Edward, the Black Prince, died before his father; Who, after Edward the Third's death, reign'd as king; Till Henry Bolingbroke, duke of Lancaster, The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt, <Crown'd by the name of Henry the Fourth, • Seiz❜d on the realm; depos'd the rightful king; 'Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came, And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know," 'Harmless Richard was murder'd traitorously. *War. Father, the duke hath told the truth; *Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown. * York. Which now they hold by force and not by right; * For Richard, the first son's heir being dead, * Sal. But William of Hatfield died without an heir. *I claim the crown) had issue-Philippe, a daughter, * Who married Edmund Mortimer, earl of March. * Edmund had issue-Roger, earl of March: * Roger had issue-Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor. Sal. This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke, 'As I have read, laid claim unto the crown; And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king, < Who kept him in captivity, till he died." 7- as all you know,] In the original play the words are, as you both know." This mode of phraseology, when the speaker addresses only two persons, is peculiar to Shakspeare. In King Henry IV, P. II, Act III, sc. i, the King addressing Warwick and Surrey, says Why then good morrow to you all, my lords." Malone. 8 This Edmund, &c.] In Act II, sc. v, of the last play, York, to whom this is spoken, is present at the death of Edmund Mortimer in prison; and the reader will recollect him to have been married to Owen Glendower's daughter, in The First Part of King Henry IV. Ritson. 9 Who kept him in captivity, till he died.] The historians as well as the dramatick poets have been strangely mistaken concerning this Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, who was so far from being "kept in captivity till he died," that he appears to have been at liberty during the whole reign of King Henry V and to have been trusted and employed by him; and there is n *But, to the rest. • York. His eldest sister, Anne, proof that he ever was confined, as a state-prisoner, by King Henry IV Being only six years of age at the death of his father in 1398, he was delivered by Henry in ward to his son Henry Prince of Wales; and during the whole of that reign, being a minor and related to the family on the throne, both he and his brother Roger were under the particular care of the King. At the age of ten years, in 1402, he headed a body of Herefordshire men against Owen Glendower; and they being routed, he was taken prisoner by Owen, and is said by Walsingham to have contracted a marriage with Glendower's daughter and to have been with him at the battle of Shrewsbury; but I believe the story of his being affianced to Glendower's daughter is a mistake, and that the historian has confounded Mortimer with Lord Grey of Ruthvin, who was likewise taken prisoner by Glendower, and actually did marry his daughter. Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March married Anne Stafford, the daughter of Edmond Earl of Stafford. If he was at the battle of Shrewsbury he was probably brought there against his will, to grace the cause of the rebels. The Percies, in the manifesto which they published a little before that battle, speak of him, not as a confederate of Owen's, but as the rightful heir to the crown, whom Owen had confined, and whom, finding that the King for political reasons would not ransom him, they at their own charges had ransomed. After that battle, he was certainly under the care of the King, he and his brother in the seventh year of that reign having had annuities of two hundred pounds and one hundred marks allotted to them, for their maintenance during their minorities. In addition to what I have already said respecting the trust reposed in him during the whole reign of King Henry V, I may add, that in the sixth year of that King, this Earl of March was with the Earl of Salisbury at the siege of Fresnes; and soon afterwards with the King himself at the siege of Melun. In the same year he was constituted Lieutenant of Normandy. He attended Henry when he had an interview with the French King, &c. at Melun, to treat about a marriage with Catharine, and he accompanied the Queen when she returned from France in 1422, with the corpse of her husband. One of the sources of the mistakes in our old histories concern. ing this Earl, I believe was this: he was probably confounded with one of his kinsmen, a Sir John Mortimer, who was confined for a long time in the Tower, and at last was executed in 1424. That person, however, could not have been his uncle, for he had but one legitimate uncle, and his name was Edmond. The Sir John Mortimer, who was confined in the Tower, was perhaps cousin german to the last Edmond Earl of March, the illegitimate son of his uncle Edmond. Lionel duke of Clarence was affianced to Elizabeth the daughter of the Earl of Ulster, in his tender years; and consequently My mother, being heir unto the crown, 'Married Richard, earl of Cambridge; who was son "To Edmund Langley, Edward the third's fifth son. By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir 'To Roger, earl of March; who was the son ́Of Edmund Mortimer; who married Philippe, Sole daughter unto Lionel, duke of Clarence: 'So, if the issue of the elder son • Succeed before the younger, I am king. War. What plain proceedings are more plain than 'Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt, 'And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock. Then, father Salisbury, kneel we both together; ‹ And, in this private plot,1 be we the first, ♦ That shall salute our rightful sovereign With honour of his birthright to the crown. Both. Long live our sovereign Richard, England's king! York. We thank you, lords. But I am not your king 'Till I be crown'd; and that my sword be stain'd With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster: * And that's not suddenly to be perform'd; * But with advice, and silent secrecy. * Do you, as I do, in these dangerous days, * Wink at the duke of Suffolk's insolence, * At Beaufort's pride, at Somerset's ambition, * At Buckingham, and all the crew of them, *Till they have snar'd the shepherd of the flock, * That virtuous prince, the good duke Humphrey : Lionel, having been born in 1338, might have had his daughter Philippa in 1354. Philippa, I find, was married in 1370, at the age of sixteen, to Edmond Mortimer Earl of March, who was himself born in 1351. Their son Roger was born in 1371, and must have been married to Eleanor, the daughter of the Earl of Kent, in the year 1388, or 1389, for their daughter Anne, who married Richard Earl of Cambridge, was born in 1389. Edmond Mortimer, Roger's eldest son, (the Mortimer of Shakspeare's King Henry IV) was born in the latter end of the year 1392; and consequently when he died in his castle at Trim in Ireland, in 1424-5, he was thirty-two years old. Malone. -private plot,] Sequestered spot of ground. Malone. * 'Tis that they seek; and they, in seeking that, *Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy. * Sal. My lord, break we off; we know your mind at full. War. My heart assures me,2 that the earl of Warwick 'Shall one day make the duke of York a king. • York. And, Nevil, this I do assure myself,Richard shall live to make the earl of Warwick The greatest man in England, but the king. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The same. A Hall of Justice. Trumpets sounded. Enter King HENRY, Queen MARGARET, GLOSTER, YORK, SUFFOLK, and SALISBURY; the Duchess of GLOSTER, MARGERY JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, HUME, and BOLINGBROKE, under guard. K. Hen. Stand forth, dame Eleanor Cobham, Glos- In sight of God, and us, your guilt is great; [To Jourd. &c. * From thence, unto the place of execution: • Duch. Welcome is banishment, welcome were my death. 2 My heart assures me,] Instead of this couplet, we find in the old play no less than ten lines; so that if we suppose that piece to be an imperfect transcript of this, we must acknowledge the transcriber had a good sprag memory, for he remembered what he never could have either heard or seen. Malone. 3 - after three days' open penance ] In the original play the King particularly specifies the mode of penance: "Thou shalt two days do penance barefoot, in the streets, with a white sheet," &c. Malone. * Glo. Eleanor, the law, thou seest, hath judged thee; *I cannot justify whom the law condemns.- [Exeunt the Duchess, and the other prisoners, guarded. 'Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief. ‹ Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground!— I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go; 'Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease. K. Hen. Stay, Humphrey duke of Gloster: ere thou go, 'Give up thy staff; Henry will to himself • Protector be: and God shall be my hope, * Q. Mar. I see no reason, why a king of years Glo. My staff?-here, noble Henry, is my staff: 'As willingly do I the same resign, 'As e'er thy father Henry made it mine; [Exit. Q. Mar. Why, now is Henry king, and Margaret queen; 4 Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease.] That is, Sorrow would have, sorrow requires, solace, and age requires ease. 66 Johnson. 5 lantern to my feet;] This image, I think, is from our Liturgy: a lantern to my feet, and a light to my paths." Steevens 6 God and King Henry govern England's helm :] Old copy—realm. Steevens. The word realm at the end of two lines together is displeasing; and when it is considered that much of this scene is written in rhyme, it will not appear improbable that the author wrote, govern England's helm. Johnson. So, in a preceding scene of this play: "And you yourself shall steer the happy helm." Steevens. Dr. Johnson's emendation undoubtedly should be received into the text. So, in Coriolanus: |