KING RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE I. London. A Street. Enter RICHARD. Rich. Now is the winter of our discontent Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.* The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun, in memory of the three suns which are said to have appeared at the battle he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross. See 3 Henry VI. Act ii. sc. 1, note 5. 2 Dances. 3 That is, steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings of war. The word is properly barded, from equus burdatus. 4❝Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? the neighing of barbed steeds, whose loud, ness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with smoke, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances ?" - Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe, 1584. - 5 But I, that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Feature is here used rather in the sense of proportion. So in More's description of Richard: "Little of stature, ill-featured of limmes, crooke-backed." See, also, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. sc. 4, note 5.- Dissembling, the commentators say, is not used here in the sense of deceiving, but of putting to gether things unlike, or assembling things that are not semblable, as a brave mind in a misshapen body. It may be so; but we rather think the meaning to be. that nature has cheated him out of beauty in much the same way as cheating is commonly done H. So in the folio; in the quartos spy, which is generally retained in modern editions. To our thinking, see yields the fitter sense, and savours less of phrase-making. H. 7 Inductions are beginnings, preparations; things that draw on or induce events. H. As I am subtle, false, and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up, Of Edward's heirs the murderer 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? Clar. His majesty, Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. Rich. Upon what cause? Clar. yours; Because my name is George. He hearkens after prophecies and dreams; And, for my name of George begins with G, 8 This is founded on the following passage in Holinshed: “Some have 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 a G. Wherewith the king and queene were sore troubled, and began to conceive a greevous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end. And as the divell is woont to incumber the minds of men which delite in such divelisn fantasies, 9 These, as I learn, and such like toys as these, Have mov'd his highness to commit me now. Rich. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women! "Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower; That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower, Clar. By Heaven, I think there is no man secure, Got my lord chamberlain his liberty. The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself," they said afterward, that that prophesie lost none of his effect, when, after king Edward, Gloster usurped his kingdome." H. That is, fancies, freaks of imagination. Thus in Hamlet, A et i. sc. 4: "The very place put toys of desperation, That tempers him to 10 So in the folio: the quartos have,this extremity;" where tempers means frames, disposes, which certainly makes excellent sense. Of course the insertion of harsh approves the change to have been authorized. 11 The queen and Shore. H. 12 In the quartos,this monarchy" The folio changed this to our. II. Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me : His majesty hath straitly given in charge, That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree soever, with his brother. Rich. Even so? an please your worship, Brakenbury, You may partake of any thing we say. We speak no treason, man: We say the king Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought to do. Rich. Naught to do with mistress Shore? thee, fellow, He that doth naught with her, excepting one, Were best to do it secretly, alone. Brak. What one, my lord? Rich. Her husband, knave! tray me? I tell Would'st thou be Brak. I do beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal, Forbear your conference with the noble duke. Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey. Rich. We are the queen's abjects,13 and must obey. Brother, farewell: I will unto the king; And whatsoe'er you will employ me in, 13 That is, the lowest of her subjects. This substantive is found in Psalm xxxv. 15: "Yea, the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not " |