MOR. Thou doft then wrong me; as the flaught'rer doth, Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.5 Mourn not, except thou forrow for my good; Only, give order for my funeral; And fo farewell; and fair be all thy hopes! And profperous be thy life, in peace, and war! [Dies. PLAN. And peace, no war, befal thy parting foul! In prifon haft thou spent a pilgrimage, of Euripides; and fuch offers ridiculed by Juvenal, Sat. XII. Dion Caffius in Vit. Hadrian, fol. edit. Hamburgh, Vol. II. p. 1160, infinuates," That Hadrian facrificed his favourite Antinous with this defign." See Reifmari Annotat. in loc. noftris annis, tibi Jupiter augeat annos," faid the Romans to Auguftus. See Lifter's Journey to Paris, p. 221. VAILLANT. as the faught'rer doth, De Which giveth many wounds, when one will kill.] The fame thought occurs in Hamlet: 6 "Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me fuperfluous death." STEEVENS. and fair be all thy hopes!] Mortimer knew Plantagenet's hopes were fair, but that the establishment of the Lancaftrian line disappointed them: fure, he would with, that his nephew's fair hopes might have a fair issue. I am perfuaded the poet wrote: THEOBALD, " and fair befal thy hopes! This emendation is received by Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton. I do not fee how the readings differ in fense. Fair is lucky, or profperous. So we say, a fair wind, and fair fortune. JOHNSON, Theobald's amendment 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. Will fee his burial better than his life. [Exeunt Keepers, bearing out MORTIMER. Here dies the dufky torch of Mortimer, Chok'd with ambition' 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. 7 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 underftand the speaker as reflecting on the ill for tune 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 antithesis of the expreffion. THEOBALD. This fentiment refembles another of Falftaff, in the Second Part of King Henry IV: " I will turn difeafes to commodity." ་་ STEEVENS. ACT III. SCENE I. The fame. The Parliament-Houfe, Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, GLOSTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the Bishopof Winchester, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and Others. GLOSTER offers to put up a bill; Winchefter fnatches it, and tears it. 2 WIN. Com'ft thou with deep premeditated lines, With written pamphlets ftudiously devis'd, Humphrey of Glofter? if thou canft accufe, Or aught intend't 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. Presumptuous prieft! this place commands my patience, Or thou fhould't find thou haft difhonour'd me. 9 The Parliament-Houfe. ] This parliament was held in 1426 at Leicefter, 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 firft parliament which was held at London shortly 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. put up a bill;] i. e. articles of accufation, for in this fense the word bill was fometimes used. So, in Nafhe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596: That's the caufe we have fo manie bad workmen now adaies: put up a bill againft them next parliament." MALONE. 2 VOL. XIV. G Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen: And for thy treachery, What's more manifeft? 3 WIN. Glofter, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouchfafe To give me hearing what I fhall reply. If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse, As he will have me, How am I so poor? Or how haps it, I feek not to advance Or raise 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 sway 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! 4 3 If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,] I fuppofe this re dundant line originally flood Were I covetous, ambitious, &c. STEEVENS. Thou bastard 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, 5 faucy prieft? 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. WAR. 1 Roam thither then. 7 SOм. My lord, it were your duty to forbear. 8 was an illegitimate fon of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by Katharine Swynford, whom the duke afterwards married. MALONE. 5 the protector; ] I have added the article-the, for the fake of metre. STEEVENS. 6 This Rome fhall remedy.] The old copy, unmetrically→ Rome fhall 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. The jingle between roam and Rome is common to other writers. So, in Nafh's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599: " three hundred thoufand 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 fpoken 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 overborné, was as erroneously given in the next fpeech to Somerset, instead of Warwick, to whom it has been fince reftored. The correЯion was made by Mr. Theobald. STEEvens. |