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KING RICHARD III.

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. A Street.

Enter RICHARD.

Rich. Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun' of York;
And all the clouds, that lower'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 chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.2
Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed3 steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.*

The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun, in memory of the three suns which are said to have appeared at the battle he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross. See 3 Henry VI. Act ii. sc. 1, note 5.

2 Dances.

3 That is, steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings of war. The word is properly barded, from equus burdatus.

4❝Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? the neighing of barbed steeds, whose loud, ness 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.

-

5

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,
Unless to see 6
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,

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." See, also, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. sc. 4, note 5.- Dissembling, the commentators say, is not used here in the sense of deceiving, but of putting to gether 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.

So in the folio; in the quartos spy, which is generally retained in modern editions. To our thinking, see yields the fitter sense, and savours less of phrase-making.

H.

7 Inductions are beginnings, preparations; things that draw on or induce events.

H.

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.

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. Rich. Upon what cause?

Clar.

yours;

Because my name is George.
Rich. Alack, my lord! that fault is none of
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?
Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; but 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,
And says a wizard told him, that by G
His issue disinherited should be;

And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought, that I am he.

8 This is founded on the following passage in Holinshed: “Some have reported, that the cause of this nobleman's death rose of a foolish prophesie, which was, that after K. Edward one should reigne, whose first letter of his name should be a G. Wherewith the king and queene were sore troubled, and began to conceive a greevous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end. And as the divell is woont to incumber the minds of men which delite in such divelisn fantasies,

9

These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,

Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

Rich. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women!

"Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower;
My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 'tis she
That tempts him to this harsh extremity.1o
Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodville, her brother there,

That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower,
From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.

Clar. By Heaven, I think there is no man secure,
But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore.
Heard you not what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
Rich. Humbly complaining to her deity

Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what; I think it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,"
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in our monarchy."

they said afterward, that that prophesie lost none of his effect, when, after king Edward, Gloster usurped his kingdome."

H.

That is, fancies, freaks of imagination. Thus in Hamlet, A et i. sc. 4:

"The very place put toys of desperation,
Without more motive, into every brain."

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That tempers him to

10 So in the folio: the quartos have,this extremity;" where tempers means frames, disposes, which certainly makes excellent sense. Of course the insertion of harsh approves the change to have been authorized.

11 The queen and Shore.

H.

12 In the quartos,this monarchy" The folio changed this

to our.

II.

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.

Rich. Even so? an please your worship, Brakenbury,

You may partake of any thing we say.

We speak no treason, man: We say the king
Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous:-
We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
And that the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks
How say you, sir? can you deny all this?

Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought

to do.

Rich. Naught to do with mistress Shore?

thee, fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,

Were best to do it secretly, alone.

Brak. What one, my lord?

Rich. Her husband, knave!

tray me?

I tell

Would'st thou be

Brak. I do beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal,

Forbear your conference with the noble duke. Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.

Rich. We are the queen's abjects,13 and must obey.

Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;

And whatsoe'er you will employ me in,

13 That is, the lowest of her subjects. This substantive is found in Psalm xxxv. 15: "Yea, the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not "

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