Assuredly [6. Now is the Winter of our Discontent, etc.] Richard's intellect is forestalled by abhorrence of his wickedness. it is neither wise nor right thus to tamper with the Poet's workmanship. This opening soliloquy, so startling in its abruptness, and so crammed with poetry and thought, has the effect of duly pre-engaging our minds with the hero's active, fertile, scheming brain.—WARNER (p. 208): The soliloquies in Richard III. are a dramatic necessity. We could not get at the real man without them. But in the mouth of Richard the soliloquies are far more than instruments of dramatic art: they are in keeping with the character Shakespeare seeks to lay before us. There was absolutely no soul in whom Richard could confide. He loves no one, trusts no one, strange to say, hates no one, but uses all. Now such a man must, as it were, think aloud... Here we have, then, a self-revelation, not only as a rhetorical ornament and dramatic necessity, but as a psychological truth.-FITZGERALD (ii, 52): In this opening soliloquy Garrick's Richard, instead of 'chuckling' over his own deformity, and taking a pleasure in being so odious to others, showed himself pained and uneasy when he dwelt on these defects. That reflection seemed to be only a fresh incentive to avenge himself on those who were more blessed by nature.-T. R. GOULD (p. 39): With head bent in thought, arms folded, and slow, long step, longer it would seem than the height of his figure might warrant, yet perfectly natural to him, and so that his lifted foot emerged first into view, [Junius Brutus], Booth appeared upon the scene, enveloped and absorbed in the character of Richard. He carried distinctness of articulation to an extreme, pronouncing ocean' as a trisyllable.—OECHELHAÜSER (Einführungen, i, 158): The action of this first scene should not, I think, take place in a street, but in the courtyard of the Tower, the same wherein later the scenes of the reception of the young king and of Elizabeth's farewell address to her sons are laid. On one side is a small door or wicket, through which Brackenbury and Clarence exeunt. (It is important that this door should be on the side and not in the back scene, since were it in the latter position, Elizabeth in her final apostrophe to the Tower would be compelled to turn her back to the audience and thus be at such a distance that her voice would have to be raised to too loud a tone.) The scenery should, of course, represent the Tower at the Plantagenet period-for which a wood-cut will be found in Halliwell's Folio edition. 6. Winter... Discontent] MALONE: So in the old play Wily Beguil'd: 'After these blustering blasts of discontent.' Wily Beguil'd is mentioned by Nash in Have With You to Saffron Waldon, which appeared in 1596.-STEEVENS: Thus in Sidney's Astrophel and Stella: 'Gone in the winter of my miserie.' [This note by Steevens does not appear in any of the Variorum editions before that of 1803. This would not be worth the noting were it not that such independent additions by REED are rare. It may be remarked that 1. 7, sonnet lxix, of Astrophel and Stella, reads: 'Gone is the winter of my misery.' The error was not corrected in the two following Variorum editions. VAUGHAN (iii, 1) points out that 'discontent,' as here used, signifies 'that peculiar form of ill-feeling which is involved in a state of enmity and strife,' and quotes 2 Henry VI., III, i, 200: 'My body round engirt with misery; For what's more miserable than discontent.'-MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. Discontent) under the definition: 'The state or condition of being discontented; dissatisfaction of mind,' quotes, '1591 Spenser M. Hubbard, 898, To waste long nights in pensive discontent,' and after quoting the present line, adds '1647 Clarendon: History of Rebellion, I, 31, 2. The country full of Made glorious Summer by this Son of Yorke: 7. Son] Jonne Qq. sun Rowe et seq. 8. lowr'd] lowrd Q1-5. low'r Q lowr Q. lourd Cap. Sta. Cam. +, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. lower'd Coll. Sing. Dyce i, Wh. i, Hal. Ktly, Rife. 7 9 buried.] buried, Q. bury'd Rowe, Theob. Han. Warb. Johns. buried: Cap. pride, mutiny and discontent. c. (with plural). A feeling of discontent or dissatisfaction. 1588 Shakespeare Tit. And., I, i, 443, Dissemble all your griefs and discontents.'-SCHMIDT (Lex.) gives numerous examples wherein 'discontent' may mean 'grief, vexation.' The line above quoted by Vaughan and the present one are cited. The German translators, following Schlegel's lead, thus render the line: 'Nun ward der Winter unsers Missvergnügens,' where 'Missvergnügen' seems hardly to convey the exact shade of meaning which the passage demands; the metre here, however, required a word of four syllables.-ED. 7. Son of Yorke] STEEVENS: Alluding to the cognizance of Edward IV. which was a sun, in memory of the three suns, which are said to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross. [See 3 Henry VI: II, i, 26-40.] So, in Miseries of Queen Margaret, Drayton: 'Three suns were seen that instant to appear, Which soon again shut themselves up in one; Ready to buckle as the armies were, Which this brave duke took to himself alone.' [P. 131, ed. 1631.]—HUNTER (ii, 79): Few changes could be less judicious than that of 'Son' to sun [see Text. Notes.] The intention of the dramatist was to connect this with the preceding play, and to show at once that the son of that York with whom the audience had been familiar was now on a prosperous throne. Of course, the word 'son' would also be regarded as appropriate to the metaphor. This may not have been in the best taste, but it suited the taste of the audience. There is a similar instance in Hamlet [I, ii, 67], and another in Scene iii of this Act, ll. 179, 180. [In a note on the line in Hamlet, which is above cited, HUNTER makes no mention of any quibble being intended-the line is presumably 'Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun'; he says: ""To be in the sun,' in the warm sun," were phrases not uncommon in the time of Shakespeare, and for a century later, to express the state of being without family connections, destitute of the comforts of domestic life.' A meaning which is obviously inapplicable in the present passage.-ED.] ""to be 8. lowr'd] In the Appendix: Plan of the Work, credit is given to the CAMBRIDGE EDITORS for all readings from the sixth, seventh, and eighth Quartos. I have, nevertheless, deemed it advisable to anticipate this acknowledgement here, at the first appearance of an independent reading from the seventh and eighth Quartos.-ED. 9. In... buried.] VAUGHAN (iii, 2) prefers the punctuation of Q, [see Text. Notes] since 'the clearing of the clouds from our house is a reason for binding our brows and hanging up our arms, and changing our stern alarums to merry meetings, this new combination of all into one sentence improves the logical connection of the thought.'-DUNLAP (ii, 392): [During the first three lines of this soliloquy Cooke] was without motion, his hands hanging at ease; at the beginning of the fourth, 'In the deep bosom,' he lifted the right hand a little, with a gently Now are our browes bound with Victorious Wreathes, IO Our sterne Alarums chang'd to merry Meetings; Grim-vifag'd Warre, hath smooth'd his wrinkled Front: 12. Alarums] alarmes Q, 13. Measures.] pleasures. Q4-8. measures: Cap. (corrected in Errata). 14. vifag'd] vifagde Qq. 14 sweeping motion, and then, turning the palm downwards, he continued, 'of the ocean,' and made a short pause; then sinking his hand (the palm parallel with the earth) and his voice at the same time, finished the sentence by the word 'buried.' 10, II. Now . . . Monuments] MALONE: Compare Lucrece, 109, IIO. 'Made glorious by his manly chivalry, With bruised arms and wreaths of victory.' -WRIGHT: 'Hung up for monuments,' like the armour of the Black Prince at Canterbury, and the helmet, shield and saddle of Henry V., which once hung over his tomb in Westminster Abbey. "The former,' says Dean Stanley (Memorials of Westminster Abbey, ed. 1868, p. 150), 'is in all probability "that very casque that did affright the air at Agincourt," which twice saved his life on that eventful day-still showing in its dints the marks of the ponderous sword of the Duke of Alençon.' 12. Alarums] MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. Alarm): Forms: alarom, alarome, allarum, alarum (adopted from Old French alarme, adopted from Italian allarmeall'arme!) 'To [the] arms!' originally the call summoning to arms, and thus, in languages that adopted it, a mere interjection; but soon used in all as the name of the call or summons. Erroneously taken in the seventeenth century for an English combination all arm! and so written; cf. similar treatment of alamode and alamort. From the earliest period there was a variant alarum due to rolling the r in prolonging the final syllable of the call. 13. dreadfull] For other examples of 'dreadful' used thus in an active sense, see WALKER, Crit., ii, 78; or ABBOTT, § 3. ... 13. Marches Measures] WRIGHT: There is the same contrast between 'marches' and 'measures' in Alexander and Campaspe, Lyly, IV, iii: 'But let us draw in, to see how well it becomes them to tread the measures in a daunce, that were wont to set the order for a march.'-[p. 348, ed. Bond.] 13. Measures] NARES: A grave solemn dance, with slow and measured steps, like the minuet. 'For hear me Hero; wedding and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque pace' (Much Ado, II, i, 77). As these dances were of so solemn a nature, they were performed at public entertainments in the Inns of Court; and it was not thought inconsistent for the first characters in the law to bear a part in treading the measures. [For numerous examples of 'measure' used in this sense see SCHMIDT, Lex. 6.] 14-18. Grim-visag'd Warre... pleasing of a Lute] I. REED: Compare, Lyly, Alexander and Campaspe, 1584: 'Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turn'd to the soft noise of lyre and lute? The neighing of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimned the sun with smoak, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances.'-[p. 330, ed. Bond. Compare 15 And now, in ftead of mounting Barbed Steeds, To the lafciuious pleasing of a Lute. 15. now, in] now in Qq. in flead] in fleed QF, in sted Q, instead Rowe et seq. 16. Soules] foule Warb. conj. 18 16. Aduerfaries,] aduerfaries. Q.Qa 17. Ladies] Ladie's F. lady's Rowe et seq. 18. Lute.] loue. Qq. also the following from Ven. & Ad., where Venus, in speaking of the time when Mars wooed her, says: 'Over my altars hath he hung his lance, His batter'd shield, his uncontrolled crest, And for my sake hath learn'd to sport and dance, To toy, to wanton, dally, smile and jest, Scorning his churlish drum and ensign red.' (103-108.) —ED.]—DELIUS takes 'war' by metonymy for warrior.-J. C. COLLINS (p. 68): This looks like a mistranslation of Sophocles' Ajax, l. 7ο6: ' ἔλυσεν, αἰνὸν, ἀχος ἀπ ̓ ὀμμάτ Twv "Apns,' and to this mistranslation, it may be added, Shakespeare would be led by all the Latin versions, Vitus Winsemius turning it, 'dissolvit enim gravem dolorem ab oculis Mars'; Stephens paraphrasing it, 'Nam tristis dolor furorque mitigatus est'; and Rotallerus, 'tristes etenim abstersit ab oculis Mars violentus solicitudines'; this last apparently being the version which Shakespeare followed. [In the same connection COLLINS pleads for the force of accumulated examples in substantiating his claim for Shakespeare's classical knowledge. Unless we bear in mind this plea, the foregoing solitary example seems, it must be admitted, inadequate enough.-ED.] 15. Barbed] MURRAY (N. E. D.): Of a horse: Armed or caparisoned with a barb or bard; properly, barded.—IBID. (s. v. Bard): Obsolete except historically. Anglo-French barde, horse-armour, also 'a long saddle for an ass or mule, of canvas,' Cotgrave; cf. Italian barda, horse-armour, also pack-saddle. These and the existence of a dialectic French aubarde seem to identify the word with Spanish and Portuguese albarda, pack-saddle, referred by Devic to Arabic al-bardakah, ‘covering placed over the back of a beast to alleviate the pressure of a pack-saddle' (Freytag). Whether the French sense 'defensive armour for a horse' arose out of this is doubtful. 1. A protective covering for the breast and flanks of a war-horse, made of metal-plates, or of leather set with metal spikes or bosses, but sometimes merely ornamental, and made of velvet.—IB. (s. v. Barded): Armed, caparisoned or covered with bards. 1501. Douglas. Pal. Hon., I, xlvii, A bardit curser stout and bald. 1535 Coverdale, Joel, II, 4. They are to loke vpon like bayrded horses. 17. He capers] JOHNSON: War capers. This is poetical, though a little harsh; if it be York that 'capers,' the antecedent is at such a distance that it is almost forgotten. [If war be permitted to smooth his wrinkled front, may he not also indulge in a caper?-ED.]-DOUCE (ii, 32): The amorous temper of Edward the Fourth is well known; and there cannot be a doubt that by the 'lascivious pleasing of a lute,' he is directly alluded to. The subsequent description likewise that Richard gives of himself is in comparison with the king. Johnson thought the image of 'war capering' poetical; yet it is not easy to conceive how 'grimvisaged war' could caper 'in a lady's chamber.'-WRIGHT: War, still personified as a rough soldier. 18. Lute] VAUGHAN (iii, 3): I believe the reading of the Qq [love] to be the But I, that am not shap'd for sportiue trickes, 19. I,] I Qq. I,- Cap. Mal. Ran. Steev. Varr. '03, '13, Dyce i, Sta. fhap'd for] hapte for Q1QQ; Sharpe for Qs Sharpe of QQ, Q8 fhapte of Steev. rep. ap. Cam. ii. 20. Nor] Not Qr true one. 20 20. amorous] am'rous Pope, Han. Warb. Johns. Looking-glaffe] looking lass Vaughan (iii, 4). 21. Maiefty] grace Han. Instead of mounting steeds in order to frighten timid adversaries, war now capers in a chamber in order to give lascivious pleasure to his lover. The final cause is thus expressed by 'to' in both instances of its occurrence; and so a far more perfect contrast is sustained. Further, to dance to the 'pleasing of a lute' is a somewhat wavering and misty image. 19, 20. But I... Looking-glasse] In a letter to the Academy, 12 Dec., 1874, J. G. MATHEWS calls attention to the resemblance between this passage and the following in a short poem entitled Ignoto, included among Epigrammes and Elegies, by J. D. [John Davies] and C. M. [Christopher Marlowe]: 'I am not fashioned for these amorous times, To count thy beauty with lascivious rhymes; I cannot dally, caper, dance, and sing, Oiling my saint with supple sonnetting.' MARSHALL (Intro., p. 9) also notes the similarity between these passages-apparently unaware that Mathews has anticipated him, and adds: 'It may be remarked that this poem [Ignoto] does not appear in the subsequent editions [of Epigrammes], which are both undated; but, on the authority of Ritson, the date of the first edition is generally assigned to 1596. The resemblance of expression is sufficient to suggest that the one author might have had the other's lines in his mind at the time.' Marshall wisely refrains, I think, from directly applying the charge of plagiarism either to Marlowe or to Shakespeare. STOKES (p. 30), after citing the letter by Mathews, prefers to regard Marlowe as the copyist. The poem may be found in Dyce's Marlowe, vol. iii, p. 263, and in Bullen's edition, vol. iii, p. 246.-ED. 20. amorous Looking-glasse] $CHMIDT (Lex.): A looking-glass that reflects a face fond of itself.-TAWNEY: 'Amorous' may also mean pertaining to love, as the mirror is part of Cupid's paraphernalia. Thus the passage would mean, to endeavour to gain the favour of a looking-glass, love's chosen instrument. This can be effected only by careful adornment of the person. It seems possible that 'looking-glass' may here mean a beloved lady, who reciprocates affection. Perhaps this is the simplest explanation. It may be illustrated by King John, II, i, 496– 503. [Both Schmidt and Tawney thus make the looking-glass passive. But Richard is sneering, not at himself, but at the idle pleasures of the time, and uses 'amorous,' I think, in the same sense in which he speaks of the 'lascivious pleasing of a lute'-the sound of the lute is not 'lascivious' nor the glass ‘amorous,' though both are active agents in producing the effects characterized by the adjectives.-ED.] 21. I, that am Rudely stampt] 'Richarde the third sonne was in witte and courage egall with either of them, [Edward and George Duke of Clarence] in bodye and prowesse farre under them bothe, little of stature, ill fetured of limmes, |