* 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 laft 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 clofes with the death of Richard at Bofworth field, which battle was fought on the 22d of August, in the year 1485. THEOBALD. It appears that several dramas on the present subject had been written before Shakspeare attempted it. See the notes at the conclufion of this play, which was firft entered at Stationers' Hall by Andrew Wife, O&. 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, enterlude and play, were often fynonymously used. STEEVENS. This play was written, I imagine, in the fame year in which it was first printed,-1597. The Legend of King Richard III. by Francis Seagars, was printed in the first edition of The Mirrour for Magifirates, 1559, and in that of 1575, and 1587, but Shakspeare does not appear to be indebted to it. In a fubfequent edition of that book printed in 1610, the old legend was omitted, and a new one inferted, by Richard Niccols, who has very freely copied the play before us. In 1597, when this tragedy was publifhed, Niccols, as Mr. Warton has obferved, was but thirteen years old. Hift. of Poetry, Vol. III. p. 267. The real length of time in this piece is fourteen years; (not eight years, as Mr. Theobald fuppofed :) for the fecond fcene commences with the funeral of King Henry VI. who, according to the received account, was murdered on the 21ft of May, 1471. The imprisonment of Clarence, which is reprefented previously in the firft fcene, did not in fact take place till 1477-8. It has been fince obferved to me by Mr. Elderton, (who is of opinion that Richard was charged with this murder by the Lancaftrian hiftorians without any foundation,) that " it appears on the face of the publick accounts allowed in the exchequer for the maintenance of King Henry and his numerous attendants in the Tower, that he lived to the 12th of June, which was twenty-two days after the time affigned for his pretended affaffination; was exposed to the publick view in St. Paul's for fome days, and interred at Chertsey with much folemnity, and at no inconfiderable expence." MALONE. King Edward the Fourth. Edward, Prince of Wales, after-? wards K. Edward V. Richard, Duke of York, George, Duke of Clarence, Sons to the King. Richard, Duke of Glofter, after-Brothers to the King. wards King Richard III. A young Son of Clarence. Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards K. Henry VII. Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Rotheram, Archbishop of York, John Morton, Bishop of Ely. Duke of Buckingham. Duke of Norfolk: Earl of Surrey, his Son. Lord Lovel. Sir Thomas Vaughan. Sir Richard Ratcliff. Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower. Lady Anne, Widow of Edward Prince of Wales, Son to King Henry VI.; afterwards married to the Duke of Glofter. A young Daughter of Clarence. Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Purfuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Meffengers, Ghofts, Soldiers, &c. SCENE, England. LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A Street. Enter GLOSTER. GLO. Now is the winter of our discontent' Made glorious fummer by this fun of York;2 I the winter of our difcontent-] Thus, in Sidney's Aftrophel and Stella : 2 "Gone in the winter of my miferie." STEEVENS. 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. So, in Drayton's Miferies of Queen Margaret: "Three funs were feen that inftant to appear, "Which this brave duke took to himself alone:" &c. Again, in the 22d Song of the Polyolbion : "And thankful to high heaven which of his caufe had care, "Three funs for his device still in his enfign bare." Such phenomena, if we may believe tradition, were formerly not uncommon. In the Wrighte's Play in the Chester Collection, MS. Harl. 1013, the fame circumstance is introduced as attending on a more folemn event: And all the clouds, that lowr'd upon our house, Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; "That day was feene veramente See p. 48, n. 6. MALONE. STEEVENS. 3 Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths 9 Our bruised arms &c.] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "Made glorious by his manly chivalry, "With bruifed arms and wreaths of victory." 4 Our flern alarums chang'd to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. MALONE. Grim-vifag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed fteeds, &c.] 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 firft edition of it appeared in 1559, 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 Shakfpeare, than Shakspeare to him: the battles fought in field before "The war-god's thund'ring cannons' dreadful rore, "God Mars laid by his launce, and tooke his lute, STEEVENS. Shakspeare seems to have had the following paffage from Lyly's To fright the fouls of fearful adversaries,- Alexander and Campafpe, 1584, before him, when he wrote these lines: "Is the warlike found of drum and trump turn'd to the foft noise of lyre and lute? The neighing of barbed steeds, whofe loudness filled the air with terror, and whofe breaths dimned the fun with fmoak, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?" &c. REED. delightful measures.] A measure was, ftrictly speaking, a court dance of a stately turn, though the word is fometimes employed to express dances in general. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.” See Vol. VII. p. 154, n. 9. STEEVENS. barbed steeds,] i. e. fteeds caparisoned in a warlike manner. I. Haywarde, in his Life and Raigne of King Henry IV. 1599, fays," The duke of Hereford, came to the barriers, mounted upon a white courfer, barbed with blew and green velvet," &c. Again, in Jarvis Markham's English Arcadia, 1607: "-armed in a black armour, curiously damafk'd with interwinding wreaths of cypress and ewe, his barbe upon his horse, all of black abrofetta, cut in broken hoopes upon curled cyprefs." Again, in The Second Part of King 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 horse adorned with military trappings. I have met with the word barded many times in our ancient chronicles and romances. An inftance or two may fuffice. "They mounted him furely upon a good and mighty courfer, well barded," &c. Hift. of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. 1. no date. Again, in Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580: "Bardes or trappers of horses." Phalera, Lat. 66 Again, Holinfhed fpeaking of the preparations for the battle of Agincourt: -to the intent that if the barded horses ran fiercely upon them," &c. Again, from p. 802, we learn, that bards and trappers had the fame meaning. STEEVens. See "A Barbed horse," and "Bardes," in Minfheu's DICT. 1617, the latter of which he defines "horfe-trappings." MALONE. 5 He capers-] War capers. This is poetical, though a little |