that portion of the folio text, as given in Dr. Ingleby's Shakespeare: The Man and the Book, Part II. p. 139. He says there that the folio text up to a certain point in the third scene of act v. "gives the acting version in use in 1622;" but from that point to the end "it is supplemented from the 1602 quarto," the prompter's copy from which the rest was printed being probably "deficient towards the conclusion."

Even so cautious and conservative a critic as Halliwell - Phillipps recognizes indications of earlier work in the play. In his Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare (6th ed. vol. i. p. 136—where, however, the passage is reprinted without change from the earlier editions), after referring to the historical sources of the plot in More and Holinshed, he adds:

"There are also slight traces of an older play to be observed, passages which may belong to an inferior hand, and incidents, such as that of the rising of the ghosts,* suggested probably by similar ones in a more ancient composition. That the play of Richard III., as we now have it, is essentially Shakespeare's, cannot admit of a doubt; but as little can it be questioned that to the circumstance of an anterior work on the subject having been used do we owe some of its weakness and excessively turbulent character. No copy of this older play is known to exist, but one brief speech and the two following lines have been accidentally preserved:

'My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is ta'en,
And Banister is come for his reward'—

[compare Richard III. iv. 4. 529: 'My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken'], from which it is clear that the new dramatist did not hesitate to adopt an occasional line from his predecessor, although he entirely omitted the character of Banister. Both plays must have been successful, for, notwithstanding the great popularity of Shakespeare's, the more ancient one sustained its ground on the English stage until the reign of Charles I."

As we have said above (p. 11), the date of the play is probably as early as 1594, if not 1593. Its peculiarities and imperfections may be partially due to a mingling of earlier work by another hand, but we are inclined to agree with Halliwell-Phillipps that it is "essentially Shakespeare's."

* Mr. Lowell remarked that the procession of ghosts in the play always struck him 'as ludicrous and odd rather than impressive."

KING RICHARD 111.

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

KING EDWARD the Fourth.

EDWARD, Prince of Wales, after

wards King Edward V.,

Sons to

the King.

RICHARD, Duke of York,

GEORGE, Duke of Clarence,

RICHARD, Duke of Gloster, after

wards King Richard III.,

A young Son of Clarence.

Brothers to

the King.

HENRY, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII. CARDINAL BOUCHIER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

THOMAS ROTHERHAM. Archbishop of York.

JOHN MORTON, Bishop of Ely.

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DUKE OF NORFOLK.

EARL OF SURREY, his Son.

EARL RIVERS, Brother to Elizabeth.

MARQUIS OF DORSET and LORD GREY, Sons to Elizabeth.

EARL OF OXFORD.

LORD HASTINGS.

LORD STANLEY.

LORD LOVEL.

SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN

SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF.

SIR WILLIAM CATESBY.

SIR JAMES TYRREL.

SIR JAMES BLOUNT.

SIR WALTER HERBERT.

SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower.
CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a Priest.

Another Priest.

A Keeper

Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire. in the Tower.

ELIZABETH, Queen to King Edward IV.

MARGARET, Widow of King Henry VI.

DUCHESS OF YORK, Mother to King Edward IV.
LADY ANNE, Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales.

A young Daughter of Clarence.

Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, etc.

SCENE: England.

Gloster. Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York,
And all the clouds that lower'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them ;-
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate, the one against the other;
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that G

Of Edward's heirs the murtherer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul; here Clarence comes.—

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.

Brother, good day. What means this armed guard

That waits upon your grace?

Clarence.

His majesty,

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