ΤΟ H. H. F. My other felfe, my Counfailes Confiftory, My Oracle, My Prophet, I, as a childe, will go by thy direction, II, ii, 159. PREFACE Ir is certainly fortunate that very few of SHAKESPEARE'S plays are furnished with such a number of sources whence the text is to be drawn, or such a mosaic text, when finally obtained, as Richard the Third. It appeared in what, according to Heminge and Condell, were 'stolne and surreptitious' Quartos no less than six times before it was set forth 'cured and perfect of [its] limbes' in the Folio of 1623. And it is the differences between these multitudinous texts that present to an editor one of the gravest problems in the whole range of Shakespearian literature; a determination of the true text demands wary walking; to omit a reading in the Quarto seems sacrilege: to include every reading spells confusion. In the following pages the text of the First Folio is reprinted with all the accuracy at my command; in it is incorporated, and designated by asterisks, the additions of the Quartos, whereof the omissions and transpositions are duly recorded in the Textual Notes. Thus the present text, which, to a certain extent, is a text of shreds and patches, has at least the merit of omitting nothing which we have reason to believe was SHAKESPEARE'S own-we, like Garrick, cannot lose one drop of that immortal man. No one familiar with that department of Shakespearian study which deals with textual problems can be at all surprised at the variety and number of theories and solutions proposed to account for the mystery of the eight Quarto versions of the present play. The field is spacious and excellently furnished with pitfalls and quagmires, wherein each critic views with pleasure his rivals caught or floundering, while he himself, in his own opinion, walks triumphant and secure; we are involuntarily reminded of Pope's well-known lines: 'Tis with our judgements as our watches; none Go just alike, but each believes his own.' The earliest mention of this play is to be found in the Stationer's Registers, under the date of 20th October, 1597, as follows: Andrewe wise.-Entered for his copie vnder th andes of * Arber's Transcript, iii, 25. SHAKESPEARE'S name is not here given, nor does his name appear on the title-page when, in the same year, the book was finally issued. There can be, I think, no evidence of the popularity of the play surer than the number of its editions which were issued at short intervals. Thus, the present play was reprinted, including the two Folios, ten times in thirty-seven years. Six of the eight Quartos appeared, as has just been said, before the Folio of 1623; the first five, during SHAKESPEARE'S lifetime. In the Appendix, under The Text, will be found a transcript of the title-pages of these Quartos, but to facilitate present reference the dates are here given: Q1, 1597; Q2, 1598; Q3, 1602; Qu 1605; Q, 1612; Q, 1622; Q, 1629; Qs, 1634. It follows, as of course, that any discussion of the Text increases, not only in volume and intricacy, but in theories, near or far-fetched, in direct proportion to the number of Quartos with their variations from the Folio or among themselves. Happy the editor who has before him for collation the simple text of the Folios, with no disturbing outside element! The present play is distinguished by the extraordinary divergence of the text of the Quarto of 1597 from that of the Folio. Were this divergence confined solely to verbal changes, the editor would be guided in the task of forming a composite text either by his own personal preference or by the consensus of opinion of his predecessors; but the divergences here are so wide that no such guides avail him. There are many consecutive lines in the Folio whereof there are no traces in the Quarto, and again there are similar lines in the Quartos which are omitted in the Folio. These additions, both in the Folios and Quartos, seem, in some instances, necessary to complete the sense; and in others, mere amplifications of what has been already perhaps too concisely expressed. Take, for example, a passage in the scene between Richard and Buckingham in Act IV, scene ii, where the following lines (112131) are omitted in the Folio: 'A King perhaps. Buck. My Lord. King. How chance the Prophet could not at that time, Haue told me I being by, that I should kill him. 112 Buck. My lord, your promife for the Earledome. King. Richmond, when laft I was at Exeter, The Maior in curtefie fhowd me the Castle, And called it Ruge-mount, at which name I started, I fhould not liue long after I faw Richmond. Buck. My Lord. King. I, whats a clocke? Buck. I am thus bold to put your grace in mind 115 120 123 |