O F

KING RICHARD III.

ACT I. SCENE I.

England.

London. A Street.

Enter Richard Duke of Glofter.

Glo. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious fummer by this fun of York;

And

Life and Death of King Richard III.] This tragedy, though it is called the Life and Death of this prince, comprizes, at moft, 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 Bofworthfield, which battle was fought on the 22d of Auguft, in the year 1485. THEOBALD.

It appears that feveral dramas on the prefent fubject had been written before Shakespeare 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, fong, ballad, book, enterlude and play, were often fynonymoufly used. STEEVENS.

2 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 Cross.

And all the clouds, that lowr'd upon our house,
In the deep bofom of the ocean bury'd.

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-vifag'd war hath fmooth'd his wrinkled` front;
And now,-instead of mounting barbed feeds +,

So, in Drayton's Miferies of Queen Margaret:

"Three funs were feen that inftant to appear,
"Which foon again fhut themselves up in one,
"Ready to buckle as the armies were,

"Which this brave duke took to himself alone &c."

Again, in the 22d Song of the Polyolbion:

To

"And thankful to high heaven which of his cause had care,

"Three funs for his device still in his enfign bare."

Again, in the Wrighte's Play in the Chefter Collection. M. S. Harl. F013, the fame prodigy is introduced as attending on a more folemn event:

3'

"That day was feene veramente
"Three fonnes in the firmament,
"And wonderly together went
"And torned into one."

STEEVENS.

merry meetings,] So, in The tragical Life and Death of King Richard the Third, which is one of the metrical monologues in a collection entitled, The Mirrour of Magiftrates. The first edition of it appeared in 1587, but the lines quoted on the prefent as well as future occafions throughout this play, are not found in any copy before that of 1610, fo that the author was more probably indebted to Shakespeare than Shakespeare to him:

+

-the battles fought in fields before

Were turn'd to meetings of fweet amitie;

The war-god's thundring cannons dreadful rore,
And rattling drum-founds warlike barmonie,

To fweet-tun'd noise of pleafing minstrelfie.

God Mars laid by his launce, and tooke his lute,
And turn'd his rugged frownes to fmiling lookes;
Inflcad of crimson fields, war's fatal fruit,
He bath'd his limbes in Cypris warbling brooks,

And fet his thoughts upon her wanton lookes. STEEVENS. -barbed feeds,] I. Haywarde, in his Life and Raigne of Henry IV. 1599, fays,-The duke of Hereford came to the barriers, mounted upon a white courfer, barbed with blew and green velvet, &c.

So,

To fright the fouls of fearful adversaries,-
"He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lafcivious pleafing of a lute.

But I,-that am not fhap'd for fportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glafs;

I, that am rudely ftamp'd, and want love's majefty,

To ftrut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,

So, in Jarvis Markham's English Arcadia, 1607:

66

-armed in a black armour, curiously damafk'd with interwinding wreaths of cyprefs and ewe, his barbe upon his horse, all of black abrofetta, cut in broken hoopes upon curled cyprefs." Again, in the 2d Part of K. Edward IV. by Heywood, 1626: With barbed horse, and valiant armed foot."

Barbed, however, may be no more than a corruption of barded. Equus bardatus, in the Latin of the middle ages, was a horfe adorned with military trappings. I have met with the word barded many times in our ancient chronicles and romances. inftance or two may fuffice. They mounted him furely upon a good and nighty courfer, well barded, &c."

An

Hift. of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date. Again, in Hall's Chronicle, King Henry VIII. p. 45:

"appereilled in ryche armure, on a barded courfer &c." Again, in the Miracles of Mofes, by Drayton:

"There floats the bard fteed with his rider drown'd,
"Whofe foot in his caparison is caft."

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, B. VIII. chap. 38:
"For whether that he trots, or turns, or bounds his
barded teed."

Again, in Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580: "Bardes or trappers of horfes. Phalera, Lat." Again, Holinfhed fpeaking of the preparations for the battle of Agincourt: to the intent that if the barded horses ran fiercely upon them, &e" Again, p. 802, he fays, that bards and trappers had the fame meaning.

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It is obferved in the Turkish Spy, that the German cuiraffiers, though armed and barbed, man and horse, were not able to stand against the French cavalry. STEEVENS.

He capers] War capers. This is poetical, though a little harsh; if it be York that capers, the antecedent is at fuch a diftance, that it is almoft forgotten. JOHNSON.

6 Cheated of feature by diffembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinifh'd, fent before my time
Into this breathing world, fcarce half made up,
And that fo lamely and unfafhionably,

That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them ;-
Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pafs away the time;
Unless to spy my fhadow in the fun,

And defcant on mine own deformity 7:
And therefore, fince I cannot prove a lover3,
To entertain thefe fair well-fpoken days,-
I am determined to prove a villain,

9

I

And hate the idle pleafures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophefies, libels, and dreams,
To fet my brother Clarence, and the king,
In deadly hate the one against the other:

Cheated of feature by diffembling nature,] By diffembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another but nature that puts together things of a diffimilar kind, as a brave foul and a deformed body. WARBURTON.

Diffembling is here put very licentioufly for fraudful, deceitful.
JOHNSON.

And defcant on mine own deformity:] Defcant is a term in mufic, 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 fuch an idea of the nature of defcant, could not be difcerned..

Sir J. HAWKINS.

And therefore, fince I cannot prove a lover,] Shakespeare very diligently inculcates, that the wickednefs of Richard proceeded from his deformity, from the envy that rofe at the comparison of his own perfon with others, and which incited him to disturb the pleasures that he could not partake. JOHNSON.

I

And hate the idle pleasures-] Perhaps we might read ;

And bate the idle pleasures

JOHNSON.

inductions dangerous,] Preparations for mifchief. The induction is preparatory to the action of the play. JOHNSON. Mariton has put this line, with little variation, into the mouth of Fame :

Plots ha' you laid ? inductions dangerous ?"

STEEVENS.

And

་

2

up;

And, if king Edward be as true and juft,
As I am fubtle, falfe, and treacherous,
This day fhould Clarence clofely 'be mew'd
About a prophefy, which fays-that G
Of Edward's heirs the murderer fhall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my foul! here Clarence

comes.

Enter Clarence guarded, and Brakenbury."

Brother, good day: What means this armed guard, That waits upon your grace?

Clar. His majesty,

Tendering my perfon's fafety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Glo. Upon what caufe?

Cla. Because my name is-George.

Glo. Atack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
He fhould, for that, commit your godfathers:
O, belike, his majefty hath fome intent,

That you should be new chriften'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I proteft,
As yet I do not: But, as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophefies, and dreams;
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
And fays-a wizard told him, that by G
His iffue difinherited fhould be;

And, for my name of George begins with G',
It follows in his thought, that I am he:

2-Edward be as true and juft,] i. e. as open-hearted and free from deceit. WARBURton.

The meaning is only this; if Edward keeps his word.

JOHNSON. 3 And, for my name of George begins with G, &c.] So, in Nicols's Tragical Life and Death of Richard III:

"By that blind riddle of the letter G,

66 George loft his life; it took effect in me." STEEVens.