boy is Edward Plantagenet, Clarence's son, born in 1470 (see note 4). Richard kept him as a prisoner in "the maner of Sheryhutton in the countie of York" (Hall, p. 422). Henry VII. transferred him to the Tower, where he lay "almost frö his tender age, that is to saye, frō [the] first yere of the kyng [Henry VII.] to thy's. xv. yere, out of al cōpany of me & sight of beastes, i so much that he could not discerne a Goose from a Capon (ut supra, p. 490; copied from Polydore Virgil).

472. Line 57: it STANDS me much UPON. - Compare Comedy of Errors, iv. 1. 68:

Consider how it stands upon my credit.

473. Line 69: AY, my lord. -So Qq.; Ff. have Please you, my lord.

474 Line 81: Tyr. I will dispatch it straight.-This is the reading of Ff.; Qq. have:

Tir. Tis done my gracious lord.

King. Shal we heare from thee Tirrel ere we sleepe?
Tir. Ye shall my lord.

The two additional lines, as Collier pointed out, are a mere repetition, taken from iii. 1. 188, 189.

475. Line 83: The late DEMAND that you did sound me in. So Qq.; Ff. read request.

476. Lines 89, 90:

Th' earldom of Hereford, and the moveables, Which you have promised I shall possess. Compare iii. 1. 194-196, and note 10 supra.

The last Earl of Hereford was Humphrey de Bohun, father-in-law of Thomas of Woodstock and Henry IV., earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton (see Richard II. notes 4 and 25, and note 7 supra), who died in 1377. After the death of his widow (daughter of the Earl of Arundel) a claim was made by Woodstock's daughter Anne, widow of Edmund Stafford, fifth Earl of Stafford, for a share of her grandmother's estate; and Henry V. gave the earldoms of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, with the dukedom of Buckingham, to her and her son Humphrey Stafford, Buckingham's grandfather (Richard II. note 25, and II. Henry VI. note 8). The grant was confirmed, with certain limitations, by Henry VI., but, after the accession of Edward IV., the earldom of Hereford was vested in the crown by act of parliament. It was to this that Buckingham now laid claim, as the next in blood (Hall, p. 387).

Hereford is printed Herford in More and in Qq., and was pronounced as a dissyllable. (See Richard II. note 29.) Ff. wrongly have Hertford. In iii. 1. 195 both Q. 1. and F. 1. print Hereford.

477. Lines 98-115.-This passage is omitted in Ff. It was doubtless "cut" in the theatre copy from which F. 1. was printed; but its omission would deprive the representative of Richard of a very effective bit of acting. In most of the instances of a passage struck out, it is in Qq. that the omission occurs.

478. Lines 99, 100:

How chance the prophet could not at that time
Have told me, I BEING BY, that I should kill him?

This is one of the many discrepancies between the present

play and II. and III. Henry VI. Richard is not one of the persons present in the scene (iv. 6) in III. Henry VI., nor indeed was he at court at the time of Henry's restoration.

479. Lines 102-106:

When last I was at Exeter,

The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle,
And call'd it Rougemont: at which name I started,
Because a bard of Ireland told me once,

I should not live long after I saw Richmond. This story is thus related by Abraham Fleming in Holinshed's second edition, on the authority of John Hooker, alias Vowel: "King Richard (saith he) came this yeare [1483] to the citie [of Exeter], but in verie secret maner, whom the mayor & his brethren in the best maner they could did receiue. And during his abode here he went about the citie, & viewed the seat of the same, & at length he came to the castell: and when he vnderstood that it was called Rugemont, suddenlie he fell into a dumpe, and (as one astonied) said; 'Well, I sée my daies be not long.' He spake this of a prophesie told him, that when he came once to Richmond he should not long live after" (p. 421). We have here an illustration of the fact remarked upon in note 649 infra, that the second edition of Holinshed was the one used by Shakespeare. The bard of Ireland seems to be Shakespeare's own invention. 480. Lines 113, 114:

Because that, like a JACK, thou keep'st the stroke
Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.

The Jack, or Jack o' the clock, was a mechanical figure which struck the bell of the clock.

Compare Richard II. note 321. The sentence is not plain. Probably the meaning is, "You keep on with the noisy interruption of your requests upon my meditative humour, just as the striking is kept up between the Jack's hammer and the bell."

481. Line 116: Why, then resolve me whether you will or no. So Qq. F. 1, having omitted the previous eighteen lines, alter this to

May it please you to resolve me in my suit.

482. Lines 118, 119:

Is it even so? rewards he my true service
With such contempt!

So Qq., excepting that they insert deepe before contempt.
Ff. read:

And is it thus? repayes he my deepe seruice
With such contempt?

483. Lines 120, 121:

O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone

To BRECKNOCK, while my fearful head is on! Brecknock Castle, in South Wales, built by Bernard of Newmarch, was enlarged in the thirteenth century by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who had married Eleanor de Breos (or Bruce), heiress of the lordship of Brecknock. Buckingham's grandfather acquired the lordship, along with other portions of the de Bohun inheritance, in Henry V.'s time. (See note 476 supra.) It was to this place that the Bishop of Ely was sent after the council at the Tower, and the keep, which is now the most con

siderable remnant of the castle, was called, after him, Ely Tower.

ACT IV. SCENE 3.

484. No new scene is marked here in Ff., though Qq. seem to imply one, and the division is certainly necessary. Even if we are to include the succeeding events in the same day with the foregoing, the time is different, for in sc. 2. line 111, it is morning, whereas line 31 infra shows the time now to be evening. But it seems better to suppose an interval between this and the foregoing

scene.

More's account of the murder is as follows: "On the morrow he sent him [i.e. Tyrrell] to Brakenbury with a letter, by which he was commanded to deliver sir James all the kayes of the Tower for one nyght. . . . For sir James Tirel deuised that thei shold be murthered in their beddes. To the execucion wherof, he appointed Miles Forest one of the foure that kept them, a felowe fleshed in murther before time. To him he ioyned one John Dighton his own horsekeper, a bigbrode square strong knaue. Then al the other being remoued from them, thys Miles Forest and John Dighton, about midnight (the sely children lying in their beddes) came into the chamber, and sodainly lapped them vp among the clothes so bewrapped them and entangled them keeping down by force the fetherbed and pillowes hard vnto their mouthes, that within a while smored and stifled, theyr breath failing, the gaue vp to god their innocent soules" (pp. 129-131). See note 2 supra.

485. Line 5: To do this RUTHLESS piece of butchery.So Q. 1, Q. 2. Q. 3. reads:

To do this ruthfull piece of butchery,

To do this piece of ruthfull butchery.

486. Line 8: Wept like Two children.—So Qq. Ff. have "Wept like to children."

487. Line 13: WHICH in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. So Qq. Ff. read and instead of which.

488. Line 31: Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at AFTER-SUPPER. -So Qq. Ff. have and instead of at. This looks rather like an alteration by someone who had misunderstood the text. For an explanation of after-supper, see A Midsummer Night's Dream, note 249.

489. Line 32: the PROCESS of their death.-Compare iv. 4. 253, below. Also Hamlet, i. 5. 37, 38:

Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abus'd.

490. Lines 36:

The son of Clarence have I pent up close;

His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage. On these and the next two lines compare lines 52-55 of the preceding scene. Mr. Daniel points out that the dramatist has crowded all these incidents into an impossibly short space of time, as is his usual habit throughout this play.

491. Line 40: the Breton Richmond.-Richmond had taken refuge at the court of the Duke of Brittany when a mere child (see above, note 6); which explains the name Richard here, contemptuously, gives him.

492. Line 43: Enter CATESBY.-So. Qq. Ff. have “Enter RATCLIFFE." A similar variety occurs at iii. 4. 80 supra.

493. Line 46: ELY is fled to Richmond. So Qq. Ff. read Mourton for Ely. It was in October, 1483, when Buckingham, having been deserted by his Welsh forces, became a fugitive, that the Bishop of Ely escaped, first to his see of Ely, and thence to Flanders.

WHEN didst thou sleep, WHEN such a deed was done?

Q. Mar. When holy Harry died, and my sweet son. Line 25 shows that the two whens in the foregoing line stand in no need of alteration. F. 2. reads “Why dost thou sleep" and Lettsom proposed to alter the second when in line 24 to while.

497. Line 26: poor MORTAL LIVING ghost.-Compare v. 3. 90 infra, and Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 40:

To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. 498. Line 34: Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but I?— So Qq. Ff. have we instead of I.

499. Line 39: Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine -So Qq. Ff. omit this line.

500. Line 41: I had a HARRY, till a Richard kill'd him. —Qq. read “I had a Richard,” and Ff. “I had a husband.” Capell in his second edition suggested Henry. We have adopted the reading proposed by the Cambridge editors, which is no doubt right. Compare line 59 infra.

501. Line 45: thou HOLP'ST to kill him.-There are other examples in Shakespeare of this form of the preterite tense of the verb help, which was anciently inflected as a "strong" verb, like tread, &c. The past participle holpen (formed from help, like molten from melt, &c.) has been

preserved in the prayer-book, in the Benedictus. Q. 1, Q. 2, and F. 1 read hop'st, which was corrected to holp'st in Q. 3 and F. 2.

502. Lines 52, 53:

That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,

That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls. These two lines, which are omitted in Qq., are reversed in order in Ff. Capell arranged them as in our text. The description of the reign must plainly follow the mention of the "grand tyrant"-a name perhaps suggested by that of the Grand Turk. The meaning of line 53 is: "the signs of whose reign are weeping and mourning."

503. Lines 56, 57:

this CARNAL cur

Preys on the issue of his mother's body.

Carnal means fleshly, carnivorous, cannibal"-a sense of the word which is not found elsewhere in Shakespeare. 504. Line 58: And makes her PEW-FELLOW with others' incan.-The curious word pew-fellow is used originally of one who sits in the same pew with another at church, as in Westward for Smelts: "Being one day at church, she made mone to her pew-fellow" (Percy Society Reprint, p. 38). So in The Man in the Moon: "Hee hath not seene the insides of a church these seven yeares, unlesse with devotion to pick a pocket, or pervert some honest man's wife he would on purpose be pued withall" (Character of the Retainer; Percy Soc. Reprint, p. 25). Hence the word comes to mean partner, companion, as in Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe: "If he should come before a church-warden, he wud make him pue-fellow with a lord's steward at least" (Dekker's Works, vol. iii. p. 19). Dyce quotes from Wilson, The Coblers Prophecie, 1594, the following passage: "[Enter Raph and other prisoners with weapons] . . Sat:... what are these?

Raph: Faith certaine pu-fellowes of mine, that have bin mued vp" (sig. F 4).

505. Line 64: THY other Edward.-So Qq. Ff. have The. 506. Lines 65, 66:

Young York he is but BOOT, because both they
MATCH not the high perfection of my loss.

So Qq. Ff. read matcht instead of match. The following explanation of the word boot is from Skene's Exposition of Difficill Words sub voce: "Bote . . . signifies compensation or satisfaction. . . and in all excambion, or crossing of lands or geare moveable, the ane1 part that gettis the better, givis ane Bote, or compensation to the uther" (ed. 1641, p. 24). Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 690; and Heywood, I. Edward IV. iii. 1: "If I were so mad to score, what boote wouldst thou give me?" (Works, i. 44). The original meaning of the word is " "good," advantage," as in the phrase to boot. See note 644 infra.

507. Line 68: And the beholders of this TRAGIC play.— So Qq. Ft. have franticke.

508. Lines 71-73:

Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer; Only reserv'd THEIR factor, to buy souls, And send them thither.

1 One.

Their, the plural possessive, is here used with reference to hell, that word being given the sense of "powers of hell." In a similar way we often find heaven treated as a plural, e.g. v. 5. 21 infra; and see Richard II. note 50.

509. Line 78: That I may live to say.-So Qq. Ff. have and instead of to.

510. Line 84. The presentation of but what I was.—I suspect we should read:

The presentation but of what I was.

i.e. "merely the semblance of what I formerly was." The reference in this place is to i. 3. 241–246.

511. Line 85: The flattering INDEX of a direful pageant. -Index, in Shakespeare's time, meant the table of contents usually prefixed to a book. Steevens says that, at the pageants displayed on public occasions, a brief scheme or index of the order and significance of the characters was often distributed among the spectators, so that they might understand the meaning of what was, usually, an allegorical representation. In Hamlet, iii. 4. 52,

What act

That roars so loud and thunders in the index,

the word plainly means "prologue;" and this may perhaps be the meaning here, namely, that the prologue flattered the hearers with false promises of a happy conclusion.

512. Lines 88-90:

A dream of what thou WERT; a breath, a bubble;
A sign of dignity, a garish flag

To be the aim of every dangerous shot.

Ff. read as follows:

A dreame of what thou wast, a garish Flagge To be the ayme of every dangerous Shot; A sign of Dignity, a Breath, a Bubble; The arrangement in the text is that of Qq., from which we also take the form wert, in line 88, instead of wast, the reading of Ff. here and also in line 107 infra.

513. Line 97: DECLINE all this. -Declinare apud grammaticos, says Minsheu, est aliquid per casus variare (Guide into Tongues, sub voce). The word is used, in the text, in the sense which it has in grammar, of going through the variations of a subject, as Margaret does in the lines that follow. Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 55: "I'll decline the whole question."

514. Lines 98-104:

Q. 1 prints this passage thus:

For happie wife, a most distressed widow,
For ioyfull Mother, one that wailes the name,
For Queene, a veríe caitiue crownd with care,
For one being sued to, one that humblie sues,
For one commaunding all, obeyed of none,
For one that scornd at me, now scornd of me.

F. 1 prints it thus:

For happy Wife, a most distressed Widdow:
For ioyfull Mother, one that wailes the name:
For one being sued too, one that humbly sues:
For Queene, a very Caytiffe, crown'd with care:
For she that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me:
For she being feared of all, now fearing one:
For she commanding all, obey'd of none.

It is evident that some confusion has arisen in transcrib

ing this passage, owing, probably, to some alteration or insertion having been made in the MS. by the author. Q. 1 omits line 103, and prints line 104 before 102. No object is gained by the omission of that one line; and line 104 is more in its place at the end of the passage, answering as it does to line 96, the last of Margaret's questions. On the other hand, F. 1 is, probably, wrong in printing in lines 102, 103, and 104, "For she" instead of "For one," and also in transposing lines 100, 101. The arrangement of the text we have given is the same as that of the Cambridge edd., who cannot, certainly, be accused of any inordinate partiality for the readings of F. 1.

In lines 102, 103, and 104 there is the same elliptical construction, one being omitted in the second part of all three sentences; but the meaning is sufficiently clear.

515. Line 120: Think that thy babes were FAIRER than they were. So Qq. Ff. have sweeter instead of fairer; the latter epithet contrasts better with fouler in the next line.

516. Line 127: Windy attorneys to their client woes.— Ff. here read clients for client, by a misprint which is very common. Qq. have your for their: no doubt the MS. from which Q.1 was printed had yr (representing their, just as ye represented the), and the printer misread his copy. The text is that given by Hanmer.

The meaning of the line is, words are the breathing agents through which woes, which in themselves are speechless, can act or be represented, in the same way as a client, who is powerless to speak for himself, is represented by an appointed agent or attorney. Malone quotes the very similar metaphor in Venus and Adonis, 333-336: So of concealed sorrow may be said: Free vent of words love's fire doth assuage;

But when the heart's attorney once is mute,
The client breaks, as desperate in his suit.

Compare also line 413 below:

Be the attorney of my love to her. Shakespeare's fondness for legal metaphors and expressions has been pointed out more than once. See Mids. Night's Dream, note 11, and Romeo and Juliet, note 223.

517. Line 128: Airy succeeders of INTESTATE joys.-So Qq. Ff. read intestine. Joys, already past, are regarded as having died without bequeathing any portion of their happiness, and so the airy words succeed to an empty inheritance.

518. Line 135: I hear his drum.-So Qq. Ff. read, "The Trumpet sounds."

519. Line 141: Where should be branded.-Ff. read where't; the correction is from Qq.

520. Line 142: The slaughter of the prince that ow'd that crown. In Middle English owe (A. S. ágan) means "possess;" the verb own (A. S. ágnian), which now has that signification, is a derivative of the possessive pronoun own, which originally was the passive participle of owe, and meant what is possessed by anyone. To owe afterwards came to signify "to possess someone else's property," and so "to be in debt," which is now its only meaning. Shakespeare often uses the word in its original signification.

521. Lines 169-172:

Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy; Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious; Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous; Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, SLY, AND BLOODY. Qq. have, in line 172, "bloody treacherous;" a reading which many editors adopt. We have kept the reading in Ff. because we feel sure that, in revising the play, Shakespeare would have been the first to avoid such a jingle as venturous and treacherous at the end of two successive lines. If we examine the whole of this speech, we shall find that it bears traces of being written in his earlier style. It begins with four lines of rhyme, and then-if we accept the Quarto reading-we should have three lines following with trisyllable endings, the two last of which would be very suggestive of a false quasi-rhyme. It is true that sly and subtle may seem somewhat tautological; but they are not more so than desperate and wild, or daring and bold, in the two preceding lines. Perhaps sly, and bloody was a hasty correction; but, surely, the latter epithet is the proper climax of the line. Those who prefer the Quarto reading may point to the passage in Hamlet's soliloquy, ii. 2. 609:

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain; where there is perhaps a worse jingle in treacherous and lecherous; but it must be remembered that Hamlet is in a great passion at this point of his speech, while the duchess is here speaking, not under the influence of passion, but of solemn indignation. We should prefer, if we adopt the reading of Qq., to invert the order of the last two words; thus, treacherous, bloody.

522. Lines 174-177:

What comfortable hour canst thou name,
That ever grac'd me in thy company?

K. Rich. Faith, none, but HUMPHREY HOUR, that
call'd your grace

To breakfast once forth of my company.

In line 175, In is the reading of Qq. Ff. have with.

None of the commentators have satisfactorily explained the point of this speech, assuming that it ever had one. F. 1 regarded "Humfrey Hower" as the name of a person, and therefore printed the two words in italics, the type in which it was then the rule to print all proper names. In Qq., however, the words "Humphrey houre" are printed in the same Roman type as the rest of the speech. It seems more likely that some particular hour or occasion was meant, than that Humphrey Hour should be simply the name of someone. Malone supposed that Humphrey hour was merely a fanciful phrase "for hour, like Tom Troth for truth, and twenty more such terms;" but this is hardly an adequate explanation. We could not substitute the mere word hour in this place. It may be that Richard here personifies and christens that hour which, on some particular day, summoned his mother to breakfast away from him. A similar explanation to this was suggested by Steevens (Var. Ed. vol. xix. p. 180); and he quotes the following passage from The Wit of a Woman, 1604: "Gentlemen, time makes us brief: our old mistress, Houre, is at hand." Humphrey hour, if it meant “hungry time" or "meal time," must have had some allusion to

the phrase

Mr.

to dine with Duke Humphrey," which meant to go without one's dinner, like the gallants who, at the dinner hour, "keepe duke Humfrye company in Poules, because they know not where to get their dinners abroad" (Nash, Prognostication for this year, &c., 1591). Kinnear indeed has proposed to read th' hungry hour (Cruces Shakespeareanæ, p. 270). But although this may indicate the sense of the passage, it can hardly be accepted as the genuine reading.

The cant expression Humphrey may refer to some other appetite than hunger. It would be quite in keeping with Richard's character and with his cynical indifference to common decency, that he should intend here an allusion to some scandal against his mother. It must be confessed that he has received considerable provocation; and his next words seem to indicate that he could say more if further provoked.

523 Lines 184, 186:

EITHER THOU WILT die, by God's just ordinance,

Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish. Either is to be pronounced as a monosyllable. Compare i 2 64, and Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 32. Pope read thou it for thou wilt, but this is inadmissible, since the emphasis is on thou, which is opposed to I in line 186.

524. Line 188: Therefore take with thee my most heavy eurse -So Qq Ff. have greeuous for heavy.

525 Line 199: Stay, madam; I must SPEAK a word with you. So Qq.; Ff. have talke instead of speak; perhaps the author intended to write: "I must talk awhile with you."

526. Lines 200, 201:

I have no more sons of the royal blood

For thee to MURDER: for my daughters, Richard. We have preferred the reading of Qq. here because it avoids the jingle of slaughter and daughters.

527. Lines 200-430.-See scene 3. lines 40-42 supra. It was during the Christmas of 1483 that Richmond, having escaped to Brittany, on the failure of Buckingham's rising, met Dorset and other of the insurgent leaders at Rennes, and promised them to make Elizabeth his queen so soon as he should obtain the crown of England. When the news of this reached Richard, "beyng sore dysmaied and in maner desperate, .. he clerely determined to reconcile to his fauoure his brothers wife quene Elizabeth either by faire wordes or liberall promises, firmely beleuynge, her fauour once obteined, that she would not stick to commite and louynglye credite to him the rule and gouernaunce both of her and her daughters." Accordingly, Hall continues (p. 406), he sent messengers to the queen where she lay in sanctuary, who so persuaded her by their reasoning and promises "that she began somewhat to relent and to geue to theim no deffe eare, insomuch that she faithfully promised to submyt and yelde her selfe fully and frankely to the kynges will and pleasure." This was in March, 1484. The next Christmas Richard's wife Anne fell sick, and he then at once offered his hand to Elizabeth. Shakespeare, in the present scene (see lines 520

and following, infra), throws together Buckingham's abortive rising in 1483 (when Richmond, having been separated from his fleet, failed to land on the Dorset coast), and Richmond's successful landing in August, 1485, at Milford Haven.

528. Lines 212-218.-In this passage, and in lines 343-361, below, we have examples of Toubia, a fashion taken from the writers of the Greek tragedies, and already noted in I. Henry VI. note 207. Compare Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2, and III. Henry VI. note 200.

529. Line 212: she is OF ROYAL BLOOD. So Qq. Ff. read "she is a Royall Princesse."

530. Lines 227, 228:

No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart. Compare II. Henry IV. iv. 5. 107, 108, and Merchant of Venice, note 282.

531. Line 230: But that STILL use of grief makes wild grief tame.-Still as an adjective, with the meaning of "frequent" or "constant," is not very common. It occurs, however, in Titus Andronicus, iii. 2. 45:

And by still practice learn to know thy meaning.

532. Lines 259-261:

That thou dost love my daughter FROM thy soul: So, from thy soul's love, didst thou love her brothers; And, from my heart's love, I do thank thee for it. Richard, in line 256, has said that he loves Elizabeth's daughter from his soul, meaning, with his whole heart. Elizabeth, in this passage, giving from the meaning of "outside of," says that his love neither is nor has been a love from within his heart. Such a use of the word from, though forced in the present instance, was not uncommon in Elizabethan English. Compare Twelfth Night, i. 5. 208: "This is from my commission;" i.e. "this is outside, not included in, my commission

533. Line 267:

Q. Eliz. What, thou?

K. Rich. EVEN I: WHAT think you of it, madam? This is Capell's reading. Qq. have I, even I; Ff. read Even so: How thinke you of it?"

534. Lines 276, 277:

which, say to her, did drain

The purple sap from her sweet brothers' BODIES. Bodies is Rowe's correction for body, the reading of Ff. Qq. omit the passage.

535. Line 278: And bid her WIPE her weeping eyes withal. So Ff., an infinitely better line, in spite of the alliteration, than the officious emendation of Qq.:

And bid her dry her weeping eyes therewith. 536. Lines 282, 283:

ay, and, for her sake, Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne. See note 32 supra.

537. Lines 288-342.- The whole of this passage is omitted by Qq.