THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III ACT FIRST SCENE I London. A street, Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, solus. Glou. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are wreaths; our brows bound with victorious Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds 10 2. "Sun of York"; probably an allusion to the device of a sun, the cognizance of Edward IV. Qq., "sonne"; Ff., "Son"; Rowe, “sun.” -I. G. 8. "Measures," dances.-H. N. H. 10. "Barbed," that is, steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings of war. The word is properly barded, from equus bardatus.— H. N. H. He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; 13. "Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? the neighing of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with smoke, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?" (Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe, 1584).-H. N. H. 15. "to court an amorous looking-glass"; Vaughan thought the line might be improved by a slight emendation:-"an amorous looking lass" (!)-I. G. 19. "Feature" is here used rather in the sense of proportion. So in More's description of Richard: "Little of stature, ill-featured of limmes, crooke-backed." "Dissembling," the commentators say, is not used here in the sense of deceiving, but of putting together things unlike, or assembling things that are not semblable, as a brave mind in a misshapen body. It may be so; but we rather think the meaning to be that nature has cheated him out of beauty in much the same way as cheating is commonly done.-H. N. H. 22. "unfashionable"; the adverbial sense is carried on from "lamely.”—C. H. H. 26. "spy"; so Qq.; Ff., "see.”—I. G. 36 And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, 40 Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. ence comes. Enter Clarence, guarded, and Brakenbury. Brother, good day: what means this armed guard That waits upon your grace? Clar. His majesty, Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. Glou. Upon what cause? Clar. Because my name is George. That you shall be new-christen'd in the Tower. 32. “Inductions" are beginnings, preparations;, things that draw on or induce events.-H. N. H. Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest 52 He hearkens after prophecies and dreams; And, for my name of George begins with G, These, as I learn, and such like toys as these 60 Have moved his highness to commit me now. Glou. Why, this it is, when men are ruled by women: 'Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower; Was it not she and that good man of worship, 57. This is founded on the following passage in Holinshed: "Some have reported, that the cause of this nobleman's death rose of a foolish prophesie, which was, that after K. Edward one should reigne, whose first letter of his name should be a G. Wherewith the king and queene were sore troubled, and began to conceive a greevous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end. And as the divell is woont to incumber the minds of men which delite in such divelish fantasies, they said afterward, that that prophesie lost none of his effect, when, after king. Edward, Gloster usurped his kingdome."-H. N. H. 60. That is, fancies, freaks of imagination. Thus in Hamlet, "The very place put toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain."-H. N. H. 61. "have"; so Qq. and F. 4; Ff. 1, 2, 3, "hath."-I. G. 65. "That tempers him to this extremity"; so Q. 1; Qq. 2-8 read, "That tempts him," etc., (Q. 3, “temps”); Ff. read, "That tempts him to this harsh extremity”; Anon. conj., “That tempts him now to this extremity."."-I. G. 67. "Woodville"; trisyllabic (perhaps with the punning pronunciation, wood-devil, i. e. mad devil).-C. H. H. That made him send Lord Hastings to the From whence this present day he is deliver'd? We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe. 70 Clar. By heaven, I think there's no man is secure, But the queen's kindred and night-walking heralds, That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Heard ye not what an humble suppliant women, 80 Are mighty gossips in this monarchy. Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree soever, with his brother. Glou. Even so; an 't please your worship, Brakenbury, 75. "was to her for his"; so Qq.; F. 1, “was, for her," "was, for his."-I. G. 81. "Widow and herself," the queen and Shore.--H. N. H. 83. “Gossips"; godmothers, hence (contemptuously) important and authoritative old women.-C. H. H. In the quartos, "this monarchy." The folio changed this to our.— H. N. H. |