The scene with Lady Anne, displays his powers of speech, the expansiveness of his intellectual powers and his wonderful self-reliance. It is this combination which enables him to effect so much, and elevates him so greatly above the pigmies by whom he is surrounded. His spring of action is ambition, and hypocrisy is the chief instrument in the development of his schemes. His hypocrisy is not of the sneaking kind, it is of the intellectual, giving him the power to conceal his aims, and to hoodwink those that stand in his way. There is nought of cowardice in his nature, he is constitutionally brave,—brave without being rash, but resolving to be a villain, he conceals his villany, cloaking thoroughly the end he desires to arrive at. Though Richard possesses a recklessness of thought, there is a weak place in his character, and in the scene before he loses his life and crown, his superstitious fears are awaked by his ghostly visitations, and the terrors which they create, overmaster for a time the self-reliance which he has hitherto displayed. The entrance of Catesby and the intelligence he brings of the advance of Richmond's army, soon arouses his shattered energies, and he joyfully prepares for the final struggle-a struggle in which he displayed a vigour of action marked by the greatest bravery, as if "greatness would be greater than itself;" and thus defiant he passes away, winning sympathy, in spite of the great depravity he throughout his career displayed. The tragedy as written by Shakspere, is vastly dif ferent from the hash of Colley Cibber's, now generally enacted on the stage, the latter opening with the last scene of Henry VI., while Shakspere's opens with the soliloquy of the principal character, in which the key note of the whole tragedy is struck. The thoughts and intents of Richard, relative to his brother Clarence, are realized in the first and second acts; so is also his desire fulfilled of marrying the Lady Anne, whose husband and father he had previously killed. The wooing scene in the 1st act, is a splendid example of the knowledge of humanity which Shakspere possessed, and also of the great mental power with which Richard is endowed. In the third, we have his simulation of anger at pretended wrongs done to himself; then we have the entrance of Queen Margaret who loads him with curses, and yet he is triumphant over all. Everything makes for him, 66 I do the wrong, and first begin the brawl; I lay unto the grievous charge of others." Richard is prompt in action; the act follows the thought; no sooner does he decide than the deed is performed. Clarence must die, the warrant is ready and the murderers are at once sent to accomplish their work, after being told not "to hear him plead, For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him." The fate of the imprisoned Clarence is beautifully foreshadowed in that wonderful prophetic dream which he relates in the following scene. The fear of Richard is partly realized, for one of the assassins is moved to pity by the words of Clarence, but the other, intent only on the reward promised by Gloster, and possessing less of the milk of human kindness, first stabs and then drowns him "in the malmsey-butt within." The language throughout the whole of this act is of the loftiest character, far different to that served up by Cibber in his version of this tragedy. The lines are full and flowing; there is no abatement in their vigour, for the language and thought are in unison with each other, and the true height of poetry and passion is constantly sustained. The historic relation according to the chronicles is not strictly observed by Shakspere in this tragedy, for he perpetrates an innovation by the introduction of Margaret, the consort of Henry VI., she at that time being exiled from England. The completeness of the tragedy would have been marred by the absence of Margaret,—for one of the grandest characters of the period would have been absent from the picture, whose beauty is added to by the words which she utters, when replying to Gloster's questioning, and which in themselves contain sufficient excuse for the author's innovation. Gloster says, "Wert thou not banished on pain of death?” to which she replies, "I was; but I do find more pain in banishment, She is the only one that reads the aim and intent of the wily Gloster, and this he well knows, for he rather fears her words lest they should awaken in others the thought which she herself doth think, and which her words pourtray, when cautioning the queen and her court, she says, "Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? To help thee curse that poisonous hunch-back'd toad." Р And again, "Take heed of yonder dog! Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites, Have not to do with him, beware of him; Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him, With the exception of the character of Margaret, the historical relation is strictly preserved, and the facts of history are given with great exactitude, and can be as safely relied upon for their data, as any so-called history of the period. But apart from this, the poet has endowed each of his characters with a vitality that is not to be found in the pages of the historian, and this he has been enabled to do by his searching out the inner truths and nature of humanity, as well as looking only to the outward, or external. In this manner, the pages of the poet are more true than those of the historian, for he rises to one higher and universal truth which he has gathered from a series of historical facts, and thus we have truth and poetry, each becoming the handmaiden of the other, going hand in hand to the advantage of the reader of history and the lover of poetry. Shakspere apparently intended this tragedy to mark with strong distinctive features, the close of a strong distinctive period. The fearful career of crime which Richard indulged in, is a most apt termination to the wars of the Red and White Roses, and which completed the ruin of the armed aristocracy and became the commencement of a new civil order. All classes were affected with the taint of the times, and so strong were the passions of the people and the governors, that they became restless, turbulent and unruly, producing a terrible state of anarchy and destruction, and which state was destroyed by the death of Richard, and the ascension to the throne of the Earl of Richmond, under the title of Henry VII., who united both the houses, and whose reign was remarkable for the progress of the English people. In the second act, events march rapidly on to the advantage of the designing Gloster. No sooner is the intelligence of Clarence's death conveyed to the court, than Edward himself shuffles off his mortal coil, leaving only in the way of his crafty brother, his two sonsthe Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Richard, assisted by Buckingham, who now becomes his principal confidant, seizes upon every opportunity, and by their joint warrant, the Lords Rivers and Grey and Sir Thomas Vaughan, are sent prisoners to Pomfret Castle. This act alarms the Queen for the safety of her children, and she "will to sanctuary," for she can perceive the downfall of her house, for "The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind; Upon the innocent and aweless throne: I see, as in a map, the end of all.”—A. II. s. 4. The third act is the beginning of the end. It is easy to perceive that the cherished desires of the crooked-back duke will soon be gratified. Everything is being prepared for his elevation, at the same time the end is not far off. Events are hurrying on, and one by one he removes from his path those who are in any way in opposition to his will. Hastings, his bosom friend, is sacrificed, and no wonder, for he is a weak, vain, inefficient man; inflated, without the necessary |
