Henry VI Part 1: Act 2, Scene 5 Translation

Enter Edmund Mortimer, brought in a chair,
and Jailers.

MORTIMER
Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself.
Even like a man new-halèd from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment;
And these gray locks, the pursuivants of death, 5
Nestor-like agèd in an age of care,
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer;
These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent,
Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent;
Weak shoulders, overborne with burdening grief, 10
And pithless arms, like to a withered vine
That droops his sapless branches to the ground;
Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is numb,
Unable to support this lump of clay,
Swift-wingèd with desire to get a grave, 15
As witting I no other comfort have.
But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come?

KEEPER
Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come.
We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber,
And answer was returned that he will come. 20

MORTIMER
Enough. My soul shall then be satisfied.
Poor gentleman, his wrong doth equal mine.
Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
Before whose glory I was great in arms,
This loathsome sequestration have I had; 25
And even since then hath Richard been obscured,
Deprived of honor and inheritance.
But now the arbitrator of despairs,
Just Death, kind umpire of men’s miseries,
With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence. 30
I would his troubles likewise were expired,
That so he might recover what was lost.

Enter Richard Plantagenet.

KEEPER
My lord, your loving nephew now is come.

MORTIMER
Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come?

PLANTAGENET
Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly used, 35
Your nephew, late despisèd Richard, comes.

MORTIMER, to Jailer
Direct mine arms I may embrace his neck
And in his bosom spend my latter gasp.
O, tell me when my lips do touch his cheeks,
That I may kindly give one fainting kiss. 40
He embraces Richard.
And now declare, sweet stem from York’s great stock,
Why didst thou say of late thou wert despised?

PLANTAGENET
First, lean thine agèd back against mine arm,
And in that ease I’ll tell thee my disease.
This day, in argument upon a case, 45
Some words there grew ’twixt Somerset and me,
Among which terms he used his lavish tongue
And did upbraid me with my father’s death;
Which obloquy set bars before my tongue,
Else with the like I had requited him. 50
Therefore, good uncle, for my father’s sake,
In honor of a true Plantagenet,
And for alliance’ sake, declare the cause
My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head.

MORTIMER
That cause, fair nephew, that imprisoned me 55
And hath detained me all my flow’ring youth
Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine,
Was cursèd instrument of his decease.

PLANTAGENET
Discover more at large what cause that was,
For I am ignorant and cannot guess. 60

MORTIMER
I will, if that my fading breath permit
And death approach not ere my tale be done.
Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king,
Deposed his nephew Richard, Edward’s son,
The first begotten and the lawful heir 65
Of Edward king, the third of that descent;
During whose reign the Percies of the north,
Finding his usurpation most unjust,
Endeavored my advancement to the throne.
The reason moved these warlike lords to this 70
Was, for that—young Richard thus removed,
Leaving no heir begotten of his body—
I was the next by birth and parentage;
For by my mother I derivèd am
From Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son 75
To King Edward the Third; whereas he
From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree,
Being but fourth of that heroic line.
But mark: as in this haughty great attempt
They laborèd to plant the rightful heir, 80
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, 85
Marrying my sister that thy mother was,
Again, in pity of my hard distress,
Levied an army, weening to redeem
And have installed me in the diadem.
But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl 90
And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers,
In whom the title rested, were suppressed.

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. 95
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. 100

MORTIMER
With silence, nephew, be thou politic;
Strong-fixèd 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 cloyed 105
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. 110
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. 115
In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage,
And like a hermit overpassed 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 120
Will see his burial better than his life.

Jailers exit carrying Mortimer’s body.

Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer,
Choked with ambition of the meaner sort.
And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries,
Which Somerset hath offered to my house, 125
I doubt not but with honor to redress.
And therefore haste I to the Parliament,
Either to be restorèd to my blood,
Or make mine ill th’ advantage of my good.

He exits.