"The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt, with the whole contention betweene the two Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was sundrie times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his seruants. Printed at London by P. S. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Saint Peters Church in Cornwal. 1595." 8vo. 40 leaves. Reprinted in 1600 for the same bookseller; and about 1619 for T.[homas] P.[avier], with the First Part of the Contention. See the reverse of the bastard title to the Second Part of Henry VI. The third Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the Duke of Yorke, occupies twenty-six pages in the folio of 1623, viz., from p. 147 to p. 172, inclusive; in the division of Histories, pages 165 and 166 being misprinted 167 and 168, these numbers are twice inserted. It is there divided into Acts and Scenes; but is without a list of Dramatis Personæ, which Rowe supplied. (4) KING HENRY VI. PART III. INTRODUCTION. Wat the two famous Houses of York and Lancaster com HEN the authors of The First Part of the Contention be pleted, in the early version of the following play, their dramatic picture of Henry the Sixth's eventful reign, they did not call the third compartment of their work The Second, or The Last Part of the Contention, but The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York The reason which has been sought for this disappointment of natural expectation may not improbably be found in the overshadowing importance to which, under the hand of Shakespeare, the character of Richard shot up in the writing of the third part of this "dramatic trilogy," and in the hatred of the last Yorkist king, which had been grafted on the popular mind, and well nurtured during the reigns of his four successors. The play which was intended to present only a continuation of the struggle between two factions became a historic tragedy, from the dramatis persona of which stepped forth a hero whose name and whose traditional character were known to every Englishman, and to the representation of which the public could be invited, to feed at once their hatred of a tyrant and their love of those bloody horrors upon the rising degrees of which tyrants of old mounted to their thrones. This, in my judgment, determined (as in a similar case with a shrewd manager it would now determine) the name first given to the Third Part of King Henry the Sixth. The Essay upon the Authorship of these three plays renders other introductory remark upon this one superfluous, except that the period of its action is from the battle of St. Albans, 1461, to that of Tewksbury, 1471. (5) RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Duke of York. EDWARD, Earl of March, afterwards King Edward IV. EDMUND, Earl of Rutland, GEORGE, afterwards Duke of Clarence, RICHARD, afterwards Duke of Glocester, MARQUESS OF MONTAGUE, EARL OF WARWICK, His Sons EARL OF PEMBROKE, LORD HASTINGS, LORD STAFFord, Sir JOHN MORTIMER, Of the Duke of York's party. Sir JOUGY MORTIMER, } Uncles to the Duke of York. HENRY, Earl of Richmond, a Youth. LORD RIVERS, Brother to Lady Grey. Sir WILLIAM STANLEY. Sir JOHN MONTGOMERY. Sir JOHN SOMERVILLE. Tutor to Rutland. Mayor of York. Lieutenant of the Tower. A Nobleman. Two Keepers. A Huntsman. A Son that has killed his Father. A Father that has killed his Son. QUEEN MARGARET. LADY GREY, afterwards Queen to Edward IV. BONA, Sister to the French Queen. Soldiers, and other Attendants on King Henry and King Edward, Messengers, Watchmen, &c. SCENE: During part of the Third Act, in France; during the rest of the Play, in England. (6) THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, WITH THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF YORK. АСТ І. SCENE I. London. The Parliament-House. Drums. Some Soldiers of YORK's party break in. Then enter the Duke of YORK, EDWARD, RICHARD, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and others, with white roses in their hats. WARWICK. I WONDER how the King escap'd our hands. York. While we pursu'd the horsemen of the He slyly stole away, and left his men: |