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KING

RICHARD THE THIRD.

A TRAGEDY

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

WITH HISTORICAL AND OTHER EXPLANATORY NOTES FOUNDED ON THE BEST COMMENTATORS.

EDITED BY

R. H. WESTLEY.

LEIPZIG:

GUSTAVUS GRÆBNER.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

CARDINAL BOUCHIER, Archbishop of SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant

THOMAS ROTHERHAM, Archbishop of CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a Priest.

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

SCENE ENGLAND.

ACT I.

SCENE I. - London. A. Street.

Enter GLOSTER. 1

3

2

GLOSTER. Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this 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; 5
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.

8

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, 10
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them; 11

1. In the broad outlines of Rich- | ing, a stately court dance, but here ard's person and character Shak- the word is employed to express speare has closely adhered to the dances in general. description of the usurper by Sir Thomas More.

2. The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun, in memory of the three suns, which are said to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire, where the defeated party lost near 4,000 men (A.D. 1461).

3. Our battered weapons hung up as memorials.

4. A measure was, strictly speak

5. Front, forehead, face.

6. A barbed steed is a horse caparisoned for war.

7. i. e. war capers, or dances.
8. I, that am deficient in the
pleasing form necessary to a lover.
9. By dissembling nature is meant,
nature that puts together things of
a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul
and a deformed body. Feature is
used here for beauty in general.

10. Unfashionably, unartfully.
11. As I limp past them.

1

4

Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight 2 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, 6
About a prophecy, which says that G

5

Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. 7
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,

8

Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
GLOSTER. Upon what cause?

9

Because my name is George.

CLAR. GLOS. Alack! my lord, that fault is none of yours: He should, for that, commit 10 your godfathers. O! belike, 11 his majesty hath some intent, That you should be new christen'd in the Tower. But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?

1. To pipe, to be querulous, to whine, in allusion to the weak or piping voice of sick persons. 2. Delight, amusement.

5. i. e. preparations for mischief. 6. To mew up, to shut up, to imprison. See note 1, p. 6.

7. About a prophecy, which says 3. Mine and thine were formerly that a certain person, the initial used as adjective possessive pro-letter of whose name is G, should nouns before vowels, and euphony be the disinheritor of Edward's heirs. requires the same rule to be ob- 8. Tendering, in kind regard for. served now, in poetry. Obsolete.

4. Since I am not qualified to play the lover in these days, when fair speeches and soft words are necessary.

9. Alack, alas.

10. To commit, to imprison. 11. Belike, probably.

CLARENCE. Yea, Richard, when I know; but I protest,

As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,

He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams;

1

And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,

And says, a wizard told him, that by G

His issue disinherited should be;

And, for 2 my name of George begins with G,

It follows in his thought that I am he.

These, as I learn, and such like toys 3 as these,

Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

*

GLOSTER. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women! 'T is not the king, that sends you to the Tower:

My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 't is she,

5

That tempers him to this extremity.

4

Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Antony Woodville, her brother there,

That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower,
From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.

CLAR. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure,
But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds 6
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore. 7

1. Cross-row is an old name for the alphabet, from a cross having been placed at the beginning to denote that the end of learning is piety.

2. For, because.

3. Toys, fancies, freaks of imagination.

I

was of a very amorous disposition, was struck with the lady's beauty, and made her his Queen, the secret of his marriage being kept for some time. This marriage had the effect of alienating the Earl of Warwick, the so-called king-maker, who was at the time employed in negociating a marriage between Edward and a princess of Savoy, sister to the Queen of France, and who hearing of the marriage with Elizabeth Gray, returned in disgust.

4. King Edward IV. had privately married Elizabeth Gray, daughter of Sir Richard Woodville, and widow of Sir John Gray, who was killed in battle fighting on the side of Lancaster, and whose estate was for that reason confiscated. The 5. i. e. frames his temper, moulds widow had retired with her children it to this extremity. to live with her father, to whose 6. Meaning the courtiers who house the King accidentally came, carry messages between the King after a hunting party. Thinking and his favourite mistress, Jane this a favourable opportunity for obtaining some grace from the monarch, the young widow cast herself at his feet entreating him to take pity on her impoverished and distressed children. The King who

Shore.

7. Jane Shore was the wife of a merchant in the City of London, and a woman of exquisite beauty and good sense, but who had not virtue enough to resist the tempta