THE

LIFE and DE A TH

OF

RICHARD III.

KING Edward IV.

Edward Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V.
Richard, Duke of York.

• Sons to Edward IV.

George, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV.

Richard, Duke of Glocefter, brother to Edward IV. afterwards King

Richard III.

Cardinal, Archbishop of York.

Duke of Buckingham.

Duke of Norfolk.

Earl of Surrey.

Marquifs of Dorfet, Son to Queen Elizabeth.

Earl Rivers, brother to the Queen.

Lord Gray, Son to Queen Elizabeth.

Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII.
Bishop of Ely.

Lord Haftings.

Sir Thomas Vaughan.

Sir Richard Ratcliff,

Lord Lovel,

Catesby,

}

Friends to the Duke of Glocefter.

Sir James Tyrrel, a Villain.

Thomas, Lord Stanley, Lord Steward of King Edward IV's Household,

afterwards Earl of Derby.

Earl of Oxford,

Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV.

Queen Margaret, Widow of Henry VI.

Anne, Widow of Edward Prince of Wales, Son to Henry VI. afterqwards married to the Duke of Glocefter.

Dutchess of York, Mother to Edward IV. Clarence, and Richard III.

Sheriff, Purfuivant, Citizens, Ghosts of those murder'd by Richard III. with Soldiers and other Attendants.

The SCENE, in ENGLAND.

A

The

N

ACTI.

SCENE, the Court.

Enter Richard Duke of Glocefter, folus.

WOW is the winter of our difcontent

Made glorious fummer by this fun of York:
And all the clouds, that lowr'd upon our house,

In the deep bofom of the ocean bury'd.

Now

(1) The Life and Death of King Richard III.] This tragedy, tho' it is call'd the Life and Death of this Prince, comprifes, at moft, but the last 8 Years of his time: For it opens with George Duke of Clarence being clap'd up in the Tower, which happen'd in the beginning of the Year 1477; and clofes with the death of Richard at Bofworth-field, which battle was fought on the 22d of Auguft in the Year 1485. This short hiftorical interval, however, is fo crouded with incidents, (if plotted and premeditated murders may bear that title,) that it is from the beginning to the end an Oglio of bloody diffimulation and ambitious cruelty. It has been very well obferv'd by the late Mr. Gildon, that Richard, as he is drawn, is not a fit character for the ftage; being shocking in all he does: That tho' the ancients had introduc'd an Atreus, Thyefes, &c. yet the cruelties committed by them have been the fudden effect of anger and revenge: But Richard is a calm villain; and does his murders deliberately, wading thro' a fea of his nearest relations blood to the Crozum. Tho' many worthy and wholefom laws were enacted under the protectorship and government of this ufurper, 'tis obvious, that the VOL. V. hiftorians

I

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruifed arms hung up for monuments;
Our ftern alarms chang'd to merry meetings;
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-vifag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the fouls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a Lady's chamber,
To the lafcivious pleasing of a lute.

But I, that am not fhap'd for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an am'rous looking-glafs,-
I, that am rudely ftampt, and want love's majesty,
To ftrut before a wanton, ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by diffembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, fent before my time
Into this breathing world, fcarce half made up;
And that fo lamely and unfafhionably,
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them:
Why I, (in this weak piping time of peace)
Have no delight to pafs away the time;
Unless to spy my fhadow in the fun,
And defcant on mine own deformity.
And therefore, fince I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain thefe fair well-fpoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleafures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophefies, libels, and dreams,
To fet my brother Clarence and the King
In deadly hate, the one againft the other :
And, if King Edward be as true and just,
As I am fubtle, falfe and treacherous,
This day fhould Clarence clofely be mew'd up;

hiftorians and poets, in loading his character, have at the fame time been paying their compliments to that line, which gave them an ELIZABETH. The miseries and iniquities of Civil War were richly compenfated in fuch a bleffing

Fam nihil, O Superi, querimur: Scelera ipja, Nefafque,
Hac Mercede placent.

Lucan.

About

About a prophecy, which fays, that G (2)
Of Edward's heirs the murderer fhall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my foul! here Clarence comes. Enter Clarence guarded, and Brakenbury."

Brother, good-day; what means this armed guard, That waits upon your Grace?

Clar. His Majesty,

Tend'ring my perfon's fafety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Glo. Upon what caufe?

Clar. Becaufe my name is George.

Glo. Alack, my Lord, that fault is none of He fhould for that commit your godfathers. Belike, his Majefty hath fome intent,

yours

That you fhould be new chriftened in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence, may I know?
Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I proteft,
As yet I do not; but as I can learn,

He hearkens after prophefies and dreams,
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G;
And fays, a wizard told him, that by G
His iffue difinherited should be.

And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought, that I am he.
Thefe, as I learn, and fuch like toys as these,
Have mov'd his Highness to commit me now.

Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women,
'Tis not the King, that fends you to the Tower;
My Lady Gray his wife, Clarence, 'tis fhe,
That tempts him to this harsh extremity.

(2) About a prophecy, which fays, that G

Of Edward's heirs the murderer fill be.] Thefe two lines are in all the old books whatfoever, as well as in all the modern ones that I have feen, except the two impreffions by Mr. Pope. By what authority he has thought fit to leave them out, I don't know: If he did it, because Clarence in the next fcene fays fomething much to the fame effect, I think, that is no reafon for expunging them. Mr. Pope has, in other cafes, where he thought any thing fuperfluous, thrown it out of the text, but then he has degraded it to the bottom of the page.