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THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF

KING RICHARD III.

A Tragedy;

RESTORED AND RE-ARRANGED FROM THE TEXT OF

SHAKSPEARE:

AS PERFORMED

At the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR R. AND M. STODART, 81 STRAND.

Printed by W. SMITH, King Street, Long Acre.

PREFACE.

To restore the Character of Richard and the Language of Shakspeare to the Stage has been the sole object of this re-arrangement.

Had Cibber contented himself with a simple compression of events, and the insertion only of i such passages, as might be indispensable to unite the scenes dissevered by omissions, an attempt like the present would argue no less ignorance # than presumption. But this was a restraint which Cibber was incapable of imposing on himself;— his appetite for writing was insatiable, and not even Shakspeare could obtain exemption from the interpolations and improvements, to which every Dramatic Author under his management was remorselessly subjected. It is neither the purpose nor the province of the present Arranger to question any opinion which may be advanced on the comparative merits of his own and Cibber's alterations; but he thinks it incumbent on himself to explain

*It is right to state, that, the propriety of restoring Shakspeare's Richard (with curtailments) to the stage, was first suggested by a criticism, which appeared some years ago in the Morning Chronicle.

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