

Might but redeem &c.] This thought has fome refemblance to that of the following lines, which are fuppofed to be addreffed

MOR. Thou doft then wrong me; as the flaught'rer doth,

Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.”
Mourn not, except thou forrow for my good;
Only, give order for my funeral;

And fo farewell; and fair be all thy hopes !8
And profperous be thy life, in peace, and war!

[Dies.

by a married lady who died very young, to her husband. The infcription is, I think, in the church of Trent:

"Immatura perî; fed tu diuturnior annos

"Vive meos, conjux optime, vive tuos." MALONE. This fuperftition is very ancient. Some traces of it may be found in the traditions of the Rabbins; it is enlarged upon in the Alceftes of Euripides; and fuch offers ridiculed by Juvenal, Sat. XII. Dion Caffiusin Vit. Hadrian, fol. edit. Hamburgh, Vol. II. p. 1160, infinuates, "That Hadrian facrificed his favourite Antinous with this defign." See Reimari Annotat. in loc: noftris annis, tibi Jupiter augeat annos," said the Romans to Auguftus. See Lifter's Journey to Paris, p. 221. VAILLANT.

7 as the flaught'rer doth,

"De

Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.] The fame thought occurs in Hamlet:

8

"Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
"Gives me fuperfluous death."

and fair be all thy hopes!]

STEEVENS.

Mortimer knew Plantagenet's hopes were fair, but that the establishment of the Lancaftrian line disappointed them: fure, he would wish, that his nephew's fair hopes might have a fair iffue. I am perfuaded the poet wrote:

and fair befal thy hopes! THEOBALD.

This emendation is received by Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton. I do not fee how the readings differ in fenfe. Fair is lucky, or profperous. So we fay, a fair wind, and fair fortune.

JOHNSON.

Theobald's emendment is unneceffary, and proceeded from his confounding Plantagenet's hopes with his pretenfions. His pretenfions were well founded, but his hopes were not.

M. MASON.

PLAN. And peace, no war, befal thy parting foul!

In prison haft thou spent a pilgrimage,
And like a hermit overpafs'd thy days.-
Well, I will lock his counfel in my breaft;
And what I do imagine, let that rest.—
Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself
Will fee his burial better than his life.-

[Exeunt Keepers, bearing out MORTIMER.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Chok'd with ambition 9 of the meaner fort:-
And, for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
Which Somerset 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 ceding fcene:

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

pre

STEEVENS.

We are to understand the speaker 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 support of his own princely ambition. WARBURTON.

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 antithefis of the expreffion. THEOBALD. My ill, is my ill ufage. MALONE.

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

STEE ENS.