}

King Edward IV.
Edward, Prince of Wales, after-
wards Edward V.

Sons to Edward IV.
Richard, Duke of York,
George, Duke of Clarence, Brother to Edward IV.
A young Son of Clarence.
Richard, Duke of Glofter, Brother 10 Edward IV.

afterwards King Richard III.
Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Archbisloop of York.
Bishop of Ely.
Duke of Buckingham.
Duke of Norfolk. Earl of Surrey.
Earl Rivers, brother to K. Edwards's Queen.
Marquis of Dorset,} her fons.

.
Earl of Richmond, afierwards King Henry VII.
Lord Hastings.
Sir Thomas Vaughan.
Sir Richard Ratcliff.
Lord Lovel.
Sir William Catesby.
Sir James Tyrrel.
Lord Stanley.
Earl of Oxford.
Sir James Blount.
Sir Walter Herbert.
Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower,
Christopher Urswick, a Priest. Another Priest.
Lord Mayor.
Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV.
Queen Margaret, Widow of Henry VI.
Anne, Widow of Edward Prince of Wales, Son to Hen-

VI. afterwards married to the Duke of Gloster. Dutchess of York, Mother to Edward IV. Clarence,

and Richard III. Sheriff, Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Ghosts, Soldiers,

and other Attendants.

ry

Glo. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this fun of York”;

And

1

Life and Death of King Richard III.] This tragedy, though it is called the Life and Death of this prince, comprizes, at most, but the last eight years of his time; for it opens with George duke of Clarence being clapped up in the Tower, which happened in the beginning of the year 1477; and closes with the death of Richard at Bosworthfield, which battle was fought on the 22d of August, in the year 1485. THEOBALD. It

appears that several dramas on the present subject had been written before Shakespeare attempted it. See the notes at the conclusion of this play, which was first enter'd at Stationers' Hall by Andrew Wise, Oct. 20, 1597, under the title of The Tragedie of King Richard the Third, with the Death of the Duke of Clarence. Before this, viz. Aug. 15th, 1586, was entered, A Tragical report of King Richard the Third, a Ballad. It may be necessary to remark that the words, fong, ballad, book, enterlude and play, were often fynonymoufly used. STEEVENS.

this fun of York ;] Alluding to the cognizance of Ed. ward IV. which was a fun, 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.

So,

2

B z
В 2

And all the clouds, that lowr'd upon our house,
In the deep bosom of the ocean bury'd.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arins hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarunis chang'd to merry meetings',
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visag'd war hath sincoth'd his wrinkled front;
And now,-inftead of mounting barbed steeds“,

To

3

So, in Drayton's Miseries of Queen Margaret :

" Three suns were seen that instant to appear,
6. Which soon again fhut themselves up in one,
6 Ready to buckle as the armies were,

" Which this brave duke took to himself alone &c." Again, in the 22d Song of the Polyolbion : " And thankful to high heaven which of his caufe had

care, " Three suns for his device still in his ensign bare.” Again, in the Wrighte's Play in the Chester Collection, M. S. Harl. 1013, the fame prodigy is introduced as attending on a more so. lemn event :

That day was seene veramente
“ Three fonnes in the firmament,
"And wonderly together went
66 And torned into one." STEEVENS.

merry meetings,] So, in The tragical Life and Deans of King Richard the Third, which is one of the metrical monologues in a collection entitled, The Mirrour of Magiftrates. The first edition of it appeared in 1587, but the lines quoted on the prefent as well as future occalions throughout this play, are not found in any copy before that of 1610, so that the author was more probably indebted to Shakespeare than Shakespeare to him :

the battles fought in fields before
Were turn'd to meetings of sweet amitie;

The war-god's thundring cannons dreadful rore,
And rattling drum-founds' suarlike harmonie,
To frect-tun'd noije of pleasing minstrelsie.

God Mars laid by his launce, and tooke bis lulle,
And turn’d his rugged frownes to smiling lookes;

Infiead of crimjon fields, war's fatal fruit,
He bath'd his limbes in Cypris warbling brooks,

And set his thoughts upon her wanton lookes. Steevens, 4barbed feeds, s 1. Haywarde, in his Life and Raigne of Henry IV. 1599, fays,- The duke of Hereford came to the barriers, aneunted upon a white courser, barbed with blew and green velret, &c.

So,