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SYNOPSIS

By J. ELLIS BURDICK

ACT I

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, younger brother to the reigning king, Edward IV, plots to get possession of the crown of England. By his contrivance his brother Clarence is concerned in a quarrel with Edward IV and imprisoned in the Tower. Gloucester next obtains a promise of marriage from Lady Anne, widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, son of King Henry VI, although both of these men had been slain by him. Clarence is murdered in his prison.

ACT II

Edward IV, feeling that he is dying, strives to set his "friends at peace on earth." Following his death, his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, is taken to London for his coronation. Before his arrival there, Gloucester succeeds in imprisoning three lords who would support the young prince.

ACT III

Gloucester meets Edward as he enters London and inveigles him to go to the Tower. Once there the prince is held prisoner. The three nobles and another, Lord Hastings, are all put to death. The Duke of Buckingham renders very efficient aid to Gloucester in obtaining the

crown.

ACT IV

Gloucester is crowned at Westminster as Richard III. His first act is to arrange for the death of the princes in

the Tower. Then he refuses to give Buckingham an earldom which he had previously promised him; this angers Buckingham and he withdraws his support from Richard, giving it to Henry, Earl of Richmond, who is in arms against the new king. Queen Anne is secretly murdered, thus leaving Richard free to attempt to ally himself by marriage with Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. Buckingham is taken prisoner by the king's men and not long afterward executed.

ACT V

The Earl of Richmond invades England and meets Richard's army at Bosworth Field. The king is much disturbed on the night before the battle by visitations from the ghosts of his murdered victims. After a most terrible battle, Richard's forces are defeated and he himself is slain by Richmond. The latter is acknowledged as king of England under the name of Henry VII and by his marriage with Elizabeth of York, the two houses of York and Lancaster are united and the Wars of the Roses ended.

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

our brows bound with victorious

wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled
front;

And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds 10
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

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
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's ma-
jesty

20

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity:

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.

30

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that G

Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. 40
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clar-

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.
Glou. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
He should, for that, commit your godfathers:
O, belike his majesty hath some intent

That you shall be new-christen'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?

32. "Inductions" are beginnings, preparations; things that draw on ǝr induce events.-H. N. H.

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