To entertaine these faire well spoken dayes, I am determined to proue a Villaine, 35 in Essay xliv. Of Deformity, says: 'Deformed persons are commonly even with Nature: For as Nature hath done ill by them; So doe they by Nature: Being for the most part, (as the Scripture saith) void of Naturall Affectiou; and so they have their Revenge of Nature.' [The First Edition of Bacon's Essays is dated 1597, the same year as the present play; the Essay on Deformity did not appear, however, until the edition of 1612; it is, therefore, possible that Bacon may have had Shakespeare's Richard in mind.-ED.] 34. well spoken dayes] MALONE: I am strongly inclined to think that Shakespeare wrote 'dames,' and that the word 'days' was caught by the compositor's eye glancing on a subsequent line.-BOSWELL: Malone's objection to the old reading was principally upon a notion that 'fair' and 'well spoken' could not, with propriety, be applied to 'days.' Compare: Twelfth Night, II, iv, 6: 'Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times.' Also Timon, IV, iii, 493: 'Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping.' Jonson, Every Man Out of his Humour: 'ignorant well-spoken days.' [—Induction, l. 77.] 35. I am... Villaine] C. LAMB (Works, iii, 282): Richard does not mean that because he is by shape and temper unfitted for a courtier, he is therefore determined to prove, in our sense of the word, a wicked man. 'Villain' is here undoubtedly used for churl, or clown, opposed to a courtier; and the incipient deterioration of the meaning gave the use of it in this place great spirit and beauty. A wicked man does not necessarily hate courtly pleasures; a clown is naturally opposed to them. The mistake of this meaning has, I think, led the players into that hard literal conception with which they deliver this passage, quite foreign, in my understanding, to the bold gay-faced irony of the soliloquy. Richard, upon the stage, looks round, as if he were literally apprehensive of some dog snapping at him; and announces his determination of procuring a looking-glass, and employing a tailor, as if he were prepared to put both in practice before he should get homeI apprehend 'a world of figures here.'—SCOTT (Essays, iii, 34): J. P. Kemble never could look the part of Richard, and it seemed a jest to hear him, whose countenance and person were so eminently fine, descant on his own deformity. He was, perhaps, sensible of this, for he used to argue that Richard III., being of high descent and breeding, ought not to be vulgar in his appearance or coarse in his cruelty. There certainly should prevail a tinge of aristocracy about the dramatic Richard, but it ought not to be of a generous or chivalrous character, or, whatever the figure of the historical Richard may have been, that of a handsome prince.-J. C. HARE (p. 408): There are several things in Richard's position which justify a great difference in the representation of his inward being. Above all, his deformity seemed to separate him from sympathy and communion with his kind, and to be a plea for thinking that, as he was a monster in body, he might also be a monster in heart and conduct. I cannot but think that Shakespeare would have made a somewhat different use even of this motive, if he had rewritten the play in the maturity of his intellect. Would not Richard then, like Edmund and Iago, have palliated and excused his crimes, and played tricks with his conscience? Would he not have denied and avowed his wickedness, almost with the same breath? 36 And hate the idle pleasures of these dayes. 36. hate] bate Johns. conj. 37. Inductions] inductious QQ2 At all events, since the justification that may be alleged for Richard's bolder avowals of his wichedness results from the peculiar idiosyncrasy of his position and his physical frame, he is a most unsafe model for other poets to follow, though a very tempting one. The main difficulties of dramatic poetry are smoothed down when a writer can make his characters tell us how good and how bad he designs them to be.-HUDSON, after quoting a portion of Hare's remarks, says (Life, etc., ii, 154): 'But does not Richard's most distinctive feature, as compared with Iago and Edmund, stand mainly in this, that intellectual pride is in a more exclusive manner the constituent of his character?' Hare furthermore finds fault with the selfanalysis in the soliloquies of Richard in this play, and in 3 Henry VI., on the ground that 'it is as contrary to nature for a man to anatomize his heart and soul thus, as it would be to make him dissect his own body.' Which Hudson thus excuses: 'Richard as drawn by Shakespeare in action no less than in speech has a dare-devil intellectuality, in the strength of which, for aught I can see, he might inspect and scrutinize himself as minutely and as boldly as he would another person, or as another person would him. And why might he not, from the same cause, grow and harden into a habit of facing his blackest purposes as unflinchingly as he does his unsightly person, and even of taking pleasure in over-painting their wickedness to himself, in order at once to stimulate and to gratify his lust of the brain?'-PETRI (p. 213): In these words, 'I am determined to prove a Villain,' is contained the germ which the progress of the drama must develop. -BRANDES (i, 152): When J. L. Heiberg refused to produce Richard III. at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, he expressed a doubt whether 'we could ever accustom ourselves to seeing Melpomene's dagger converted into a butcher's knife.' He doubted, justly enough, the psychological possibility of the phrase 'I am determined to prove a villain'; but with a very slight change in the form of expression the idea is by no means indefensible. . . . To Richard the lust of power is an inward agony. He compares himself to a man 'lost in a thorny wood,' and sees no way of deliverance except to 'hew his way out with a bloody axe.' Thus is he tormented by his desire for the crown; and to achieve it he will 'drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; . . . Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could;. . . add colours to the chameleon; . . . And send the murd'rous Machiavel to school.' If this is to be a villain, then a villain he is. ... 36. idle pleasures] 'Idle' is here used, I think, not in the sense of indolent, unemployed, or as in Hamlet, 'I must be idle,' III, ii, 95, where 'idle' means wild, flighty in speech, but in the sense of frivolous, trifling. SCHMIDT (Lex.) gives numerous examples of 'idle' in this latter sense.-ED. 37. Plots haue I laide] STEEVENS: Marston has put this line, with little variation, into the mouth of 'Fame': 'Plots ha' you laid? inductions dangerous?' [The Fawne, II, i.-RICHARDSON (p. 15): It may be said perhaps that the colouring here is by far too strong, and that we cannot conceive characters to exist so full of deliberate guilt as thus to contemplate a criminal conduct without subterfuge, and without imposing on themselves. It may be thought that even the Neros and the Domitians, who disgraced human nature, did not consider them By drunken Prophefies, Libels, and Dreames, 38 40 38. By... Dreames] Transposed to follow 1. 40. Johns. selves so atrociously wicked as they really were; but, transported by lawless passions, deceived themselves, and were barbarous without perceiving their guilt. Yet the view which Shakespeare has given us of Richard's deliberate guilt is not inconsistent. With his other enormities and defects, he represents him incapable of feeling, though he may perceive the difference between virtue and vice. ... I will indeed allow that the effect would have been as powerful, and the representation better suited to our ideas of human nature, had Richard, both here and in other scenes, given indications of his guilt rather by obscure hints and surmises, than by an open declaration.-COURTENAY (Commentaries, etc., ii, 64): The insinuation that Edward's jealousy of Clarence was brought about by Gloucester is one of the instances which abound in the play, of that which may, indeed, be almost deemed its design, the blackening of the character of the king whom the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth had dethroned.-JESSE (Richard III., etc., p. 113): Two of the most bigoted of the Tudor Chroniclers, Hall and Holinshed, not only are silent on the charge of Gloucester's having been the instigator of his brother's death, but admit that he impugned the rigour of the sentence passed upon Clarence. . . . Had Richard availed himself of his privilege as a peer, and sat and voted at Clarence's trial, presumptive evidence would have been afforded that he desired his brother's death. But not only is there no evidence of his having sat at that tribunal, but, on the contrary, there is much more reason to believe that at the time of Clarence's trial and execution Richard was quietly discharging the duties of his government in the north of England. [Holinshed was not altogether silent on the subject of Richard's complicity, since he copied the following from More's Life of Richard: 'Somme wise menne also weene, that his [Gloucester's] drifte couertly conuayde, lacked not in helping furth his brother of Clarence to his death: whiche hee resisted openly, howbeit somwhat (as menne demed) more faintly then he that wer hartely minded to his welth' (p. 10).—Ed.] 37. Inductions] JOHNSON: Preparations for mischief. The 'induction' is preparatory to the action of the play. [Compare IV, iii, 7: 'A dire induction am I witness to'; also, Henry IV: III, 1, 2: 'Our inductions full of prosperous hope.' WEBB prefers to take ‘induction' in its technical, musical sense ‘Of a beginning in a scheme of music,' as has been already suggested by Carleton; see note by Wright on 'descant,' l. 32.—ED.] 38. drunken Prophesies] Compare II, i, 132: 'a drunken slaughter'; or see SCHMIDT, § 14, p. 1423. 41. Edward... iust] WARBURTON's interpretation 'if Edward be as openhearted, and free from deceit' seems hardly relevant. JOHNSON interprets 'if Edward keep his word'; to both of these MONCk Mason objects, preferring: 'If Edward hold his natural disposition and be true to that.' VAUGHAN says: 'even if the king were as just as I [Richard] am treacherous, yet Clarence should today be in prison.' WRIGHT's interpretation 'as true and just, and therefore the less likely to entertain any suspicion,' is, I think, the best.—ED. 42 As I am Subtle, False, and Treacherous, Of Edwards heyres the murtherer shall be. 43. mew'd] mewed Q. mewd Q. 44, 45. About...be] Om. Pope. 44. Prophefie] adrohefie Qls Prophecy F 45. Edwards] Eedwards Q. ward's F2F murtherer] Ff,+, Cap. therers QQ,, Knt, Wh. i, Huds. derer Var. '78 et cet. 45 Ed mur mur 43. mew'd vp] SKEAT (Dict.): In English, the sense of a cage is the oldest, whence the verb mew, to enclose. At a later date the verb mew also meant, to moult, which is the original sense in French. 44. a Prophesic] The misprint adrohesie in Q, would hardly be worth the noting were it not that this Quarto has several other like slight divergences from the preceding Qq, e. g., I, i, 78: 'secure' Q; securde Q; I, i, 144: 'Bussards' QQ2; Buzars Q、Q; I, ii, 95: 'didst' Q; didest Q; I, ii, 104: 'bloudy' Q2; bloodly Q;Q; I, ii, 149: ‘revengd' Q„; revengde Q. These few examples are taken from the First Act only; doubtless the list might be extended. Those interested will find materials for comparison in the Text. Notes throughout the rest of the play. There is, however, one small point which may possibly be worth notice: had the compositor a printed page before him, these slight changes would not have been likely to occur; but were he composing from dictation, the chances for such variations would be increased. It will be noticed from the Text. Notes that Q, with scarcely an exception, repeated these misprints, which, I think, points to the inference that possibly Q, was set up from the printed copy of Q.—ED. 44, 45. Prophesie,... be] 'Some haue reported that the cause of this nobleman's death rose of a foolish prophesie, which was, that, after K. Edward, one should reigne, whose first letter of his name should be G. Wherewith the king and queene were sore troubled, and began to conceiue a greeuous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end.'-Holinshed, Edward IV.-OECHELHAÜSER (Essay, p. 65): These following lines reveal the weakest part of this soliloquy; Shakespeare should at least have thought of a better motive for Edward's spite against Clarence. Holinshed, indeed, could easily have afforded him one, in the insolent and ambitious bearing of his turbulent brother. Holinshed refers to this prophecy, about the letter G, as current among the people; but to represent Richard as the originator of it is a grave error, since it might quite as well refer to Gloucester himself-Holinshed says that after Richard's usurpation the people so interpreted it.-MARSHALL'S observation that 'Shakespeare's authority for this, and the following lines, is Hall, who got it from Polydore Vergil,' is not quite correct. Neither Polydore Vergil, nor Hall, Holinshed, and More connect Gloucester in any way with the origin of this prophecy. As the existence of such a warning is mentioned by both Hall and Holinshed, it seems as needless as impossible to say which historian was Shakespeare's authority. -ED.-CHURCHILL (p. 51): John Rous [Historia Regum Angliæ, circa 1490] represents the prophecy about G as the sole cause of Clarence's death. In the days of Henry VII. it appears such a prophecy was considered cause enough. [Churchill also calls attention to the fact that Rous is the first of the Chroniclers Diue thoughts downe to my foule, here Clarence comes. Enter Clarence, and Brakenbury,guarded. Brother, good day : What meanes this armed guard That waites vpon your Grace? Cla. His Maiefty tendring my perfons fafety, 46. Diue...comes] Two lines, ending foule...comes Qq. 47. and...guarded.] with a guard of men. Qq. (gard Q,Q,.) guarded, and Brackenbury. Rowe ii et seq. 48. day] dayes Qq. (daies Q.) 46 50 Maiefty...appointed... Tower. Pope et seq. 50, 51. His...appointed] One line, Qq. 50. tendring] QqFf, Rowe. Tend'ring Pope,+, Wh. i. Tendering Var. '73 et cet. who mentions such a prophecy. WRIGHT, after quoting the foregoing passage from Holinshed, refers to Heywood's 2 Edward IV. (Works, i, 131-134), wherein the authorship of this prophecy is attributed 'to a Friar Anselm, of St. Bartholomew's.'—ED.]—J. R. LOWELL (p. 81): In the Mirour for Magistrates these lines are put into the mouth of the Duke of Clarence: 'A prophesie was found, which sayd a G, Of Edwards children should destruction bee.' [-ed. 1610, p. 385. The title of this legend is: 'How George Plantagenet third sonne of the Duke of Yorke, was by his brother King Edward wrongfully imprisoned, and by his brother Richard miserably murdered the 11 of Januarie, An. Dom., A. D. 1478.' It appeared in the First Edition of the Mirour, 1559, and is attributed to Baldwin.— ED.] 46. Diue thoughts] WEBB: On the first approach of another human being Richard prepares to dissemble, and bids his real thoughts disappear like so many evil spirits to the most secret recesses of his soul. 47. Enter Clarence] RAMSAY (ii, 422, footnote) says that Clarence's estates were confiscated as from 'Michaelmas 1477, but no evidence of the date of his arrest has yet been found.' He was impeached before a Parliament summoned for the 16th January, 1478. [For a detailed account of the charges against Clarence, and also of the trial, see either RAMSAY, ii, 419-425, or LINGARD, IV, ch. ii, p. 207 et seq.—ED.] 47. Brakenbury] WRIGHT: At the time of Edward's death the Marquis of Dorset is said to have been Constable of the Tower (Bayley: History of the Tower of London, i, 64). Sir Robert Brakenbury was not confirmed in his office till March 9, 1483-4. [Syllabus of Rymer's Federa, p. 502.-FRENCH (p. 221) says that Edward made John Howard Constable of the Tower in 1470, but there is apparently an error in this date, as at that time Edward was suppressing a rebellion in the North, and was not restored to the throne until after the Battle of Barnet, April 14, 1471. Rymer (op. cit.) has not recorded any such appointment during the years 1470 or 1471.-ED.] 50. His Maiesty] BARNARD: An anachronism. The title used by Edward IV. was 'most high and mighty prince.' Sometimes the term Invictissimus was applied to him: he had won every battle in which he commanded.-BRADLEY (N. E. D. s. v. d. 2): In England [his, your, her] majesty occurs, in its Latin form, from the twelfth century, though examples of the vernacular form are not met with before |