SCENE IV

Another part of the field.

Alarum: excursions.. Enter Norfolk and forces fighting; to him Catesby.

Cate. Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger:

His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

Alarums. Enter King Richard.

K. Rich. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

10

Cate. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.
K. Rich. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die.
I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.

3. “Daring an opposite to every danger"; that is, daringly opposing himself, or offering himself as an opponent to every danger. Shakespeare uses opposite for opponent in Twelfth Night, and several other places.-H. N. H.

12. "Five have I slain"; Shakespeare had employed this incident with historical propriety in The First Part of King Henry IV. He had here also good ground for his poetical exaggeration. Richard, according to the Chronicles, was determined if possible to engage with Richmond in single combat. For this purpose he rode furiously to that quarter of the field where the earl was; attacked his standard bearer, Sir William Brandon, and killed him; then assaulted Sir John Cheney, whom he overthrew. Having thus at length cleared his way to his antagonist, he engaged in single combat with him, and probably would have been victorious, but that at that instant

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

SCENE V

Another part of the field.

[Exeunt.

Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond; they fight. Richard is slain. Retreat and flourish. Re-enter Richmond, Derby bearing the crown, with divers other Lords.

Richm. God and your arms be praised, victorious friends!

The day is ours; the bloody dog is dead.

Der. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.

Lo, here, this long usurped royalty

From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal:

Sir William Stanley with three thousand men joined Richmond's army, and the royal forces fled with great precipitation. Richard was soon afterwards overpowered by numbers, and fell, fighting bravely to the last moment.-H. N. H.

horse"; here again we have a slight trace

13. "A horse,
of the True Tragedy of Richard the Third:

"Enter RICHARD, wounded, with his Page.
King. A horse! a horse! a fresh horse!
Page. Ah! fly, my lord, and save your life.
King. Fly, villain! Look I as though

I would fly?—No! first shall,” &c.—H. N. H.

5-8. So in the Chronicles: "When the earle had obteined the victorie, he kneeled downe and rendered to almightie God his heartie thanks, with devout and godlie orisons. Which praier finished, he ascended up to the top of a little mounteine, where he not onelie praised his valiant souldiers, but also gave them his heartie thanks, with promise of condigne recompense for their fidelitie and valiant

Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it. Richm. Great God of heaven, say amen to all!

But, tell me, is young George Stanley living? Der. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town; Whither, if it please you, we may now with

draw us.

11

Richm. What men of name are slain on either side? Der. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Fer

rers,

Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William
Brandon.

Richm. Inter their bodies as becomes their births:
Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled,
That in submission will return to us:
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red.
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long have frown'd upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd her-
self;

The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:

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feats. Then the people rejoised and clapped their hands, crying, -King Henrie, king Henrie! When the lord Stanlie saw the good will and gladnesse of the people, he tooke the crowne of king Richard, which was found amongst the spoile in the field, and set it on the earles head; as though he had beene elected by the voice of the people, as in times past in diverse realmes it hath beene accustomed." -H. N. H.

9. "But tell me, is young George Stanley living"?; so Ff. and Qq. Pope, “tell me first"; Keightley, “tell me, pray," etc. There is no need to emend; "George” is evidently dissyllabic.—I. G.

All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division,

30

O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so,
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced
peace,

With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,
And make poor England weep in streams of
blood!

Let them not live to taste this land's increase,
That would with treason wound this fair land's
peace!

Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again:
That she may long live here, God say amen! 41

[Exeunt.

36. To "reduce" is to bring back; an obsolete sense of the word, derived from its Latin original, reduco. "The mornynge forsakyng the golden bed of Titan, reduced the desyred day" (Eurialus and Lucretia, 1560).-H. N. H.

GLOSSARY

By ISRAEL GOLLANCZ, M.A.