P. 15, 1. 33. And fall somewhat into a slower method; -] As quick was used for spritely, so slower was put for serious. In the next scene Lord Grey desires the Queen to

cheer his Grace with quick and merry words. STEEVENS. P. 16, first 1. Thou wast the cause, and most accurs'd effect.] Effect, for executioner. He asks, was not the causer as ill as the executioner? She answers, Thou wast both. But, for causer, using the word cause, this led her to the word effect, for execution, or But the Oxford editor, troubling himself with nothing of this, will make a fine oratorical period of it:

executioner.

Thou wast the cause and most accurs'd the effect. WARBURTON. I cannot but be rather of Sir T. Hanmer's opinion than Dr. Warburton's, because effect is used immediately in its common sense, in answer to this line. JOHNSON.

I believe the obvious sense is the true one.

STEEVENS. Our author, I think, in another place uses effect, for efficient cause. MALone.

P. 17, 1. 10. Would they were basilisks, tq strike thee dead!] "Among the serpents the Basiliske doth infecte and kill people with his looke." Summary of Secret Wonders, &c. bl. 1. by John Alday, no date.js an STEEVENS.

In Cornucopia, &c. 1696, Sig. B 4:"The eye of the Basiliske is so odious to man, that it sleeth man before he come nere him, even by looking upon him." REED.

P. 17, l. 14.

this passage, and, I

ご

Pope writes:

they kill me with a living death.] In imitation of

suppose, of a thousand more,

a living death I bear,

"Says Dapperwit, and sunk beside his

"

chair. JOENSON.

1. 18-31. These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,

"

&c.]

The twelve following beautiful lines added after the first editions. POPE. They were added with many more. JOHNSON. P. 18, 1. 12. But 'twas thy beauty, that provoked me.] Shakspeare countenances the observation, that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty. JOHNSON.

P. 19, 1.22. Crosby-place:] A house in Bishopsgate-street, belonging to the Duke of Gloster.

JOHNSON. ... Crosby-place is now Crosby-square in Bishopsgate-street; part of the house is yet remaining, and is a meeting place for a presbyterian congregation. SIR J. HAWKINS.

7

This magnificent house was built in the year 1466, by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman. He died in 175. The ancient Hall of this fabrick is still remaining, though divided by an additional floor, and incumbered by modern galleries, having been converted into a place of worship for Antinomians, &c. The upper part of it is now the warehouse of an eminent Packer.

Sir John Grosby's tomb is in the neighbouring church of St. Helen the Great. STEEVENS.

P. 20, first 1. Cibber, who altered K. Richard III. for the stage, was so thoroughly con

vinced of the ridiculousness and improbability of this scene, that he thought himself obliged to make Tressel say:

When future chronicles shall speak of this,
They will be thought romance, not history.

STEEVENS.

3 P. 20; 1. 21-24. Hath she forgot already

that brave Prince,

Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,

Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewsbury?] Here we have exact time of this scene ascertained, nainely August 1471. King Edward however is in the second act introduced dying. That King died in April 1485; so there is an interval between this and the next act of almost twelve years. Clarence, who is represented in the preceding scene as committed to the Tower before the burial of King Henry VI. was in fact not confined nor `put to death till seven years afterwards, March, 1477-8. MALONEJ P. 20, 1. 26. Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,} i. e. when nature was in a prodigal or lavish mood.

2

WARBURTON.

P. 20, 1. 27. Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right ‘royal,] Of the degree of royalty belonging to Henry the sixth there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any such hesitation; he could not indeed very properly allow him royalty. I believe we should read:

and no doubt, right loyal.

That is, frue to her bed. He enumerates the reasons for which she should love him. He was young wise, and valianty, these were apparent 10 and

and indisputable excellencies. He then mentious another not less likely to endear him to his wife, 、 but which he had less opportunity of knowing with certainty, and, no doubt, right loyal.

JOHNSON.

Richard is not speaking of King Henry, but of Edward his son, whom he means to represent as full of all the noble properties of a King. No doubt, right royal, may, however, be ironically spoken, alluding to the incontinence of Margaret, his mother. STEEVENS.

P. 20, fast 1. a beggarly denier,] A denier is the twelfth part of a French sous, and appears to have been the usual request of a beggar.

STEEVENS. P. 21, 1. 3. a marvellous proper man.] Marvellous is here used adverbially. Proper in old language was handsome. MALONE.

1

P. 22, 1. 6 It is determin'd, not concluded yet:] Determin'd signi fies the final conclusion of the will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of some act, consequent on the final judgment. WARBURTON.

P. 22, 1. 10.—Stanley.] Old copies - Derby. This is a blunder of inadvertance, which has run through the whole chain of impressions. It could not well be original in Shakspeare, who was most minutely intimate with his history, and the intermarriages of the nobility. The person here called Derby, was Thomas Lord Stanley, Lord Steward of King Edward the fourth's houshold. But this Thomas Lord Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till after the accession of Henry the seventh; and accordingly, afterwards, in the fourth and fifth acts of this play, before the battle of Bosworth-feld, he is every where salled Lord StanVOL. II.

ley. This sufficiently justifies the change I have made in his title. THEOBALD.

P. 22, 1. 14. The Countess Richmond,] Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first Duke of Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, half-brother to King Henry VI. by whom she had only one son, afterwards King Henry VII. she married first Sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham. MALONE.

P. 23, 1. 7. mon. STEEVENS.

to warn them. i. e. to sum

P. 23, 1. 18–26. Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and

cog,

Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,] An importation of artificial manners seems to have afforded our ancient poets a never failing topic of invective. STEEVENS.

P. 24, first 1. lewd complaints.] Lewd, in the present instance, signifies rude, ignorant; from the Anglo-Saxon Laewede, a Laick. Chancer often uses the word lewd, both for a laick and an ignorant person. See Ruddiman's Glossary to Gawin Douglas's Translation of the Aeneid. STEEVENS.

P. 24, 1. 15. Since every Jack became a gentleman, &c.] This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, amongst whom this name is of the most common and familiar kind. Douce.