KING EDWARD THE FOURTH. EDWARD, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward V. RICHARD, Duke of York, Sons to the King. GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, RICHARD, Duke of Gloster, afterwards Brothers to the King. King Richard III. A young Son of Clarence. HENRY, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII. CARDINAL BOUCHIER, Archbishop of Canterbury. THOMAS ROTHERAM, Archbishop of York. JOHN MORTON, Bishop of Ely. DUKE of BUCKINGHAM. DUKE of NORFOLK: EARL of SURREY, his Son. SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN. SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF. ELIZABETH, Queen of King Edward IV. DUCHESS of YORK, Mother to King Edward IV. Clarence, and Gloster. LADY ANNE, Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, Son to King Henry VI.; afterwards married to the Duke of Glos ter. A young Daughter of Clarence. Lords, and other Attendants, two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, &c. SCENE-England. LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A Street. Enter GLOSTER. Gloster. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun1 of York; Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; 1 The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun, in memory of the three suns which are said to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross. Vide the Third Part of King Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. 1. 2 Made glorious by his manly chivalry, With bruised arms and wreaths of victory.' 3 Dances. Rape of Lucrece. i.e. steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings of war. The word is properly barded, from equus bardatus, Latin of the middle ages. He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber, To the lascivious pleasing of a lùte 5. But I,—that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, And hate the idle pleasures of these days. 5 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. There is a passage in the Legend of the Death of King Richard III. in the Mirror for Magistrates evidently imitated from Shakspeare. 6 Feature is proportion, or beauty, in general. Vide Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. Sc. 4, p. 127. By dissembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another; but nature, that puts together things of a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body. 7 Preparations for mischief. As I am subtle, false, and treacherous, Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be8. Dive, thoughts, down to my soul! 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 person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. Glo. Upon what cause ? Clar. Because my name is-George. That you shall be new christen'd in the Tower. And, for my name of George begins with G, These, as I learn, and such like toys as these, 8 This is from Holinshed. Philip de Comines says that the English at that time were never unfurnished with some prophecy or other, by which they accounted for every event. 9 i. e. fancies, freaks of imagination. Thus in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 4: The very place put toys of desperation, Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by wo men: 'Tis not the king, that sends you to the Tower; Was it not she, and that good man of worship, That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower; Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure, Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge, That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree soever, with his brother. Glo. Even so? an please your worship, Brakenbury, 10 i.e. frames his temper, moulds it to this extremity. This word is often used in the same figurative sense by Spenser and other cotemporaries of Shakspeare. 'Now will I to that old Andronicus; And temper him with all the art I have, Titus Andronicus. "The Queen and Shore. |