Young Edward lives;-Think now what I would speak. Buck. Say on, my loving lord. K. Rich. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king. Buck. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned liege. K. Rich. Ha! am I king? 'Tis so: but Edward lives. Buck. True, noble prince. K. Rich. O bitter consequence, What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief. K. Rich. Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes: Say, have I thy consent, that they shall die? Buck. Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord, Before I positively speak in this: I will resolve your grace immediately. [Exit BUCK. Cates. The king is angry; see, he gnaws his lip.3 K. Rich. I will converse with iron-witted fools, [Aside. [Descends from his Throne. And unrespective boys; none are for me, Page. My lord. K. Rich. Know'st thou not any, whom corrupting gold Would tempt unto a close exploits of death? 3 — see, he gnaws his lip.] Several of our ancient historians observe, that this was an accustomed action of Richard, whether he was pensive or angry. Steevens. 4 And unrespective boys;] Unrespective is inattentive to conse quences, inconsiderate. So, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599: "When dissolute impiety possess'd "The unrespective minds of prince and people." Steevens. Unrespective is, devoid of cautious and prudential consideration. Malone. See note on the following passage in the Rape of Lucrece, edit. 1790, p. 102: "Respect and reason wait on wrinkled age." Steevens. 5 close exploit-] Is secret act. Johnson. Page. I know a discontented gentleman, Whose humble means match not his haughty mind: Gold were as good as twenty orators, And will, no doubt, tempt him to any thing. K. Rich. What is his name? Page. His name, my lord, is-Tyrrel. K. Rich. I partly know the man; Go, call him hither, boy. The deep-revolving witty Buckingham [Exit Page. No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels: And stops he now for breath?—well, be it so.— How now, lord Stanley? what's the news? Stan. Know, my loving lord," The marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled To Richmond, in the parts where he abides. K. Rich. Come hither, Catesby: rumour it abroad, That Anne my wife is very grievous sick; I will take order for her keeping close.3 Inquire me out some mean-born gentleman, Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter:The boy is foolish, and I fear not him. 6 9 witty] In this place signifies judicious or cunning. A wit was not at this time employed to signify a man of fancy, but was used for wisdom or judgment. So, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599: "Although unwise to live, had wit to die." Again, in one of Ben Jonson's Masques : "And at her feet do witty serpents move." Steevens. 7 Know, my loving lord,] Surely, we should adopt Sir Thomas Hanmer's regulation, and give the passage thus: How now, lord Stanley? what's the news? My lord, &c. Are the omitted words-know and loving, of so much value, that measure must continue to be sacrificed for their preservation? Steevens. 8 I will take order for her keeping close.] i. e. I will take measures that shall oblige her to keep close. So, in Marlowe and Nashe's Dido, 1594, Jupiter says: "I will take order for that presently." The same phrase occurs in Othello, Act V, sc. ii. Steevens. 9 The boy is foolish,] Shakspeare has here perhaps anticipated the folly of this youth. He was, at this time, I believe, about ten years old, and we are not told by any historian that he had then exhibited any symptoms of folly. Being confined by King Henry Look, how thou dream'st!-I say again, give out, To stop all hopes, whose growth may damage me.→ Is thy name-Tyrrel?3 VII, immediately after the battle of Bosworth, and his education being consequently entirely neglected, he is described by Polydore Virgil at the time of his death (in 1499) as an idiot; and his account (which was copied by Hall and Holinshed) was certainly a sufficient authority for Shakspeare's representation: "Edouardus Varvici comes in carcere ab incunabulis extra hominum ferarumque conspectum nutritus, qui gallinam ab ansere non facile internosceret, cum nullo suo delicto supplicium quærere posset, alieno ad id tractus est." Malone. 11 it stands me much upon,] i. e. it is of the utmost conse. quence to my designs. The same phrase occurs in The Comedy of Errors: "Consider how it stands upon my credit." See also Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc. i. Steevens. 21 But I am in So far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin.] The same reflections occur in Macbeth: Again: 66 I am in blood "Step'd in so far, that should I wade no more, "Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill." Steevens. 3 Is thy name- -Tyrrel?] It seems, that a late editor (who boasts much of his fidelity in " marking the places of action, both general and particular, and supplying scenical directions,") throughout this scene, has left King Richard on his throne; whereas he might have learnt from the following passage in Sir John Harrington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, that the monarch appeared, during the present interview with Tyrrel, on an elevation of much less dignity. "The best part (says Sir John) of our chronicles, in all men's opinions is that of Richard the third, written as I have heard by Moorton, but as most suppose, by that worthy and in Tyr. James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject. K. Rich. Art thou, indeed? Tyr. Prove me, my gracious lord. K. Rich. Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine? Tyr. Please you; but I had rather kill two enemies. K. Rich. Why, then thou hast it; two deep enemies, Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers, Are they that I would have thee deal upon:4, Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower. Tyr. Let me have open means to come to them, And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them. K. Rich. Thou sing'st sweet musick. Hark, come hither, Tyrrel; Go, by this token :-) Rise, and lend thine ear: There is no more but so:-Say, it is done, Re-enter BUCKINGHAM. [Whispers. Buck. My lord, I have consider'd in my mind The late demand that you did sound me in. [Exit. K. Rich. Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to Rich mond. Buck. I hear the news, my lord. K. Rich. Stanley, he is your wife's son:-` -Well, look to it. corrupt magistrate Sir Thomas More, sometime lord chancellor of England, where it is said, how the king was devising with Teril to have his nephews privily murdred; and it is added, he was then sitting on a draught; a fit carpet for such a counsel." See likewise Holinshed, Vol. II, p. 735. Steevens. For Richard's mode of proceeding on this occasion, there are, it appears, many ancient and dignified precedents. "Maximilian the emperor," says old Montaigne, "with other customes of his had this one, most contrary to other princes, (who, to dispatch their weightiest affaires, make often their ce s-1 their regal throme or council-chamber,) which was," &c. Florio's Translation, 1603. 4 Malone. deal upon:] So, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. by Nashe, 1596: "At Wolfe's he's billeted, sweating and dealing upon it most intentively." See also my note on Antony and Cleopa tra, Act III, sc. ix. Steevens. deal upon :] i. e. act upon. We should now say-deal with; but the other was the phraseology of our author's time. Malone. Buck. My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise, For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd; The earldom of Hereford," and the moveables, Which you have promised I shall possess. K. Rich. Stanley, look to your wife; if she convey Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it. Buck. What says your highness to my just request? K. Rich. I do remember me,-Henry the sixth Did prophecy, that Richmond should be king, When Richmond was a little peevish boy. A king!-perhaps The earldom of Hereford, &c.] Thomas Duke of Gloster, the fifth son of Edward the Third, married one of the daughters and coheirs of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford. The Duke of Gloster's nephew, Henry Earl of Derby, (the eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward the Third) who was afterwards King Henry IV, married the other daughter of the Earl of Hereford. The moiety of the Hereford estate, which had been possessed by that King, was seized on by Edward IV, as legally devolved to the crown, on its being transferred from the house of Lancaster to that of York. Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was lineally descended from Thomas Duke of Gloster, his only daughter Anne having married Edmund Earl of Stafford, and Henry being the great grandson of Edmund and Anne. In this right he and his ancestors had possessed one half of the Hereford estate; and he claimed and actually obtained from Richard III, after he usurped the throne, the restitution of the other half, which had been seized on by Edward; and also the earldom of Hereford, and the office of Constable of England, which had long been annexed by inheritance to that earldom. See Dugdale's Baronage, Vol. I, p. 168, 169. Many of our historians, however, ascribe the breach between him and Richard to Richard's refusing to restore the moiety of the Hereford estate; and Shakspeare has followed them Thomas Duke of Gloster was created Earl of Hereford in 1386, by King Richard II, on which ground the Duke of Buckingham had some pretensions to claim a new grant of the title; but with respect to the moiety of the estate, he had not a shadow of right to it; for supposing that it devolved to Edward IV, with the crown, it became, after the murder of his sons, the joint property of his daughters. If it did not devolve to King Edward IV, it belonged to the right heirs of King Henry IV. Malone. 6 Aking! perhaps -] From hence to the words, Thou troublest me, I am not in the vein-have been left out ever since the first editions; but I like them well enough to replace them Pope. The allusions to the plays of Henry VI, are no weak proofs of the authenticity of these disputed pieces. Johnson. |