NOTES ON DRAMATIS PERSONÆ A young son of Clarence] Edward, Earl of Warwick, born 1475: kept in custody at Sheriff Hutton during the reign of Richard III., but knighted during the King's visit to York, 1483. Removed by order of Henry VII. to the Tower of London, 1485, where he was shut up, "out of all companie of men & sight of beasts; insomuch that he could not discerne a goose from a capon" (Holinshed, iii. 787, where five years are added to his age). In Iv. ii. 55 below, this simplicity is slightly anticipated. Executed 28th November, 1499, on the charge of conspiracy with Perkin Warbeck and connivance at his escape from the Tower. CARDINAL BOURCHIER] Thomas, son of William Bourchier, Earl of Eu, by Anne, elder daughter of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, sixth son of Edward III. His brother Henry, created Earl of Essex, 1461, was an uncle by marriage of Edward IV. and Richard III. By their mother's first marriage, the Bourchiers were half-brothers to the first Duke of Buckingham, grandfather of the Buckingham of the play. The Cardinal was born 1404: he was Chancellor of Oxford and Bishop of Worcester, 1434-5; Bishop of Ely, 1443-4; Archbishop of Canterbury, 1454; Lord Chancellor, 1455-6; Cardinal with title of San Ciriaco in Terme, 1467-8. At first a Lancastrian, he declared for the house of York, 1460. He crowned Edward IV., Queen Elizabeth Woodville, Richard III., and Henry VII., and married Henry VII. to Elizabeth of York. He died at Knole, 30th March, 1486. THOMAS ROTHERHAM] or Scott, born at Rotherham, 1423. Nominated Bishop of Rochester and Keeper of the Privy Seal, 1467; Chancellor of Cambridge, 1469-71, 1473-8; Bishop of Lincoln, 1472; Archbishop of York, 1480; Lord Chancellor, 1474-83; Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, c. 1480-6. For his part in the play see Appendix II. He was arrested and imprisoned after the council of 13th June, 1483, at which Hastings was entrapped; but seems to have made his peace with Richard, and to have held office as Lord Treasurer for a short time under Henry VII. He died at Cawood in May, 1500. He founded the College of Jesus at Rotherham, and is regarded as the second founder of Lincoln College, Oxford. JOHN MORTON] Born c. 1420; lawyer and diplomatist; Bishop of Ely, 1479; for his imprisonment and escape see notes on IV. iv. 470-1 and 512-6; rewarded for his services to Richmond with the archbishopric of Canterbury, 1486; Lord Chancellor, 1487; created Cardinal, 1493; Chancellor of Oxford, 1495; died 1500. It is probably from him, through Sir Thomas More, that we derive the traditional account of the character and reign of Richard III. DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM] Henry Stafford, born c. 1454; succeeded his grandfather as second Duke, 1460; executed at Salisbury, 1483. For his descent see note on III. i. 195. His son, Edward, third Duke, is the Buckingham of Henry VIII. DUKE OF NORFOLK] John Howard, born before 1430; created Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal by Richard III., 1483; killed at Bosworth, 1485. EARL OF SURREY] Thomas Howard, born 1443; fought at Bosworth; imprisoned by Henry VII., but gained distinction afterwards in the service of the Tudors; won battle of Flodden, 1513; created Duke of Norfolk, 1514; died 1524. He is the Norfolk of Henry VIII. 4. EARL RIVERS] Anthony Woodville, born c. 1442; K.G., 1466; executed 1483. His translation, The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, was the first book printed by Caxton, 1477. See also Appendix II. MARQUESS OF DORSET] Thomas Grey, born 1451; succeeded his father as ninth Baron Ferrars of Groby, 1461; Earl of Huntingdon, 1471; Marquess of Dorset, 1475; K.G., 1476; escaped to Brittany, 1483; confirmed in his titles by Henry VII.; died 1501. LORD GREY] more correctly Lord Richard Grey; executed 1483. Earl of OxforD] John de Vere, born 1443; succeeded his father as thirteenth Earl, 1462; a consistent Lancastrian. His abortive attempt to hold St. Michael's Mount in 1473 led to his attainder and imprisonment at Hammes, 1474-84. He returned with Richmond to England, and died 1513. LORD HASTINGS] William Hastings, created Baron Hastings of Ashby-de-laZouch and Lord Chamberlain, 1461. He was a prominent antagonist of the Woodville faction; but his imprisonment in the Tower, referred to in 1. i. and II. ii. is merely an inference drawn by the author of the play from Holinshed, iii. 723, where it is said (following More) that Hastings was "accused vnto King Edward by the Lord Riuers. . . in such wise, as he was for the while (but it lasted not long) farre fallen into the kings indignation, & stood in great feare of himselfe." Executed 1483. LORD STANLEY] Thomas Stanley, born c. 1435; succeeded his father as second Baron Stanley, 1459; became third husband of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.; created Earl of Derby, 1485; died 1504. Strictly speaking, the use of the title "Derby," where it occurs in this play, is wrong, as Stanley was not yet created Earl of Derby at the time of the action. Theobald used "Stanley throughout, on the ground that the author was not responsible for the inaccuracy. The Cambridge editors retain Derby where both Qq and Ff agree in the reading; and their custom has been followed in the present edition. LORD LOVEL] more usually Lovell. Francis Lovell, ninth Baron Lovell of Tichmarsh, Northants; created Viscount Lovell and K.G., 1483; Lord Chamberlain to Richard III.; died after fighting for Lambert Simnel at Stoke, 1487. SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN] Chamberlain to Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward V.), 1471; executed 1483. SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF] or Radcliffe; knighted at Tewkesbury, 1471; K.G., 1484; killed at Bosworth, 1485; the "Rat" of Colyngborne's couplet. SIR WILLIAM CATESBY] A lawyer, and protégé of Hastings, whose service he forsook for that of Gloucester. Under Richard III. he became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1484 was knight of the shire for Northants and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was taken at Bosworth, and beheaded at Leicester. The "Cat" of Colyngborne's satire. The knighthood given him here is purely a courtesy title. SIR JAMES TYRREL] more correctly Tyrrell or Tyrell; knighted after Tewkesbury, 1471; Master of the Horse to Richard III.; pardoned and made Lieutenant of Guisnes Castle by Henry VII.; beheaded 1502. See note on Iv. ii. 36. SIR JAMES BLOUNT] Son of Sir Walter Blount, Baron Montjoy of Mountjoy; Lieutenant of Hammes Castle, 1476, where he was custodian of the Earl of Oxford; knighted 1485; died 1493. SIR WALTER HERBERT] See note on Iv. v. 10-18. SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY] Appointed Constable of the Tower, 1483, so that his connexion with the murder of Clarence (1478) has no warrant in history; killed at Bosworth. CHRISTOPHER URSWICK] A member of a northern family; confessor to the Countess of Richmond, Henry VII.'s mother; Archdeacon of Richmond; employed in diplomatic missions by Henry VII.; Dean of York, 1488; Dean of Windsor, 1495; died 1522. TRESSEL and BERKELEY] Names probably chosen by Shakespeare at random. LORD MAYOR OF LONDON] Sir Edmund Shaw. See note on III. v. 103. Elizabeth] Born c. 1437, daughter of Sir Richard Woodville (Baron Rivers, 1448; Earl Rivers, 1466) by Jacquetta of Luxemburg, widow of John, Duke of Bedford; married (1) Sir John Grey, eighth Baron Ferrers of Groby, (2) Edward IV., 1464-65; died 1492. Her complicity in the designs of Richard III. (see iv. iv.) brought her out of favour with her son-in-law, Henry VII. MARGARET] See note on iv. iv. 6. Duchess of York] Born 1415; daughter of Sir Ralph Nevill, first Earl of Westmorland, the "cousin Westmoreland" of Henry V. iv. iii. 19; married Richard, Duke of York, 1438; died 1495. See notes on II. vii. 179-82; IV. i. 95. LADY ANNE] Born 1456, younger daughter of Richard Nevill, the great Earl of Warwick; betrothed, but never married, to Edward, son of Henry VI., 1470; married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 1474; died March, 1485. In 3 Henry VI. III. iii. 242 she is wrongly called Warwick's "eldest daughter" (see also ibid. IV. i. 118). Her elder sister and co-heiress, Isabella, married George, Duke of Clarence; and a dispute over her inheritance was one of the causes of ill-feeling between Clarence and his brothers. A young daughter of Clarence] Margaret Plantagenet, born 1473; married to Sir Richard Pole; restored to the title and possessions of the earldom of Salisbury by Henry VIII., 1513; attainted for her suspected complicity in the intrigues of her son, Reginald Pole, and others, 1539; executed 27th May, 1541. At iv. iii. 37 she is probably confused with her first cousin, Princess Cicely, whom Richard III. married to a man found in a cloud, and of an vnknowne linage and familie" (Holinshed, iii. 752), probably a member of the Lincolnshire family of Kyme. A Pursuivant] See note on III. ii. 94. THE TRAGEDY OF 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; Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; London. A street.] Capell; omitted Qq, 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. 11. 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: 5 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." 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." 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; 7. alarums] alarmes Q 1. 8. measures] Qq 1-3, Ff; pleasures Qq 4-8. Such of the Black Prince or Henry V. 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 He did more grave and solemn With such fair order and proportion And correspondence every way the same, That no fault-finding eye did ever and st. 66 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." 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 . . . converted 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. Unbarbed," "Yet all the feet whereon these in Coriolanus, III. ii. 99, is usually taken measures go Are only Spondees, solemn, tive "barb" is used for horse-armour grave, and slow." to mean " unarmoured." The substan 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 For by Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1590, 11. ii. |