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 Keepers, bearing out MOR.
Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Chok'd with ambition3 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 th' advantage of my good. will in advancer

ACT III.....SCENE I.'

The same. The Parliament-House.5

[Exit.

Flourish. Enter King HENRY, EXETER, GLOSTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; the Bishop of Winchester, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and Others. GLosTER offers to put up a Bill; Winchester snatches it, and tears it.

Win. Com'st thou with deep premeditated lines, With written pamphlets studiously devis'd,

3 Chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort:] So, in the preceding

scene:

"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 asserting his claim to the crown, in support of his own princely ambition. Warburton.

A 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 expression. Theobald.
My ill, is my ill usage. Malone.

5 The Parliament-House.] This parliament was held in 1426, at Leicester, though the author of this play has represented it to

Humphrey of Gloster? 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.

Glo. Presumptuous priest! this place commands my patience,

Or thou should'st find thou hast dishonour'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
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 were sifted,
The king, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt
From envious malice of thy swelling heart.

Win. Gloster, I do defy thee.-Lords, vouchsafe
To give me hearing what I shall reply.

If I were covetous, ambitious," or perverse," prond

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

Or how haps it, I seek not to advance

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 Windsor to the metropolis, and sat on the throne of the parliament-house with the infant in her lap. Malone.

6 put up a Bill;] i. e. articles of accusation, for in this sense the word bill was sometimes used. So, in Nashe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596; "That's the cause we have so manie bad workmen now adaies: put up a bill against them next parliament." Malone.

7 If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse,] I suppose this re-. dundant line originally stood

Were I covetous, ambitious, &c. Steevens:

Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling?
And for dissention, 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 should sway but he;
No one, but he, should be about the king;
And that engenders thunder in his breast,
And makes him roar these accusations forth.
But he shall know, I am as good

Glo.

Thou bastard of my grandfather!8

As good?

Win. Ay, lordly sir; For what are you, I pray,
But one imperious in another's throne?

Glo. Am I not the protector,+ saucy priest?
Win. And am I not a prelate of the church?
Glo. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,
And useth it to patronage his theft.

Win. Unreverent Gloster!

Glo.

Thou art reverent

Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life.
Win. This Rome shall remedy.1

Roam thither then.2

War.
Som. My lord, it were your duty to forbear.3

Thou bastard of my grandfather!] The Bishop of Winchester was an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by Katharine Swynford, whom the duke afterwards married. Malone.

9 the protector,] I have added the article-the, for the sake of metre. Steevens.

† Mr. Steevens is extremely fond of restoring, adding and supplying words for the sake of the metre, and very frequently does so to the great injury of our author. This is one of the numerous instances in which his interpolations are unpardonable. He has here sacrificed to his love of metre the strength and boldness of the interrogation. The emphasis ought certainly to rest on "Protector," but Mr. Steevens's amendment has placed it on the article "the." Am. Ed.

1 This Rome shall remedy.] The old copy unmetricallyRome shall remedy this.

The transposition is Sir Thomas Hanmer's. Steevens.

2 Roam thither then.] Roam to Rome. To roam is supposed to be derived from the cant of vagabonds, who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome. Johnson.

3 Som. My lord, it were your duty to forbear. &c.] This line, in the old copy, is joined to the former hemistich spoken by War

War. Ay, see the bishop be not overborne. Som. Methinks, my lord should be religious, And know the office that belongs to such.

War. Methinks, his lordship should be humbler;
It fitteth not a prelate so to plead.

Som. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near.
War. State holy, or unhallow'd, what of that?
Is not his grace protector to the king?

Plan. Plantagenet, I see, must hold his tongue;
Lest it be said, Speak, sirrah, when you should;
Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?
Else would I have a fling at Winchester.

K. Hen. Uncles of Gloster, and of Winchester,
The special watchmen of our English weal;
I would prevail, if prayers might prevail,
To join your hearts in love and amity.
O, what a scandal is it to our crown,
That two such noble peers as ye, should jar!
Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell,
Civil dissention is a viperous worm,

That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth.

[Aside.

[A Noise within; Down with the tawny coats! What tumult 's this?

War.

An uproar, I dare warrant,

Begun through malice of the bishop's men.

[A Noise again; Stones! Stones!

Enter the Mayor of London, attended.

May. O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry

Pity the city of London, pity us!

The bishop and the duke of Gloster's men,
Forbidden late to carry any weapon,

Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble-stones;
And, banding themselves in contráry parts,
Do pelt so fast at one another's pate,

That many have their giddy brains knock'd out:
Our windows are broke down in every street,

wick. The modern editors have very properly given it to Somerset, for whom it seems to have been designed:

Ay, see the bishop be not overborne,

was as erroneously given in the next speech to Somerset, instead of Warwick, to whom it has been since restored. Steevens. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. Malone.

And we, for fear, compell'd to shut our shops.
Enter, skirmishing, the Retainers of GLOSTER, and
Winchester, with bloody pates.

K. Hen. We charge you, on allegiance to ourself, To hold your slaught'ring hands, and keep the peace. Pray, uncle Gloster, mitigate this strife.

1 Serv. Nay, if we be

Forbidden stones, we 'll fall to it with our teeth.

2 Serv. Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.

[Skirmish again, Glo. You of my household, leave this peevish broil, And set this unaccustom'd fight1 aside.

3 Serv. My lord, we know your grace to be a man
Just and upright; and, for your royal birth,
Inferior to none, but his majesty: 5

And, ere that we will suffer such a prince,
So kind a father of the commonweal,
To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,“
We, and our wives, and children, all will fight,
And have our bodies slaughter'd by thy foes.

1 Serv. Ay, and the very parings of our nails
Shall pitch a field, when we are dead. [Skirmish again,
Glo.
Stay, stay, I say!"
And, if you love me, as you say you do,

- unaccustom'd fight-] Unaccustom'd is unseemly, inde cent. Johnson.

The same epithet occurs again in Romeo and Juliet, where it seems to mean-such as is uncommon, not in familiar use:

"Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." Steevens. 5 but his majesty:] Old copy, redundantly—

·but to his majesty.

Perhaps the line originally ran thus:

"To none inferior, but his majesty." Steevens.

6 — an inkhorn mate,] A bookman. Johnson.

It was a term of reproach at the time towards men of learning or men affecting to be learned. George Pettie in his Introduction to Guazzo's Civil Conversation, 1586, speaking of those he calls nice travellers, says: "if one chance to derive anie word from the Latine, which is insolent to their ears, (as perchance they will take that phrase to be) they forthwith make a jest at it, and tearme it an Inkhorne tearme." Reed.

7 Stay, stay, I say!] Perhaps the words—I say, should be omitted, as they only serve to disorder the metre, and create a disagreeable repetition of the word-say, in the next line. Steevens