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;

6

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,
And like a hermit overpafs'd thy days.-
Well I will lock his counsel in my breast;
And what I do imagine, let that reft.-
Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself

De

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. 5 as the faught'rer doth,

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 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 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 pretenfious. 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 dusky torch of Mortimer, Chok'd with ambition' of the meaner fort:And for thofe wrongs, thofe bitter injuries, Which Somerfet 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,

8

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 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 fupport 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 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 canst accuse,
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. Prefumptuous prieft! this place commands my patience,

Or thou fhould't find thou haft difhonour'd me.
Think not, although in writing I preferr'd
The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes,
That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able

9 The Parliament-Houfe. ] This parliament was held in 1426 at Leicester, 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 first 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 cause we have so 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:
No prelate; fuch is thy audacious wickedness,
Thy lewd, peftiferous, and diffentious pranks,
As very infants prattle of thy pride.
Thou art a moft pernicious ufarer;
Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
Lafcivious, wanton, more than well befcems
A man of thy profeffion, and degree;

And for thy treachery, What's more manifeft?
In that thou laid'ft a trap to take my life,
As well at London bridge, as at the Tower?
Befide, I fear me, if thy thoughts were fifted,
The king, thy fovereign, is not quite exempt
From envious malice of thy fwelling heart.

WIN. Glofter, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouch fafe To give me hearing what I shall reply. If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse, 3 As he will have me, How am I fo 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 fway 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 bastard of my grandfather! 4——

3 If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,] I fuppofe this redundant 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?

5

GLO. Am I not the protector, faucy prieft?

WIN. And am not I a prelate of the church? GLO. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,

And ufeth it to patronage his theft.

WIN. Unreverent Glofter!

GLO.

Thou art reverent

Touching thy fpiritual function, not thy life.
WIN. This Rome fhall remedy."

Roam thither then. 7

WAR.
Soм. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.
WAR. Ay, fee the bishop be not overborne.

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 STEEVENS.

of metre.

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 Nath's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

three hundred

thousand 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 spoken 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, inftead of Warwick, to whom it has been fince reftored.

The correction was made by Mr. Theobald.

STEEVENS.
MALONE