Richard III (The Annotated Shakespeare) (PDFDrive) PDF
Richard III (The Annotated Shakespeare) (PDFDrive) PDF
Richard III (The Annotated Shakespeare) (PDFDrive) PDF
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
To Gary and Joan Marotta
This page intentionally left blank
ix
overload, surfeit
something tossed in, an addition of no particular weight or significance
both they the two sons of Edward IV
action, live show
adulterous
silenced, suppressed, covered
spy, agent
kept in employment/alive
i.e., Hell’s
at hand close by
follows, pursues
x
Without full explanation of words that have over the years shifted
in meaning, and usages that have been altered, neither the mod-
ern reader nor the modern listener is likely to be equipped for
anything like full comprehension.
I believe annotations of this sort create the necessary bridges,
from Shakespeare’s four-centuries-old English across to ours.
Some readers,to be sure,will be able to comprehend unusual,his-
torically different meanings without any glosses. Those not fa-
miliar with the modern meaning of particular words will easily
find clear, simple definitions in any modern dictionary. But
most readers are not likely to understand Shakespeare’s intended
meaning, absent such glosses as I here offer.
The last Renaissance text of the play is the Folio, which I
have here followed. But see This Text, below.
My annotation practices have followed the same principles
used in The Annotated Milton, published in , and in my anno-
tated editions of Hamlet, published (as the initial volume in this
series) in , Romeo and Juliet (published in ), and subse-
quent volumes in this series. Classroom experience has validated
these editions. Classes of mixed upper-level undergraduates and
graduate students have more quickly and thoroughly transcended
language barriers than ever before. This allows the teacher, or a
general reader without a teacher, to move more promptly and
confidently to the nonlinguistic matters that have made Shake-
speare and Milton great and important poets.
It is the inevitable forces of linguistic change,operant in all liv-
ing tongues, which have inevitably created such wide degrees of
obstacles to ready comprehension—not only sharply different
meanings, but subtle, partial shifts in meaning that allow us to
think we understand when, alas, we do not. Speakers of related
xi
xii
xiii
xiv
xv
This Text
All of Shakespeare’s plays have textual uncertainties, but some of
the texts are more uncertain than others. Richard III is arguably
xvi
the most confused of all. There are two primary texts, the First
Quarto () and the Folio ().12 The seven successor quarto
editions, printed one from the next (and from all those before),
are of minimal importance. I have not ignored them, but neither
have I much followed them.
It has been argued that the First Quarto, because it is the ear-
liest, is thus the closest to the actual performing text of Shake-
speare’s play. On its face a reasonable assumption, this argument
is refuted by the First Quarto’s extraordinary number and range
of typographical errors (many rendering the text incomprehen-
sible). In the course of correcting the First Quarto, and its de-
scendants, the Folio text inevitably introduces new errors. Early
printing was an inherently error-producing process. On the
whole, however, the Folio is clearly a “better” text. If it some-
times cuts rather too much out of the First Quarto, mostly its
excisions and alterations have been intelligently and sensitively
made, and ill-advised cuts can be and are here (as in most mod-
ern editions they are) restored. And considering the authority of
those friends and associates of the playwright who produced the
Folio, the general superiority of that text is hardly surprising.
The punctuation of the Folio is very much better— but though
it is a significant mark of care and good sense, punctuation alone
does not make a good text. And the Folio is plainly not entirely
a “good” text.
With two primary texts, neither wholly satisfactory, an editor
cannot choose a “copy text”— that is, a unitary text with clear
authority—and simply follow wherever it goes. One must con-
stantly work back and forth, picking and choosing as best one
can. I have kept the two primary texts constantly in front of me,
and done my best to choose correctly—or at least sensibly. The
xvii
xviii
xix
xx
put aside for a time, there being of course much of a positive na-
ture to be said. But the final paragraph of Van Doren’s discussion
flatly reasserts critical ambivalence:“With all this there is no re-
finement in Richard’s character viewed as a whole. He is called
the devil as often as Iago is . . . [and] partakes of . . . terrors no less
than Macbeth. . . . Yet the effect remains external. . . . Shake-
speare has not yet discovered the secret of a true success in fables
of this kind.” 3
Robert Ornstein also begins with firm praise. “A stunning
success in Shakespeare’s time, Richard III has been a favorite of
succeeding generations of actors and audiences. Like Hamlet, it
has never failed to hold the stage because it is superbly theatrical.”
But soon enough,ambivalence intrudes (as it does throughout his
study of the history plays, the first page of which asks “why
Shakespeare seems at times less certain a craftsman in this genre
than in his comedies and tragedies”).“Although the sense of the
past evoked in the rhetoric of the choric and ritual scenes is nec-
essary to the play, it is a burden on modern audiences. . . . The
portrayal of Richard’s loss of control in the coronation scene is
masterful. Thereafter, his uncertainties grow repetitious and his
hesitations undramatic. . . . The pageant of ghosts seems an ap-
propriately archaic device with which to recapitulate the past; the
attempt to make Richard bear witness against himself is less suc-
cessful.” 4
Matthew H. Wikander clearly states that “Richard III poses
special problems. . . . [Richard’s] affinities with the ever-popular
Vice of [the] morality [play] tradition . . . delights the audience
. . . [but] his loss of zest upon gaining the kingship loses the audi-
ence’s sympathy. The theatrical experience of the play challenges
xxi
xxii
xxiii
xxiv
xxv
xxvi
But there his character presents far more than this unsurprising
sardonic wit. Imprisoned in the Tower of London, rightly fearful,
he relates to his jailer a tormenting dream, in which he is acci-
dentally thrown
xxvii
us for, and fully justifies his words to them: “Take heed. For he
[God] holds vengeance in his hand, / To hurl upon their heads
that break his law” (lines – ).
The smug complacency of Hastings, carried in lines of confi-
dently, evenly modulated verse, emerges at once. Richard asks,
“How hath your lordship brooked imprisonment?” and Hastings
proclaims:
With patience (noble lord) as prisoners must.
But I shall live (my lord) to give them thanks
That were the cause of my imprisonment.
(..– )
Shakespeare does not casually pen three consecutive lines of such
completely regular iambic pentameter. As I have written else-
where,“Words and prosody thus work together . . . to create an
admittedly small but nevertheless distinct and by no means negli-
gible effect. Why else, indeed, would Shakespeare have bothered
to create it? His ear dictated it precisely because his ear, like his
audience’s ears, could detect it, as all their respective ears were and
had been in the habit of doing. These kinds of prosodic signals are
plainly deliberate, and they just as plainly work.” 8 When Hastings
chastises Queen Margaret, in act , scene , both the righteous-
ness and the triteness of his complacency, are neatly displayed, in
a mere two lines:“False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, /
Lest to thy harm thou move our patience” (lines –). Hast-
ings’ self-deceived sense of security is, as one might expect, tena-
ciously set in place; his is not a flexible mind:
But I shall laugh at this a twelvemonth hence,
That they who brought me in my master’s hate
I live to look upon their tragedy.
xxviii
xxix
xxx
her own fierce attack: “What,do you tremble? Are you all afraid?”
she scolds, after which she forgives them and begins her direct
assault on Richard.“Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal, /
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil. / Avaunt, thou dreadful
minister of hell!” (lines – ). (When he has won her over,
Richard is half amazed at his cynically motivated success; his ex-
clamation is poetry of the highest order:“Was ever woman in this
humor wooed? / Was ever woman in this humor won?” (lines
– ).
Margaret,old and twisted,makes herself a one-voice chorus,in
the next scene, standing to the side of the stage and muttering
witchlike imprecations:
Out, devil! . . .
Thou killed my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury.
(..–)
She finally steps forward and attacks, not only Richard, but all the
others present:
xxxi
After the death of Edward IV, his widowed queen, Elizabeth, and
his mother, the Duchess of York, together with Edward’s chil-
dren, sound a profoundly mournful chorus:
xxxii
xxxiii
Margaret (aside) Hover about her, say that right for right
Hath dimmed your infant morn to agèd night.
Duchess of York So many miseries have crazed my voice
That my woe-wearied tongue is mute and dumb.
Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?
Margaret (aside) Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet.
Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.
Elizabeth Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,
And throw them in the entrails of the wolf ?
When didst thou sleep when such a deed was done?
Margaret (aside) When holy Harry died, and my sweet son.
Duchess of York Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
Woe’s scene, world’s shame, grave’s due by life usurped,
Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England’s lawful earth
(sitting) Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.
Elizabeth Ah that thou wouldst as soon afford a grave
As thou canst yield a melancholy seat!
Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here.
Ah who hath any cause to mourn but we?
xxxiv
xxxv
The human chorus has finished; once the ghostly chorus has spo-
ken, Richard is swiftly swept into death.
As fully,intricately,and highly dramatically imagined by Shake-
speare, Richard III is and has always been a resounding success. But
the play is much less successful as history—even in terms of the
necessarily limited historical knowledge available to Shakespeare.
This is not the place for a detailed critique of Shakespeare’s con-
stant manipulation of chronology or his fudging of issues like that
of Richard’s deformity, both historically unproven and on the
face of it, even in this play, totally improbable. How does a man
with a withered arm and a lame (or hunched) back fight so cou-
rageously and largely triumphantly as, at the end of act , Richard
has done? “In spite of his slender physique,” says the modern his-
torian Charles Ross, author of the definitive biographical study,
“Richard was a tough, hardy and energetic man, who had a
proper taste for manly pursuits.” His remarkable valor in the bat-
tle at Bosworth Field is not a Shakespearean invention.“Richard
himself cut down Sir William Brandon, Henry [Richmond]’s
standard-bearer. . . . He then engaged and finally overbore Sir
John Cheyne, described as a man of outstanding strength and for-
titude.”Even when the battle was clearly lost,“Richard continued
to fight on bravely,‘making way with weapon on every side,’ un-
til he was finally overthrown. . . . ‘Alone,’ says Polydore [a con-
temporary chronicler], ‘he was killed fighting manfully in the
press of his enemies.’” 9
xxxvi
xxxvii
Notes
. Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare, vols. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, ), :, , .
. Theodore Weiss, The Breath of Clowns and Kings: Shakespeare’s Early Comedies
and Histories (New York: Atheneum, ), , .
. Mark Van Doren, Shakespeare (New York: Holt, ), , –.
. Robert Ornstein, A Kingdom for a Stage: The Achievement of Shakespeare’s
History Plays (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ), , , ,
.
. Matthew H. Wikander, The Play of Truth and State: Historical Drama from
Shakespeare to Brecht (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ), .
. Peter Saccio, Shakespeare’s English Kings, nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, ), .
. Tom F. Driver, The Sense of History in Greek and Shakespearean Drama (New
York: Columbia University Press, ), .
. Burton Raffel,“Metrical Dramaturgy in Shakespeare’s Earlier Plays,” CEA
Critic (Spring–Summer ): .
. Charles Ross, Richard III (Berkeley: University of California Press, ),
, –.
. Ibid., –.
. Ibid., .
. Saccio, Shakespeare’s English Kings, .
. Keith Feiling, A History of England (New York: McGraw-Hill, ), .
xxxviii
The Stage
• There was no scenery (backdrops, flats, and so on).
• Compared to today’s elaborate, high-tech productions, the
Elizabethan stage had few on-stage props. These were mostly
handheld: a sword or dagger, a torch or candle, a cup or flask.
Larger props, such as furniture, were used sparingly.
• Costumes (some of which were upper-class castoffs, belonging
to the individual actors) were elaborate. As in most premodern
and very hierarchical societies, clothing was the distinctive
mark of who and what a person was.
• What the actors spoke, accordingly, contained both the
dramatic and narrative material we have come to expect in a
theater (or movie house) and () the setting, including details
of the time of day, the weather, and so on, and () the occasion.
The dramaturgy is thus very different from that of our own
time, requiring much more attention to verbal and gestural
matters. Strict realism was neither intended nor, under the
circumstances, possible.
xxxix
• There was no curtain. Actors entered and left via doors in the
back of the stage, behind which was the “tiring-room,” where
actors put on or changed their costumes.
• In public theaters (which were open-air structures), there was no
lighting; performances could take place only in daylight hours.
• For private theaters, located in large halls of aristocratic houses,
candlelight illumination was possible.
The Actors
• Actors worked in professional, for-profit companies, sometimes
organized and owned by other actors, and sometimes by
entrepreneurs who could afford to erect or rent the company’s
building. Public theaters could hold, on average, two thousand
playgoers, most of whom viewed and listened while standing.
Significant profits could be and were made. Private theaters
were smaller, more exclusive.
• There was no director. A book-holder/prompter/props
manager, standing in the tiring-room behind the backstage
doors, worked from a text marked with entrances and exits
and notations of any special effects required for that particular
script. A few such books have survived. Actors had texts only
of their own parts, speeches being cued to a few prior words.
There were few and often no rehearsals, in our modern use
of the term, though there was often some coaching of
individuals. Since Shakespeare’s England was largely an oral
culture, actors learned their parts rapidly and retained them for
years. This was repertory theater, repeating popular plays and
introducing some new ones each season.
xl
The Audience
• London’s professional theater operated in what might be
called a “red-light” district, featuring brothels, restaurants, and
the kind of open-air entertainment then most popular, like bear-
baiting (in which a bear, tied to a stake, was set on by dogs).
• A theater audience, like most of the population of
Shakespeare’s England, was largely made up of illiterates.
Being able to read and write, however, had nothing to do
with intelligence or concern with language, narrative, and
characterization. People attracted to the theater tended to be
both extremely verbal and extremely volatile. Actors were
sometimes attacked, when the audience was dissatisfied;
quarrels and fights were relatively common. Women were
regularly in attendance, though no reliable statistics exist.
• Drama did not have the cultural esteem it has in our time,
and plays were not regularly printed. Shakespeare’s often
appeared in book form, but not with any supervision or other
involvement on his part. He wrote a good deal of nondramatic
poetry as well, yet so far as we know he did not authorize or
supervise any work of his that appeared in print during his
lifetime.
• Playgoers, who had paid good money to see and hear, plainly
gave dramatic performances careful, detailed attention. For
some closer examination of such matters, see Burton Raffel,
xli
xlii
Richard III
( )
King Edward IV
Edward, Prince of Wales (the King’s oldest son)
Richard, Duke of York (the King’s younger son)
George, Duke of Clarence (the King’s next oldest brother)
Richard, Duke of Gloucester 1 (the King’s youngest brother, later King Richard III)
Edward (Clarence’s young son)
Henry, Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VIII)
Cardinal Bourchier (Archbishop of Canterbury)
Thomas Rotherham (Archbishop of York)
John Morton (Bishop of Ely)
Duke of Buckingham
Duke of Norfolk (Northumberland)
Earl of Surrey (Norfolk’s son)
Earl Rivers (Queen Elizabeth’s brother,Anthony Woodville)
Marquis 2 of Dorset (Queen Elizabeth’s son by her prior marriage)
Grey (Queen Elizabeth’s son by her prior marriage)
Earl of Oxford
Stanley (Earl of Derby, Count of Richmond)
Hastings (Lord Chamberlain)
Sir Thomas Lovel
Sir Thomas Vaughan
Sir Richard Ratcliff
Sir William Catesby
Sir James Tyrrel
Sir James Blount
Sir Walter Herbert
Sir Robert Brakenbury (in charge of the Tower)
Sir William Brandon
Lord Mayor of London
Tressel, Berkeley (gentlemen attendants on Lady Anne)
Sir Christopher Urswick (a priest)
another priest
Queen Elizabeth (Edward IV’s wife)
Queen Margaret (Henry VI’s widow)
Duchess of York (mother of Edward IV, Gloucester, and Clarence)
Lady Anne (betrothed [pledged to be married] to Henry VI’s son, Edward,
Prince of Wales; later, Richard III’s wife)
Clarence’s young daughter (also named Margaret)
Ghosts of those murdered by Richard III
Lords, attendants, bishops, priests, sheriff, jailer, murderers, scrivener, herald, page, citizens,
messengers, soldiers, etc.
GLOSSter
MARkwiss
Act
London, A street
G 1
•
encircled
bruisèd arms battered armor*
for monuments as symbols of commemoration
stern alarums austere/grim calls to arms/battle*
gatherings
dreadful marches dangerous/formidable troop movements
music, dancing
forehead
wearing protective or decorative breast armor
frightened, anxious*
dances
parlor
created, fashioned, formed
sportive tricks playful/frolicking pranks/feats
court an amorous looking-glass pay careful attention to a fond/loving
mirror
rudely stamped ruggedly/harshly created/made
lack*
power
swagger, show off
wanton ambling unrestrained/frolicsome/lewd walking
docked (as a dog’s tail is docked – i.e., cut off )
fair proportion pleasing/delightful/desirable* capability, share*
•
•
•
declare*
as far as
hearkens after pays attention/listens to
alphabet
children*
because, since
tricks, amusements*
stirred*
controlled, guided
Elizabeth Woodville (–), daughter of the first Earl Rivers (d. ),
married Edward IV (), having originally married Sir John Grey (–
), who was killed in the second battle of Albans; reference to the
reigning queen by her former title is intentionally rude
pushes
honor, repute, standing:“good man” being a form of address used for people
of lower, non-gentlemanly rank, this remark too is intentionally rude
nd Earl Rivers
•
freed*
messengers/go-betweens, rather than true heralds
Mrs.* (but see note , just below)
Edward IV’s mistress, Jane Shore, wife of a London commoner (in fact, by
then she was no longer Edward’s mistress but had become the mistress of
Lord Hastings)
Queen Elizabeth
godhead
Hastings
path, road*
will keep wish to stay/hold/preserve ourselves
servants’ uniforms
jealous o’erworn vigilant/solicitous/zealous* threadbare, obsolete
Queen Margaret, Henry VI’s widow
dub to confer a rank upon someone
women of noble/high birth
spreaders of rumor
kingdom*
•
•
rascal
withal forbear also/at the same time/moreover* give up*
downcast subjects
will go
use, make use of*
even if it were
i.e., the widow he married, the queen
in-law designations were not used: a brother’s wife was (or should be) your
sister, not your sister-in-law
do, complete*
liberate, set free
of
strikes, hits, affects*
() exchange places, () tell lies
of necessity, by constraint of physical force*
Latin plural of “exit”*
•
Gloucester Go tread 120 the path that thou shalt ne’er return.
Simple, plain 121 Clarence, I do love thee so
That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
If heaven will take the present at our 122 hands.
But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?
H
•
•
•
London, Another street
1 K H VI ,
L A
corpse*
concealed, enveloped
dutifully
premature*
Henry VI
key-cold figure body as cold as a metal key (“dead”)
remains
theologically permissible (i.e., Henry VI was not a saint, to whom prayers
could be properly addressed)
pray to, invoke
killed in battle, in , by troops associated with Richard, though not by
him personally
again, Richard may have been linked to Henry VI’s death, but there is no
evidence that he was the assassin; Edward IV, Richard’s brother, is far more
likely to have been behind the murder
that let forth wounds through which your life (spirit) came out*
i.e., her tears
•
•
Gloucester Stay 30 you that bear the corse, and set it down.
Anne What black 31 magician conjures up this fiend,
To stop devoted charitable 32 deeds?
Gloucester Villains,33 set down the corse or by Saint Paul
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.
Gentleman My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.
Gloucester Unmannered 34 dog, stand’st 35 thou, when I
command!
Advance 36 thy halbert 37 higher than my breast,
Or by Saint Paul I’ll strike thee to my foot
And spurn 38 upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
Anne What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
Avaunt,39 thou dreadful minister 40 of hell!
Thou hadst but 41 power over his 42 mortal body,
His soul thou canst not have. Therefore be gone.
stop*
foul, malignant, evil*
devoted charitable consecrated benevolent/kindly (CHAriTAble)
low-born scoundrels
rude, unmannerly
stop, halt
lift*
spearlike weapon
trample, kick*
depart, go away
agent, servant*
just
the corpse, Henry VI
•
•
hell-controlled/directed
principles, customs, habits
i.e., charity
returns, gives back
small quantity*
marvelous, astonishing*
grant, permit, agree*
permission
context, details
only
diffused infection disordered/confused (“shapeless”) corruption
describe
forbearing, lenient*
genuine*
by means of
would
•
•
helped
(Henry VI had been more or less feebleminded for many years)
ill rest betide bad rest/sleeping occur/befall
clever, sharp
minds, intelligence*
premature, unseasonable, untimely
a royal lineage (planTAdgenETS)
operative influence
regularly come to me
pledge/commit myself to
murderer*
•
tear
destruction
damage, spoil, ruin*
nearby*
darken
wish*
REEZaNAHble
character
•
•
•
take up me () raise from his kneeling position, () accept, receive,
embrace, espouse
deceiver, hypocrite*
even with exactly at
contributor, participant
portrayed, represented
away, sheathe
surrounds, encloses
•
•
•
•
mirror
so that
•
The palace
Q E, R, G
Edward IV
in that because, since
lively*
husband
handsome, fair*
guardian, regent*
finalized
die*
Derby
•
Lord Stanley
as joyful
Derby’s wife
wayward sickness perverse/self-willed/wrongheaded* ill health
firmly founded
just
recovery
harmony, concord
Rivers is one of her brothers
•
the
Hastings
command
truly
uncompromising, austere, inflexible
quarrelsome, discordant
cheat
bow, stoop
quick head movements, by way of signaling
affected
grudging, spiteful*
elegant, flattering
knaves, common fellows*
company*
•
neither
() virtue, * () a duchess’ title
Dorset?
party
peaceful, at rest*
vulgar, ignorant, ill-mannered
plan, arrangement, order
inner
causes
basis
preferment, achievement of higher rank, raising up*
•
proMOseeOWNZ
() gold coin, () noble rank
lifted, elevated*
sorrowful, mournful (“full of cares”)
fortune
excite, inflame*
a notoriously greedy, arrogant, unreliable man
into
suspicions
recent*
advancements, promotions*
•
attribute, bestow
high deserts great merits*
indeed*
just what
young fellow (an indirect but insulting reference to her age)
Iwis certainly, surely
grandmother*
endured*
blunt upbraidings insensitive/rude/harsh/abrupt* reproaches
mockery, ridicule
gross taunts flagrant/monstrous sarcasms/gibes/insults
sooner, instead*
state, position, nature (kunDIseeOWN)*
baited molested, harassed, tormented
raged
•
•
father-in-law
i.e., repudiated * his pro-Warwick pledge and fought against Warwick
in
side*
reward*
hurry*
nightmare (KAkoDIEmen)
does indeed enjoy
•
•
And with thy scorns drew’st rivers from his eyes,
And then, to dry them, gav’st the Duke 100 a clout
Steeped 101 in the faultless 102 blood of pretty 103 Rutland –
His curses then, from bitterness of soul
Denounced 104 against thee, are all fall’n upon thee,
And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.
Elizabeth So just is God, to right the innocent.
Hastings O, ’twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,105
And the most merciless that e’er was heard of !
Rivers Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.
Dorset No man but prophesied revenge for it.
Buckingham Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.
Margaret What? Were you snarling all before I came,
Ready to catch 106 each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did York’s dread curse prevail so much with heaven,
That Henry’s death, my lovely Edward’s death,
Their kingdom’s loss, my woeful banishment,
Could all but answer 107 for that peevish 108 brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
Why then give way dull 109 clouds to my quick curses!
(to Elizabeth) Though not by war, by surfeit 110 die your king,
•
did by
to make him in order to make Edward IV
clothed, adorned
placed, put
unforeseen event
magical incantation*
must
ready, mature*
•
•
•
peace, Master Marquess be silent, you boy with a count’s title
saucy, impudent, presumptuous
fire-new brand new
scare current just barely effective
all the
thereafter to be
MIzaRAble
aerie buildeth eagle’s nest is built
amuses itself, sports, plays
witness my son may my son bear witness*
shut
endure
then for
•
acted*
league and amity alliance and friendship
come/happen to*
limits, measure
go any further than
fester, envenom
take into account, pay any attention to
•
•
•
quietly*
evil agents
hardy, stout, resolvèd mates bold,* brave, determined coworkers/
colleagues/associates
() authorization, () guarantee*
on, with, in my pocket
speedy*
act, doing
hardened, stubborn, relentless (obDURet)*
listen to
pay attention to
chatter, talk*
your EYES drop MILLstones WHEN fools’ EYES fall TEARS (..: this is
the prosody but not necessarily the pronunciation)
•
at once*
•
London, The Tower
E C K 1
jailor
sluggish, draggy
it seemed*
escaped
induced
deck
called
staggery, dizzy, whirling*
•
swelling waves
sea
wrecked ships
ingots
inestimable stones uncountable numbers of precious stones
(inEStiMAHble)
incredibly/extremely valuable
reside
courted, called to
and MOCKED the DEAD bones THAT lay SCAterred BY
yield the ghost die (“give up the spirit of life”)
() water, () stream*
stopped in plugged up, closed in*
•
body
I who
emit, eject
by means of
sour ferryman bitter/harsh/gloomy Charon, who took newly dead souls
across the River Styx
passed . . . unto
Hades, Hell
alien, foreign (“non-native”)
punishment
violating a vow/oath
then, thereafter
ghost (Edward, Prince of Wales, Henry VI’s son)
stained, splashed
•
C
B
encircled
period*
effect
that
on
pray thee*
fain would would be glad to
shatters, dissolves
resting
•
non-palpable/physical
iMAdjiNAYseeOWNZ
humble
talk
prolix, wearisome*
question, discuss*
wish to
make known*
surrendered*
•
mark
presenting
protect*
compassionate
was wont to hold me usually* keeps/lasts* me
counts
•
associate, join
stops*
admit, receive, allow
insinuate with worm himself/sneak into
only
proper
head (costard a form of apple)
•
•
inquest
pronounced guilt, convicted (kanVICT)
erroneous vassals misguided subordinates*
tablets
fulfill a man’s effect/complete the verdict of a mere man
•
laid open
dear degree grievous/dire manner/way
God
gallant-springing growing more and more handsome
that PRINCEly NOvice WAS struck DEAD by THEE
transgressions, offenses
call, summon
•
separated*
instructed, admonished
strive/work for
bondage, servitude
•
•
wages, reward
Act
London, The palace
noblemen
covenant, alliance*
await*
ambassadorial message
leave, go away
•
•
rather than
and MOST asSURed THAT he IS a FRIEND
deep, hollow secretive, false
be HE unTO me THIS do I BEG of HEAVEN (“heaven” often
shortened to a monosyllable)
comfort, restorative
to be here
morning
•
I
peace into
proud
wrong-incensèd () inflamed by wrongs, () wrongly inflamed
company, group
understanding, knowledge, information
painfully
dukes EARLS lords GENtilMEN inDEED of ALL
•
•
late
knows
more like, closer* to him
() freely along (“flowing”), () accepted
i.e., for services rendered, not for a specific service
I prithee peace please don’t bother me now
i.e.,“the forfeited life of my servant”: by committing a capital crime, the
servant had forfeited his life to the King, and Stanley asks that it be
transferred, instead, to him
wanton, quarrelsome, drunken
pronounce
•
•
•
The palace
D Y, C’
kindred, relatives
incapable and shallow unfit and inexperienced/lacking weight*
devised impeachments arranged/contrived* accusations/charges
•
•
so that
share, claim
rank, honor
by means of
her husband’s
likeness
virulent, evil
Gloucester
props, supports
affliction*
•
suffering, distress
grieving, lamentations
lead
so that
i.e., female
strength
precious, rare
() divided, () particular
undivided, all-embracing, universal*
•
•
•
•
separate*
council, seat of authority
mouthpiece of the gods, vehicle of divine communication
as if
instruction, guidance*
•
London, A street
C 1 ,
•
•
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.
All may be well, but if God sort it so,
’Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.
Citizen Truly, the souls of men are full of fear.
You cannot reason (almost) with a man
That looks not heavily, and full of dread.
Citizen Before the days of change, still 22 is it so.
By a divine instinct, men’s minds mistrust
Pursuing danger,23 as by proof we see
The water swell before a boisterous 24 storm.
But leave it all to God. Whither away?
Citizen Marry, we were sent for to the justices.25
Citizen And so was I. I’ll bear 26 you company.
always
pursuing danger danger that is coming/following (Quarto: ensuing
danger)
rough, massive, violent
judges
keep
•
London, The palace
A Y, R (D Y),
Q E, D Y
slept, rested
Edward, Prince of Wales (York’s older brother)
i.e., her stepson
would not have it do not wish it
said*
soft-stemmed useful plants
non-useful plants, growing where they are not wanted
rapidly
since then
Gloucester, her son
•
ought to
been remembered remembered/been reminded of it
cunning, surprising (“too much”)
come on!
naughty, mischievous (“clever for your age”)
•
•
Act
London, A street
•
Mayor God bless your Grace with health and happy days.
Prince Edward I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.
I thought my mother, and my brother York,
Would long ere this have met us on the way.
Fie, what a slug 6 is Hastings, that he comes not
To tell us whether they will come or no!
H
coincides
slow/lazy fellow
on what occasion when
youthful*
•
•
•
written documentation
continuously*
recounted, recorded, set down*
repeated
i.e., the Day of Judgment
written characters/letters
hypocritical
Vice and Iniquity are two names for the same character in older morality
plays
interpret, explain
•
•
•
appropriately, suitably
pass along proceed on
to
ceremonial fanfare*
abusively
•
dangerous
accomplish, bring about*
communicate, tell, share
Gloucester
i.e., the prince’s father, Edward IV
i.e., in time (“distant)*
inquire of*
disposed, inclined
confer
compliant
•
i.e., one in public, for show, and one in private, for the real business
group, mass
are to be
() thoroughly, () covertly
attention, care
conspiracies
put an end to
personal property (as opposed to “real property,” land )*
•
expect
early, soon
arrange
•
In front of Lord Hastings’ house
M
•
C
•
wreath (“crown”)
head
eager, ready
•
S
reckoning, judgment*
calculate, expect
i.e., where the heads of traitors were displayed
unequipped
cross*
separate, distinct*
exultant*
blithe, cheerful* ( JOCKind)
darkened (“overcast”)
have doubts about, mistrust
•
H
do you know
loyalty, fidelity, steadfast allegiance
term of address used for people of lower rank than oneself
thank you
•
P
B
i.e., a man who had taken his first university degree was called “Sir John”
declamation, sermon
(verb) satisfy, please, gratify (kunTENT)
wait upon await
the hearing of confessions
from there
stay dinner stay to/for a midday meal
last meal of the day
•
Pomfret Castle
R, , R,
G, V
•
•
The Tower of London
B, S, H, B E,
R, L, ,
action, appointment
intimate
stated
gentle part noble respect
•
G
•
lengthened, extended
sign, probability
•
blighted, lightning-struck
it
joined*
bit (the smallest amount)
foolish*
scorn*
gentlemen’s horses sometimes wore a long, elaborately ornamented cloth
across their backs, hanging down on both sides
•
as if
herald*
wishes to
confession
he who
in air in castles in the air (“of airy”)
useless, hopeless
•
The Tower walls
G B,
,
•
•
•
misconstrue
chattering, fault-finding
London’s town hall
circumstance, position*
introduce, allege*
inn-house, tavern
lasciviousness
changing, succession (“exchanging”)
•
•
make*
secret
remove
no manner absolutely no
at any
access
•
A street
S,1
•
Baynard’s Castle
G B,
Elizabeth Lucy, to whom Edward was alleged (but never proved) to have been
engaged to marry
i.e.,Warwick, as Edward’s emissary, went to Paris to arrange a marriage
enforcement of forcing
on account/because of
right idea exact/correct image/picture
I laid
() worth, excellence, () kindness, generosity
•
lightly, casually
criticized, scolded
magistrate
pledge
copious outburst
indicates*
•
G
indicate, show
spoke with but spoken to except by
ground (in music) foundation, bass-line; descant melody
always
then accept
lead strips on the roof
dance attendance hang about, ready and waiting
with
•
•
C
C
prayers, devotions
ardent, enthusiastic
CONtemPLAYseeOWN
accessories, embellishments
•
•
joined (“interbed”)
shouldered in thrust into
cure, restore
agent
status, dignity
reproach
•
mixed, spiced
undeserved
flees from, avoids
small boat*
desire
steam and other such cloudy/misty emanations
much I need a great deal I lack and would require
creeping
that which
•
squeeze out
overly fastidious, fussy
(verb) conTRACT
proxy
i.e., she was the aggressor and actively pursued Edward IV
prize and purchase capture and robbery
pitch and height towering height
sinking, declining
customs, procedures
•
•
Catesby Call him again, sweet prince, accept their suit.
If you deny them, all the land will rue it.
Gloucester Would you enforce me to a world of care?
Call them again, I am not made of stones,
But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
Albeit 66 against my conscience and my soul.
•
Gloucester Even when you please, since you will have it so.
Buckingham Tomorrow then we will attend your Grace,
And so most joyfully we take our leave.
Gloucester (to the Bishops) Come, let us to our holy work again.
Farewell my cousins, farewell gentle friends.
Act
Before the Tower
, , Q E,
D Y, D,
, L A, L M
C’
•
S
greet, welcome
defend, preserve
boundary lines, limits
() wish to, () am going to
•
•
caught*
evil-spreading
basilisk
inclusive verge enclosing rim
rubbed, besmeared
•
MIzeRAble
time
always
expression of sorrow/lament
trouble, woe
•
•
London, The palace
. K R III, , ,
B, C, ,
•
sequence*
live and be a
i.e., the illegitimate children
agreement
must/will
explicitly, directly
answer, explain, solve for*
consort, live/keep company with
stupid, dull
undiscriminating, heedless
thoughtful, deliberate, prudent
cautious
•
•
Clarence’s son
are procrastinating, mooning about
about it go do it
stands me much upon matters very much/is very important to me
test, try
please you as you like/wish
•
B
•
intercept, block
•
•
The palace
T
DEYEtin
bribe, unlawfully procure/induce
alBEET they WERE fleshed VILlains BLOODy DOGS
wrapped around
smooth, pure white
young
bisyllabic
perfect
from the time of
first, original
•
•
Ratcliff My lord.
Richard Good or bad news, that thou comest in so bluntly?
Ratcliff Bad news, my lord. Morton 19 is fled to Richmond,
And Buckingham, backed with 19 the hardy Welshmen,
Is in the field, and still his power 20 increaseth.
Richard Ely with Richmond troubles me more near
Than Buckingham and his rash-levied 21 strength.
Come, I have learned that fearful commenting
Is leaden servitor to dull delay.
Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.
Then fiery expedition 22 be my wing,
Jove’s Mercury, and herald for a king!
Go muster men. My counsel is my shield,
We must be brief when traitors brave 23 the field.
because
an insult, not a factual statement
marriage
looks proudly o’er the crown scrutinizes the crown grandly/arrogantly
by
army*
rash-levied hastily raised
speedy performance*
challenge*
•
The palace
Q M
will go to
just as, equally
unopened
decree, judgment*
i.e., one claim contending with another
shattered, crushed
•
redeem, repay*
Edward IV’s young son for Edward, Henry VI’s son
(noun) brief abstract short account/summary (abSTRACT)
primacy
•
swollen
carnivorous, murderous, bloody
overload, surfeit
something tossed in, an addition of no particular weight or significance
both they the two sons of Edward IV
•
•
•
responsible party
must
my DAMned SON that THY two SWEET sons SMOthered
•
,
•
sound
waited
peevish/short-tempered/irritable
frantic, raging
settled, firmly established
thy AGE conFIRMED proud Subtle SLY and BLOOdy
kind in hatred inherently/naturally hateful
(?) perhaps a joke, the meaning of which has been lost
disgraceful
•
•
as for
aim
CONtraREE
inevitable
rejected
cheated ones (pun on “cozened”)
cheated
•
pierced
except
continual
projection of sea into land
of sails and tackling reft of sails and rigging/tackle robbed
undertaking, work
result
revealed, uncovered
symbol
•
give, convey
enrich, give as a dowry
so that
river in Hell, the water of which induces forgetting (LEEthee)
duration
ponders, considers
separately/at a distance from
•
then, afterward
mad’st away killed
conveyance with removal of
plunder, booty, loot
•
•
kahnTENT
precious
adding
soaring, lofty
punished
•
always, forever
that which he entreats
God (i.e., the laws against incest)
now by () you must rely on, or () I swear by
St. George, th-c. martyr and patron saint of England
the chivalric Order of the Garter (the emblem of which bore an image of
St. George)
•
you profane St. George, dishonor the Garter, and have usurped the crown
•
future
unguided
ere used before it is/can be used
in the
pure, spotless
care for
exists, lies
•
•
float
suitable
say
raise, conscript
•
S
exclamation
white-livered runagate cowardly runaway/deserter
throne*
unwielded
•
M
•
M
•
•
Lord Stanley’s house
S S C U
rank, dignity
respected, distinguished
TOward
Act
Salisbury, An open place
B, S G,
proud, bold
day of prayers for the dead
•
if
determined respite predetermined time to end the postponement of
punishment
•
Camp near Tamworth
R, O, B, H,
, 1
flags, banners
comrades
obstruction, hindrance
stepfather
despoiled, stripped
spills out
disemboweled
test, combat
•
•
Bosworth field
K R III , N,
S,
•
setting
process, course
flag, banner
will keep charge of
fairly large body of troops
flags, banners
•
•
Richard Catesby.
Catesby My lord?
Richard Send out a pursuivant-at-arms
To Stanley’s regiment. Bid him bring his power
Before sunrising, lest his son George fall
Into the blind cave of eternal night.
C
sentinels, watchmen
horse’s name
lance shafts
twilight
liveliness, readiness
Richard remains in his tent, on his side of the stage, and falls asleep
•
•
separated
against
weigh
prince, general
count, enumerate
instruments, tools
•
Edward’s Ghost (to Richard ) Let me sit heavy on thy soul
tomorrow.
Think how thou stab’dst me in my prime of youth
At Tewkesbury. Despair therefore, and die!
(to Richmond) Be cheerful Richmond, for the wrongèd souls
Of butchered princes fight in thy behalf.
King Henry’s issue, Richmond, comforts thee.
G H VI
stabbed
a copious supply of
•
vexation
•
Buckingham’s Ghost (to Richard ) The first was I that helped thee
to the crown.
The last was I that felt thy tyranny.
O in the battle think on Buckingham,
And die in terror of thy guiltiness!
Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death,
Fainting, despair. Despairing, yield thy breath!
(to Richmond) I died for hope ere I could lend thee aid,
But cheer thy heart, and be thou not dismayed.
God, and good angels, fight on Richmond’s side,
And Richard falls in height of all his pride.
G
miserable, unfortunate
•
•
Ratcliff My lord.
Richard Who’s there?
Ratcliff Ratcliff, my lord, ’tis I. The early village cock
Hath twice done salutation to the morn,
Your friends are up, and buckle on their armor.
Richard O Ratcliff, I have dreamed a fearful dream.
What thinkest thou, will our friends prove all true?
Ratcliff No doubt, my lord.
Richard O Ratcliff, I fear, I fear –
Ratcliff Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.
Richard By the apostle Paul, shadows tonight
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
Armed in proof,41 and led by shallow Richmond.
’Tis not yet near day. Come go with me,
Under our tents I’ll play the eavesdropper,
To hear if any mean to shrink 42 from me.
•
•
•
warfare
count
almanac
the calendar
away from, off of
displays, acts proudly
harness and ornament with cloth coverings
•
•
•
•
Another part of the field
, 1
•
Another part of the field
. R R.
, R
•
O direful misprision!
I will not imitate things glorious
No more than base: I’ll be mine own example. –
On, on, and look thou represent, for silence,
The thing thou bear’st.
[..– ]
Richard’s only earlier delight was “to see my shadow in the sun
/And descant on mine own deformity.” His savage delight in the
success of his own manipulative rhetoric now transforms his ear-
lier trope into the exultant command: “Shine out, fair sun, till I
have bought a glass, / That I may see my shadow as I pass.” That
transformation is the formula for interpreting the Jacobean hero-
villain and his varied progeny:Milton’s Satan,the Poet in Shelley’s
Alastor, Wordsworth’s Oswald in The Borderers, Byron’s Manfred
and Cain, Browning’s Childe Roland, Tennyson’s Ulysses, Mel-
ville’s Captain Ahab, Hawthorne’s Chillingworth, down to Na-
thanael West’s Shrike in Miss Lonelyhearts, who perhaps ends the
tradition. The manipulative,highly self-conscious,obsessed hero-
villain, whether Machiavellian plotter or later, idealistic quester,
ruined or not,moves himself from being the passive sufferer of his
own moral and/or physical deformity to becoming a highly ac-
tive melodramatist. Instead of standing in the light of nature to
observe his own shadow, and then have to take his own deformity
as subject, he rather commands nature to throw its light upon his
own glass of representation, so that his own shadow will be visible
only for an instant as he passes on to the triumph of his will over
others.
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