drama, except, perhaps, for the hint for Richard's cry,

"A horse, a horse!" &c., and the appearance of ghosts, instead of Holinshed's devils, before the battle.

As to the date when Richard the Third was written, we only know that it must have been between the time of the transmutation of The True Tragedy into the Third Part of King Henry the Sixth and 1597, most probably in 1593 or early in 1594.

The text of Richard the Third is very corrupt in all the old editions. That of the folio is more than usually marred by errors of the press, and is, besides, without some brief passages of interest which appear in the quartos. On the other hand, that of the quartos, even in its best form, - the earliest, is so badly printed as to be remarkable in this respect among the badly printed dramas of its period; and this in its turn omits several important passages - one of more than fifty lineswhich are found in the folio. The repetition of certain errors peculiar to the quarto of 1602 shows that the text of the folio was printed from a copy of that edition; but the important additions to and corrections of its text are undeniable evidence that the copy in question had been subjected to carefullest revision at the hands (it seems to me beyond a doubt) of Shakespeare himself, by which it gained much smoothness and correctness, and lost no strength. In minute beauties of rhythm, in choice of epithets, and in the avoidance of bald repetition, (a fault unusually frequent in the quarto text,) the play was greatly improved by this revision; and while some of the passages found in the folio and not in the quartos may have been omitted from the MS. from which the latter was printed, for the sake of abbreviating so long a drama, many of them are evidently from the perfecting hand of the author in the maturity of his powers. This being the case, the faults, whether of omission or of commission, in the folio text must be assumed as accidental only; and its authority, although impaired in minute matters, must be maintained say, rather, maintains itself. It furnishes the true text, and the best; though we are fortunate in having the quartos, especially that of 1597, to depend upon when the folio is corrupt. Every variation between the old texts which modifies the sense however slightly, or gives the faintest difference of tone to expression, is recorded in the Notes, with comment when it seemed desirable, and often with full quotation,

that the reader may use his own judgment. A notice of every difference would have cumbered these pages with trifles laboriously obtained, and entirely worthless, except, perhaps, for the gratification of that feeble and anile semblance of intellectual activity — bibliomaniac curiosity.

The events represented in this play occurred during a period of about thirteen or fourteen years: from soon after the battle of Tewksbury, 1471, to that of Bosworth field, 1485.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

KING EDWARD the Fourth.

EDWARD, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward V., Sons to

RICHARD, Duke of York,

GEORGE, Duke of Clarence,

S

the King.

RICHARD, Duke of Gloster, afterwards Brothers to the King.

King Richard III.,

A young Son of Clarence.

HENRY, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII.

CARDINAL BOUCHIER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

THOMAS ROTHERHAM, Archbishop of York.

JOHN MORTON, Bishop of Ely.

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DUKE OF NORFOLK EARL OF SURREY, his Son.
EARL RIVERS, Brother to King Edward's Queen.
MARQUESS OF DORSET, and LORD GREY, her Sons.

EARL OF OXFORD.
LORD HASTINGS.

LORD STANLEY.

LORD LOVEL.

Sir THOMAS VAUGHAN.

Sir RICHARD RATCLIFF.

Sir WILLIAM CATESBY.

Sir JAMES TYRREL.

Sir JAMES BLOUNT.

Sir WALTER HERBERT.

Sir ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower.

CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a Priest. Another Priest.

Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire. A Keeper in

the Tower.

ELIZABETH, Queen to King Edward IV.

MARGARET, Widow of King Henry Vl.

DUCHESS OF YORK, Mother to King Edward IV., Clarence, and

Gloster.

LADY ANNE, Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales.

A young Daughter of Clarence.

Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, &c.

SCENE: England.

THE TRAGEDY OF

KING RICHARD THE THIRD,

WITH THE LANDING OF EARL RICHMOND, AND THE BATTLE AT BOSWORTH FIELD.

ACT I.

SCENE I.- London. A Street.

Enter GLOSTER.

GLOSTER.

OW is the winter of our discontent

out sun of York,

And all the clouds that lower'd upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable,
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the King
In deadly hate, the one against the other:
And, if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that G

Of Edward's heirs the murtherer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence

comes.

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY. Brother, good day. What means this armed guard, That waits upon your Grace?

Clarence.

His Majesty, Tend'ring my person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to th' Tower.