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THE TRAGEDY OF
KING RICHARD THE THIRD

ACT I

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;

London. A street.] Capell; omitted Qq, Ff.
Qq 3-8. 2. sun] Rowe; sonne Qq; son Ff.

2. this sun of York] Compare 3 Henry VI. v. iii. 4, 5. Edward IV. assumed a sun for his badge, in consequence of the vision which appeared to him 2nd February, 1461, the day before the battle of Mortimer's Cross. See 3 Henry VI. II. i. 25-40; Holinshed, Chronicles, 2nd ed. 1587, iii. 660. The legend is referred to by Drayton, Miseries of Queen Margaret, st. 134, and Poly-Olbion, 1622, xxii. 762-84. Aldis Wright quotes from Stow the incident at Barnet, where Warwick's forces, in the mist, took the "starre with streames on the coats of Lord Oxford's men, their friends, for the sun worn by the supporters of Edward. The readings of Qq and Ff bring out a common play on the words "sun and 'son": compare below, 1. iii. 266, 267, and Tourneur, Revenger's Tragedy, 1607:

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I. our] Qq 1, 2, Ff; omitted

"The mother's curse is heavy; where that fights,

Sons set in storm, and daughters lose their lights.'

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In Shakespeare's account of the vision mentioned above, Edward divines the three ominous suns joined in one as an emblem of the three "sons of brave Plantagenet."

6. monuments] Compare Massinger, Great Duke of Florence, 1635, ii. 1:— "his arms

And his victorious sword and shield hung up

For monuments."

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A. M. (ap. Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, 1599, ii. 135): They kept there the sword wherewith John Fox had killed the Keeper.. and hanged it up for a monument." The phrase is sometimes taken as referring to the armour hung up over tombs, like those

Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings;
Our dreadful marches, to delightful measures.
Grim-visag'd War hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,

7. alarums] alarmes Q 1. 8. measures] Qq i-3, Ff; pleasures Qq 4-8.

of the Black Prince or Henry V. Such armour, however, was usually made for the funeral ceremonies, and could not come under the category of "bruised arms"; nor were the members of the house of York at present in need of funeral armour. The allusion, if any is needed, is simply to the custom of ornamenting a hall with the disused armour of the family, like the armour "Hugh's at Agincourt and . . . old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon” in Tennyson's Princess, 1847, prol. lines 25, 26, or Mr. Chainmail's "rusty pikes, shields, helmets, swords, and tattered banners" in Peacock's Crotchet Castle, 1831, chap. 5.

8. measures] slow and solemn dances. Sir John Davies, Orchestra, 1596, st. 65, says of Love, who had taught the multitude lighter dances :

"But after these, as men more civil
grew,

He did more grave and solemn
Measures frame;

With such fair order and proportion
true,

And correspondence every way the

same,

That no fault-finding eye did ever
blame";

and st. 66:

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iv. 3 we find "But let us draw in, to
see how well it becomes them to tread
the measures in a dance, that were
wont to set the order for a march."
Shakespeare's alliteration of "dreadful
marches" and "delightful measures
is a trick learned in the school of
Lyly.

9. Grim-visag'd War] Mr. Craig calls my attention to the recurrence of the same phrase in Drayton, Poly-Olbion, 1613, viii. 181: "Yet with grim-visag'd war when he her shores did greet," and to the reminiscence in Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, 1797, st. vii.: Grim-visaged comfortless despair."

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10. barbed] armed for war. So Lyly, Alexander and Campaspe, ii. 2: "Is the war-like sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? the neighing of barbed steeds verted to delicate tunes and amorous glances?" The word is a corruption of the proper term barded"; barde is a general term for horse-armour in French. Cotgrave, Dictionarie, 1611, gives "Bardé: barbed or trapped, as a great horse. Bardes: f. Barbes, or trappings for horses of service, or of shew." "Barbed steeds" occurs again in Richard II. m. iii. 117. 66 "Unbarbed,"

"Yet all the feet whereon these in Coriolanus, III. ii. 99, is usually taken

measures go

Are only Spondees, solemn, grave, and slow." Decker, Bel-Man of London, 1608, has "I neither wonder at the stately measures of the clouds, the nimble galliards of the water, nor the wanton trippings of the wind" (ed. Smeaton, 1904, p. 71). There is a close parallel between the present passage and Lyly, Alexander and Campaspe, 1584, ii. 2 and iv. 3. Shakespeare seems to have had both these passages in mind. In

II: "

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to mean "unarmoured." The substan-
tive "barb" is used for horse-armour
by Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1590, II. ii.
goodly gorgeous barbes." For
"barded see Berners' Froissart, 1523,
i. 41: "It was a great beauty to behold
the . . . horses barded." "Barded'
is sometimes used, e.g. by Stow, of men
as well as horses. The application of
the term "barbed" to the walls of a
hall hung with armour (Ælla, line 219)
was one of the signs that betrayed
Chatterton's forgeries.

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty,
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,

13. lute] Ff; loue Qq. 4, 5; sharpe of Qq 6-8.

15

20

25

14. shap'd for] Ff; shapte for Qq 1-3; sharpe for Qq 21. scarce] Qq 1, 2; scarse Ff; omitted Qq 3-8.

13. pleasing] evidently used here for "pleasure." No parallel example is forthcoming.

17. ambling] used of leisurely or easy motion, as Romeo and Juliet, 1. iv. Io; Hamlet, III. i. 151. New Eng. Dict. quotes an apposite passage from Addison, The Drummer, 1716, i. 1: "She has . play'd at an assembly, and ambled in a ball or two." Mr. Craig suggests that " wanton-ambling" is possibly one of the double epithets so common in this play.

18. proportion] regularity of figure. Compare Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 1594 (ed. Dyce, p. 158):Proportion'd as was Paris, when, in grey,

He courted Enon in the vale by Troy"; Decker, Guls Horn-Booke, 1609 (ed. Smeaton, 1904, p. 30): "a head al hid in haire gives even to a most wicked face a sweet proportion."

19. feature] outward appearance (Lat. factura, Fr. faiture), as Kyd, Spanish Tragedy, c. 1588, act ii.: " My feature is not to content her sight"; Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1. viii. 49; Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. iv. 73. "Feature" and ". "proportion Occur together again in Fletcher, False One, 1647, i. 2:—

Than feature or proportion." Shakespeare does not here imply beauty of appearance: it is the shape of his body of which Richard has been cheated. Its "feature" is imperfect: as he explains lower down, he is "scarce half made up."

dissembling Nature] The idea of cheating is probably emphasised in "dissembling." Warburton explained the phrase as meaning "Nature that puts together things of a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body," i.e. dis-assembling Nature. But this idea seems rather farfetched.

21. this breathing_world] Compare Sonnet lxxxi. 12. See also 2 Henry VI. 1. ii. 21 (Craig).

22. lamely and unfashionable] For this double adverb with a single termination compare Ben Jonson, Poetaster, 1601, i. 1: "What, hast thou buskins on, Luscus, that thou swearest so tragically and high." Sometimes the adverbial termination is given to the second of the two words, as Fletcher, False One, iv. 2:—

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we make louder prayers to die nobly,

Than to live high and wantonly." 24. piping] The pipe was an instrument proper to times of peace, as the fife to times of war. Compare Much And taken more with the title of a Ado About Nothing, 11. iii. 13-15. queen,

"Cæsar is amorous,

...

Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity.

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

26. spy]spie Qq; see Ff. 39. a prophecy] adrohesie Qq 4, 5.

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27. descant] The usual meaning of "descant" in music was the art of constructing variations on a simple melody called the "ground" or " plainsong.' Richard's deformity is the plain-song of his descant. New Eng. Dict. quotes Cotgrave, s.v. Contre, "To sing. the Plainesong whereon another descants." Compare below, III. vii. 49; Edwards, Damon and Pithias, 1571, refers to the jests passed on ladies by Aristippus: They are your playne song to singe descant upon"; Lyly, Euphues, 1579 (ed. Arber, p. 137): "He that alwayes singeth one note without deskant breedeth no delight." In Eastward Ho, 1605, Wolf the prison-keeper answers to Touchstone's puns, Sir, your worship may descant as you please o' my name."

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29. entertain days] Compare Measure for Measure, I. i. 75; Sonnet xxxix. II. Shakespeare uses the word in this act with three different senses, (1) as here; (2) as in 1. ii. 257, with which compare King Lear, III. vi. 83; (3) as in 1. iii. 4, where it corresponds to our phrase "to entertain a hope."

30. Gloucester has expressed this intention previously, 3 Henry VI. v. vi. 78-9. The soliloquy of the Duke of Epire in Machin and Markham, Dumb Knight, 1608, act i., is a recollection of this passage:—

30

35

"I am resolv'd, since virtue hath disdain'd

To clothe me in her riches, henceforth to prove

A villain fatal, black and ominous."

32. inductions] beginnings, preparations; as below, iv. iv. 5. Compare 1 Henry IV. II. i. 2; Cook, Green's Tu Quoque, c. 1599: "False dice say amen: for that's my induction." In drama, the "induction" is the scene or scenes preparatory to a play, like the inductions to Taming of the Shrew, or Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, or Webster's induction to Marston's Malcontent.

38. mew'd up] confined, properly of a hawk while mewing (muer) or moulting its feathers. It is used again below, line 132 and 1. iii. 139. Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, II. iii. 34; Midsummer-Night's Dream, 1. i. 71; Beaumont and Fletcher, WomanHater, 1607, iii. 1: "Is this your mewing-up, your strict retirement?" The cage was called a mew ": see Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, A. 349; Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 602. In London, the fact that the royal stables originally were built on the site of the king's mews for hawks, gave rise to the name commonly applied to stables of town houses.

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39. a prophecy] Compare Halle (ap. Holinshed, iii. 703), "a foolish prophesie,

Clar.

40

Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
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?

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-christ'ned in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest
As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophecies and dreams,
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,

Enter

45

50

55

41. Dive

Braken

Qq. 43-45. That

40. murderer] murtherer Qq 3-8, Ff; murtherers Qq 1, 2. comes] one line as Ff; two lines Qq, divided after soule. bury.] Rowe; Enter Clarence with a guard of men. Qq; Enter Clarence and Brakenbury, guarded. Ff. 42. day] Ff; dayes or daies waits. the Tower.] arranged as Pope; That waits appointed This . the Tower (3 lines) Qq; That waits safety, Hath

Grace? His
Grace? His .

th' Tower. Ff. 48. godfathers] Qq 1-3, F1; good fathers Qq 4-6; grandfathers Ff 2-4. 50. shall be] Qq 2-8; shalbe Q 1; should be Ff. 51. what's] Ff; whats Qq 1, 2; what is Qq 3-8. for] Qq; but Ff.

52. know] doe know Q 6.

which was, that, after K. Edward, one for London and England, 1594 (Dyce, should reigne, whose first letter of his 124): "the duty of lawyers in tendername should be a G." Q5 follows Qing the right cause of their clients." 4 in the extraordinary misprint "adrohesie."

44. tendering] having regard to. The word is used about twenty times by Shakespeare, e.g. II. iv. 72 below; Richard II. 1. i. 32; Hamlet, 1. iii. 107; Tempest, II. i. 270: compare 1 Henry IV. v. iv. 49. See also Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 147): "When as I see many fathers more cruell to their children then carefull of them, which thinke it not necessarye to haue those about them, that most tender them"; Lodge and Greene, Looking - Glass

54. hearkens after] Compare Much Ado About Nothing, v. i. 216. New Eng. Dict. quotes Berners' Froissart, i. 303: "There abode styll the Englysshmen to hearken after other newes.'

prophecies] Malone notes the statements of Philippe de Commines "that the English at that time were never unfurnished with some prophecy or other, by which they accounted for every event.'

55. cross-row] the alphabet or Christcross-row, so called from the cross which was placed before the alphabet

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