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I lost 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 derived

From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York,

Marrying my sister that thy mother was,

Again in pity of my hard distress.

Levied an army, weening to redeem

And have install'd me in the diadem:

But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl

And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,

In whom the title rested, were suppress'd.

PLANTAGENET.

Of which, my lord, your honor is the last.

MORTIMER.

True; and thou seest that I no issue have,

And that my fainting words do warrant death:

Thou art my heir; the rest I wish thee gather:

But yet be wary in thy studious care.

PLANTAGENET.

Thy grave admonishments prevail with me:

But yet, methinks, my father's execution

Was nothing less than bloody tyranny.

MORTIMER.

With silence, nephew, be thou politic:

Strong-fixed is the house of Lancaster,

And like a mountain not to be removed.

But now thy uncle is removing hence;

As princes do their courts, when they are cloy'd

With long continuance in a settled place.

PLANTAGENET.

O, uncle, would some part of my young years

Might but redeem the passage of your age!

MORTIMER.

Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer doth

Which giveth many wounds when one will kill.

Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good;

Only give order for my funeral:

And so farewell, and fair be all thy hopes,

And prosperous be thy life in peace and war!

[Dies.]

PLANTAGENET.

And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul!

In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,

And like a hermit overpass'd thy days.

Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast;

And what I do imagine let that rest.

Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself

Will see his burial better than his life.

[Exeunt Jailers, bearing out the body of Mortimer.]

Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,

Choked with ambition of the meaner sort:

And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,

Which Somerset hath offer'd to my house,

I doubt not but with honour to redress;

And therefore haste I to the parliament,

Either to be restored to my blood,

Or make my ill the advantage of my good.

[Exit.]

ACT THIRD

SCENE I. London. The Parliament-house.

[Flourish. Enter King, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset, and Suffolk; the Bishop of Winchester, Richard Plantagenet, and others. Gloucester offers to put up a bill; Winchester snatches it, tears it.]

WINCHESTER.

Comest thou with deep premeditated lines,

With written pamphlets studiously devised,

Humphrey of Gloucester? If thou canst accuse,

Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge.

Do it without invention, suddenly;

As I with sudden and extemporal speech

Purpose to answer what thou canst object.

GLOUCESTER.

Presumptuous priest! this place commands my patience,

Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonor'd me.

Think not, although in writing I preferr'd

The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,

That therefore I have forged, or am not able

Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen:

No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness,

Thy lewd, pestiferous and dissentious pranks,

As very infants prattle of thy pride.

Thou art a most pernicious usurer,

Froward by nature, enemy to peace;

Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems

A man of thy profession and degree;

And for thy treachery, what's more manifest

In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life,

As well at London-bridge as at the Tower.

Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts are sifted

The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt

From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

WINCHESTER.

Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe

To give me hearing what I shall reply.

If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,

As he will have me, how am I so poor?

Or how haps it I seek not to advance

Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?

And for dissension, who preferreth peace

More than I do?—except I be provoked.

No, my good lords, it is not that offends;

It is not