King Edward the Fourth. Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards Sons to the king. Brothers to the king. K. Edward V. Richard, duke of York, Richard, duke of Glofter, after wards King Richard III. A young son of Clarence. Henry, earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII. Duke of Buckingham. Duke of Norfolk: Earl of Surrey, his fon. Earl of Oxford. Lord Stanley. Lord Lovel. Sir Thomas Vaughan. Sir Richard Ratcliff. Elizabeth, Queen of K. Edward IV. Dutchess of York, mother to K. Edward IV. Clarence, and Glofter. Lady Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, fon to A young daughter of Clarence. Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Fursuivant, SCENE, England. KING RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE Ι. London. A Street. Enter GLOSTER. Glo. Now is the winter of our discontent 2 Made glorious fummer by this fun of York3; And This tragedy, though it is called the Life and Death of this prince, comprizes, at most, but the last eight years of his time; for it opens with George duke of Clarence being clapped up in the Tower, which happened in the beginning of the year 1477; and closes with the death of Richard at Bofworth field, which battle was fought on the 2zd of August, in the year 1485. THEOBALD. It appears that several dramas on the present subject had been written before Shakspeare attempted it. See the notes at the conclufion of this play, which was first enter'd at Stationers' Hall by Andrew Wife, Oct. 20, 1597, under the title of The Tragedie of King Richard the Third, with the Death of the Duke of Clarence. Before this, viz. Aug. 15th, 1586, was entered, A Tragical report of King Richard the Third, a Ballad. It may be neceffary to remark that the words, yong, ballad, book, enterlude and play, were often synonymously used. STEEV. This play was written, I imagine, in the same year in which it was first printed,-1597. The Legend of King Richard III. by Francis Seagars, was printed in the first edition of the Mirrour for Magitrates, 1559, and in that of 1575; and 1587, but Shakipeare does not appear to be indebted to it. In a subsequent edition of that book printed in 1610, the old legend was omitted, and a new one inferted, by Richard Nichols, who has very freely copied the play before us. In 1597, when this tragedy was published, Nichols, as Mr. Warton has observed, was but thirteen years old. Hist. of Poetry, Vol. III. p. 267. The real length of time in this piece is fourteen years; (not eight years, as Mr. Theobald supposed;) for the second scene commences with the funeral of King Henry VI. who was murdered on the 21st of May, 1471. The imprisonment of Clarence, which is represented previously in the first scene, did not in fact take place till 1477-8. MALONE. - the winter of our discontent-] So, in an old play entiled Wily Beguild: "Presaging some good future hap thall fall, Gg3 Wily 1 And all the clouds, that lowr'd upon our house, Wily beguil'd had appeared before 1596, being mentioned by Nashe in 3 - this fun of York; Alluding to the cognizance of Edward IV. which was a fun, in memory of the three funs, which are faid to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancaftrians at Mortimer's Crofs. STEEVENS. See p. 268, n. 2. MALONE. 4 Our ftern alarums chang'd to merry meetings, And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds, &c.] Shakspeare feems to have had the following passage from Lily's Alexander and Campaspe 1584, before him, when he wrote these lines: "Is the warlike found of drum and trump turn'd to the soft noise of lyre and lute? The neighing of barbed fleeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimned the fun with smoak, converted to delicate tunes, and amorous glances?" &C. REED. The Measures were in our authour's time a species of dance. See Vol. II. p. 406, n. 4. A barbed steed is a horse covered with a caparison or trappings. Barbed and barded are (as Mr. Steevens has suggested) synonymous; or rather, barbed is a corruption of barded. See "A Barbed horse," and "Bardes," in Minsheu's DICT. 1617, the latter of which he defines "borse-trappings." MALONE. 5 He capers-] Warcapers. This is poctical, though a little harth; if it be York that capers, the antecedent is at fuch a distance, that it is almost forgotten. JOHNSON. 4 Cheated Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, • Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,] By diffembling is not meant bypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another: but nature that puts together things of a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body. WARBURTON. Dissembling is here put very licentiously for fraudful, deceitful. JOHNSON. I once thought that Dr. Johnson's interpretation was the true one. Diffimulation neceffarily includes fraud, and this might have been sufficient to induce Shakspeare to use the two words as synonymous, though fraud certainly may exist without diffimulation. But the following lines in the old K. Jobn, 1591, which our authour must have carefully read, were perhaps in his thoughts, and seem rather in favour of Dr. Warburton's interpretation: "Can nature so dissemble in her frame, "To challenge any mark of true descent? Feature is used here, as in other pieces of the fame age, for beauty in general. See Vol. VII. p. 484, n. 6. MALONE. 1 And descant on mine own deformity:] Defcant is a term in musick, fignifying in general that kind of harmony wherein one part is broken and formed into a kind of paraphrafe on the other. The propriety and elegance of the above figure, without such an idea of the nature of defcant, could not be difcerned. SIR J. HAWKINS. That this is the original meaning of the term, is certain. But I believe the word is here used in its secondary and colloquial sense, without any reference to musick. MALONE. 8 And therefore, fince I cannet prove a lover,] Shakspeare very diligently inculcates, that the wickedness of Richard proceeded from his deformity, from the envy that rose at the comparison of his own perfon with others, and which incited him to disturb the pleasures that he could not partake. JOHNSON. G And L |