That Richard's career may be clearly seen as an epitome of the whole struggle, Shakespeare deliberately alters history. Not only does Richard become responsible for all the crimes that may be laid to his charge; time is abolished, that we may see more plainly how they all spring from his passion for the throne, and his whole career is pushed back till it coincides with all the attempts of his house to win the crown. Born in 1452, when the Wars of the Roses began, it is at this very date that he appears, mature and active, in 2 Henry VI; and he is made responsible for both his father's and his brother's endeavor for the throne. His is the animating spirit of the struggle, his the foremost service, his the thirst for vengeance, his the passion and the poet's dream of power; till at last he ceases to be the servant of his house, and his own tragedy begins.

Richard's tragedy begins in the famous monologue of 3 Henry VI, III. ii, whose "I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown" is but resumed in the "I am determined to be a villain" of Richard III. All the groundwork of the later play is laid in the earlier. Here (V. vi) is shown the enormous desire which makes it possible for Richard to scorn the difficulties, both outward and inward, that stand in his path; the will to crush down pity, love, and fear, the self-deception that he can be "himself alone," free eternally from the moral law that governs all other men. Here, too, are manifested the consummate intellect, the knowledge of men, the power of deceit, the mastery of speech, the absolute oneness of aim, by which he gains his end.

The process is already under way at the beginning of Richard III: a knowledge of what had gone before was certainly assumed in the audience for whom the play was written. In the later play the process is fulfilled. Till the desire is consummated all goes well; no ability plays him false, no means fail, against the outward difficulties; of inward difficulties none appear. Like the somnambulist, dominated by a sole idea, undistracted by aught else, he advances, certain and secure. But the moment he attains

-

the throne, he wakes. Within the circuit of that crown he does not find the Elysium, the "All that poets feign of bliss and joy," of which he was so sure: he dreads lest the crown may be worn but a day. Now at last the fears revealed hitherto only in his sleep, while the will slumbered, appear in the light; now conscience cries aloud; now he recognizes that sin name unheard before, name in which he abandons all his assumption of freedom from the moral law — sin is plucking on sin. All his abilities begin to play him false, he can deceive no longer, he loses his insight into men, his self-command disappears. In the collapse of soul that follows the ghost-dream born of his guilty conscience, he sees himself at last as he is, and utters his own sentence in the same words with which he began his career, "I am I," "I am a villain." If, on the morrow, he recovers courage, it is now largely the courage of despair; the vengeance of outraged humanity is certain.

The Tragedy of

Richard the Third

A young son of Clarence.

HENRY, earl of Richmond, afterwards KING HENRY VII.

CARDINAL BOURCHIER, archbishop of Canterbury.

THOMAS ROTHERHAM, archbishop of York.

JOHN MORTON, bishop of Ely.

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DUKE OF NORFOLK.

EARL OF SURREY, his son.

EARL RIVERS, brother to Elizabeth.

› MARQUIS OF DORSET,

LORD GREY,

EARL OF OXFORD.

LORD HASTINGS.

sons to Elizabeth.

LORD STANLEY, called also EARL OF DERBY.

LORD LOVEL.

SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN.

SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF.

SIR WILLIAM CATESBY.

SIR JAMES TYRREL.
SIR JAMES BLunt.

SIR WALTER HERBERT.

SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, lieutenant of the Tower.

CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a priest.

Another Priest.

TRESSEL and BERKELEY, gentlemen attending on the Lady Anne.

Lord Mayor of London.

Sheriff of Wiltshire.

ELIZABETH, queen to King Edward IV.

MARGARET, widow of King Henry VI.

DUCHESS OF YORK, mother to King Edward IV.

LADY ANNE, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, son to King Henry VI; afterwards married to Richard.

A young Daughter of Clarence (MARGARET PLANTAGENET).

Ghosts of those murdered by Richard III; Lords and other Attendants; a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Soldiers, etc,

SCENE: England.]

2