THIS History was originally published in 1597, under the following title :-The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Containing his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittieful Murther of his innocent Nephewes: his tyrannical Usurpation: with the whole Course of his detested Life and most deserved Death. As it hath been lately acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his servants. Printed by Valentine Sims, for William Wise, 1597.' It is thus entered in the Stationers' Register:-"Oct. 20, 1597. Andrew Wise. The Tragedie of Kinge Richard the Third, with the Death of the Duke of Clarence." The same Andrew Wise enters the Richard II. on the previous 29th August. This play was reprinted four times in quarto previous to its appearance in the folio of 1623; in which edition it bears the following title: The Tragedy of Richard the Third: with the Landing of Earle Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field.' The running head of the play, in the folio, is 'The Life and Death of Richard the Third.'

The question of the date when the Richard III. was written will be discussed in our Essay on the Three Parts of Henry the Sixth and Richard the Third;' and the very curious elder play The True

Tragedie of Richard the Third,' reprinted by Boswell in 1821, is there noticed. We shall at present confine ourselves to some observations on the state of the text.

The mode in which the modern text of the Richard III. has been constructed is thus stated by Malone:"In this play the variations between the original copy in quarto, and the folio, are more numerous than, I believe, in any other of our author's pieces. The alterations, it is highly probable, were made, not by Shakspeare, but by the players, many of them being very injudicious." This would appear a sufficient reason for the modern editors rejecting the text of the folio altogether. But they have not followed this course, which would at least have the merit of consistency. They have adopted these alterations, made " by the players," in by far the greater number of cases. For example there are about one hundred and twenty new lines introduced in the folio-" by the players," of course; in one case there is a single passage amounting to fifty-five lines. These new lines are all adopted; and they are most important lines. In a great number of minute instances the text of the folio is preferred by them; and Steevens says, unhesitatingly, that it is the best text. On the other hand, there is a remarkable passage, most thoroughly Shaksperian (Act IV., Scene II.), which is not found in the folio; and the modern text very properly adopts it. This is the only instance ir which, to our minds, any advantage has resulted from the collation of the quartos; and this passage was restored by Pope. We will give one or two examples of the mode in which the text of the folio has been preferred by the modern editors to that of the quartos, in addition to their adoption of all the new lines:

FOLIO OF 1623.

And the queen's sons and brothers, haught and proud.

A dream of what thou wast; a garish flag,
To be the aim of every dangerous shot;
A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble.

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.

QUARTO OF 1597.

And the queen's kindred, haughty and proud.

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.

Thy school-days, frightful, desperate, wild, and furious;
Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, bloody, treacherous.

Taking, then, the authority of the folio in part, and rejecting it in part, the modern editors have proceeded to manufacture a text upon the principle which has been thus stated by Malone: “The text has been formed out of the two copies, the folio and the early quarto; from which the preceding editors have in every scene selected such readings as appeared to them fit to be adopted. To enumerate every variation between the copies would encumber the page, with little use." Nothing, we think, can be more unsatisfactory than this mode of proceeding; and Malone gets out of the difficulty by depreciating the folio at every turn, whilst he in reality adopts all its more important readings. He says, "several alterations were made in this play, evidently unauthorized by Shakspeare." These are the alterations which, no doubt, he passes over sub silentio. We adopt, once for all, the text of the folio, with the exception of three or four passages, where we follow the quarto, and state our reasons for this course. In our foot-notes we have not, adopting the text of the folio, indicated all the variations in the quartos; but we have indicated every passage in which our text is a variation from the received text, and this for the purpose that, when the critical student encounters a reading different from that to which he is accustomed, he may compare and judge for himself.