Page 226 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Why didst thou say of late thou wert despised?

PLANT AGENET

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 honour of a true Plantagenet,
And for alliance’ sake, declare the cause
My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head.

MORT IMER

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.

PLANT AGENET

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

MORT IMER

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 Percys of the north,
Finding his usurpation most unjust,
Endeavoured 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: