Part 56
III. 4. 5. We retain here the reading in which both the earliest Quartos and the Folios agree. It doubtless came from the pen of the author, and is after all a pardonable inaccuracy, such as may easily escape from the pen of a rapid writer or the tongue of a ready talker.
NOTE XIV.
III. 4. 10–13. We keep the reading of the Quartos but have made a change in the arrangement of the lines. This is the text of the Quartos:
‘_Buc._ Who I my Lo? we know each others faces: But for our harts, he knowes no more of mine, Then I of yours: nor I no more of his, then you of mine:’
The Folio reads:
‘_Buck._ We know each others Faces: for our Hearts, He knowes no more of mine, then I of yours, Or I of his, my Lord, then you of mine.’
Pope follows the Folios, but reads ‘Nor’ for ‘Or’ in the last line.
NOTE XV.
III. 4. 78–80. The first Folio reads:
‘Off with his Head; now by Saint _Paul_ I sweare, I will not dine, untill I see the same. Lovell and Ratcliffe, looke that it be done.’
The first Quarto has:
‘Off with his head. Now by Saint Paule, I will not dine to day I sweare, Vntill I see the same, some see it done.’
Theobald altered Ratcliffe to Catesby, observing in his note, ‘The
## scene is here in the Tower: and Lord Hastings was cut off on that very
day, when Rivers, Gray and Vaughan suffered at Pomfret. How then could Ratcliff at the same instant be both in Yorkshire and the Tower? In the very scene preceding this we find him conducting those gentlemen to the block. The players in their edition first made the blunder, as to Ratcliff attending Lord Hastings to death: for, in the old Quarto, we find it rightly;--Exeunt: Manet Catesby with Hastings.’ But in the next scene Theobald, while he makes Lovell and Catesby bring in the head of Hastings, allows Gloucester, just before their entrance, to say, ‘Catesby, o’erlook the walls.’ Hanmer corrected this inconsistency by reading, ‘Some one o’erlook the walls.’ We have followed the Folios, for the difficulties could not be removed entirely without applying more violence to the text than an editor is justified in using.
NOTE XVI.
III. 5. 10–21. In the first Quarto this passage stands as follows:
And both are ready in their offices To grace my stratagems. _Enter Maior._ _Glo._ Here comes the Maior. _Buc._ Let me alone to entertaine him. Lo: Maior, _Glo._ Looke to the drawbridge there. _Buc._ The reason we have sent for you. _Glo._ Catesby ouerlooke the wals. _Buck._ Harke, I heare a drumme. _Glo._ Looke backe, defend thee, here are enemies. _Buc._ God and our innocence defend vs. _Enter Catesby_ _Glo._ O, O, be quiet, it is Catesby. _with Hast. head._
In the last line Q3 has _G, O, be quiet,_ &c. Instead of lines 12–14, _But what......Lord mayor,_ Theobald read with the Quartos.
NOTE XVII.
IV. 1. 92–94. In the second Folio there is a curious mistake here. In the margin of the first Folio, from which the second was printed, some one had inserted the stage directions, ‘to Dorset,’ ‘to Anne,’ ‘to the Queene,’ which the printer mistook and gave as part of the text thus:
‘_Duc. Yorke._ Go to Richmond, to Dorset, to Anne, to the Queene, and good fortune guide thee, &c.’
The error is repeated in the third Folio and, strange to say, corrected in the fourth, where the stage directions are inserted in their proper places. It also inserts the word ‘thou,’ which had been omitted in the second and third Folios.
NOTE XVIII.
IV. 2. 47 sqq. In this passage we have followed substantially the reading of the Quartos in preference to that of the Folios.
The first Quarto reads:
‘_Darby._ My Lord, I heare the Marques Dorset Is fled to Richmond, in those partes beyond the seas where he abides. _King._ Catesby. _Cat._ My Lord. _King._ Rumor it abroad That Anne my wife is sicke and like to die, &c.’
In the seventh and eighth Quartos the second line of Darby’s speech is divided ‘...seas where he abides.’
The first Folio has:
‘_Stanley._ Know my louing Lord, the Marquesse _Dorset_ As I heare, is fled to _Richmond_, In the parts where he abides. _Rich._ Come hither _Catesby_, rumor it abroad, That _Anne_ my Wife is very grieuous sicke &c.’
Pope follows the Folios and Rowe, except that for ‘Know, my loving Lord,’ he substitutes ‘my lord,’ ending the next line at _fled_. Steevens retains the reading of the Folios, but in other respects adopts Pope’s arrangement, assigning it, more suo, to Sir Thomas Hanmer.
Mr Staunton follows Steevens as regards Stanley’s speech, and then reads with the Quartos. In the preceding line he reads with the Quartos: ‘How now what news with you?’
Mr Collier suspects that ‘What’s the news?’ in line 46, is an interpolation and that the true reading is,
‘How now, Lord Stanley? _Stan._ Know, my loving lord, The Marquess Dorset, as I hear, is fled &c.’
NOTE XIX.
IV. 4, 365, 366. The first Quarto alone preserves the proper order of the lines here. Its words are:
‘_King._ Harpe not one that string Madam that is past. _Qu._ Harpe on it still shall I till hartstrings breake.’
The second Quarto omits the first line and gives the second to the King, thus:
‘_King._ Harpe on it still shal I, till hartstrings breake. _King._ Now by my George &c.’
The third follows the second in omitting the first line, but it continues the second to the Queen. All the remaining Quartos read with the third.
The Folios give both lines, but in reverse order, thus:
..............‘graves, Harpe on it still shall I, till heart-strings breake. _Rich._ Harpe not on that string Madam, that is past. Now by my George &c.’
NOTE XX.
IV. 4. 444. We have here followed the reading of the Quartos, in preference to that of the Folios, in which the passage stands as follows:
‘_Rich._ _Catesby,_ flye to the Duke. _Cat._ I will, my Lord, with all convenient haste. _Rich._ _Catesby_ come hither, poste to Salisbury:’
This seems to show that the text of the Quartos has been amended in the Folios by no very skilful hand. Rowe endeavoured to amend the passage by reading in the last line ‘Ratcliff, come hither,’ and in this has been followed by most succeeding editors.
NOTE XXI.
IV. 4. 512–517. The Quartos here read:
‘_Mes._ Your grace mistakes, the newes I bring is good My newes is that by sudden floud, and fall of water, The Duke of Buckinghams armie is disperst and scattered, And he himselfe fled, no man knowes whether. _King._ O I crie you mercie, I did mistake, Ratcliffe reward him, for the blow I gaue him.’
By substituting ‘’Tis’ for ‘My newes is’ in the second line, and ‘Buckingham’s’ for ‘The Duke of Buckinghams’ in the third, the reading of the Quartos might be retained.
NOTE XXII.
IV. 5. 6–20. We have followed the Quartos in the arrangement of the lines of this scene. The Folios insert after line 5:
‘So get thee gone: commend me to thy Lord. Withall say, that the Oueene hath heartily consented He should espouse _Elizabeth_ hir daughter.’
And in Derby’s last speech they read:
‘Well hye thee to thy Lord: I kisse his hand, My Letter will resolue him of my minde. Farewell.’
Pope follows the Folios, except that for ‘Withall say, that’ he reads ‘Say too.’ Capell adopts the arrangement of the Quartos, but reads, ‘Well, hie thee to thy lord’ instead of ‘Return unto thy lord.’
NOTE XXIII.
V. 3. 23–26. In the Quartos these lines are omitted in the present speech of Richmond, but inserted a few lines lower down, as will be seen from the following quotation from the first Quarto:
‘_Blunt._ Vpon my life my Lord, Ile vndertake it. _Rich._ Farewell good Blunt. Give me some inke, and paper, in my tent, Ile draw the forme, and modle of our battel, Limit each leader to his seuerall charge, And part in iust proportion our small strength, Come, let vs consult vpon to morrowes busines, In to our tent, the aire is rawe and cold.’
As the Quartos omit entirely lines 27, 28 and 43, we have followed the arrangement of the Folios.
NOTE XXIV.
V. 3. 145. In the first and second Quartos the Ghosts of the two young Princes enter and speak before the Ghost of Hastings. The Folios and the other Quartos make the Ghost of Hastings enter first. As a chronological order is observed in the appearance of the other Ghosts we have thought it best in this case to follow the latter authorities.
This discrepancy between the two earliest editions and the rest seems to have escaped the notice of Capell and of all other editors.
NOTE XXV.
V. 3. 179. Warburton says: The players, among their other innumerable absurdities, in the representation of this tragedy, make Richard say instead of ‘O coward conscience,’ ‘O _tyrant_ conscience!’
He refers to Colley Cibber’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play: ‘The Tragical History of King Richard III. Altered from Shakespear. By Colley Cibber Esq.’
NOTE XXVI.
V. 3. 204–206. Johnson says: ‘These lines stand with so little propriety at the end of this speech that I cannot but suspect them to be misplaced. Where then shall they be inserted? Perhaps after these words, _Fool do not flatter_ (i.e. line 192).’
Rann, following Mason’s suggestion, inserted them after ‘I fear, I fear’ (line 214), and then, says Mason, Ratcliffe’s reply bidding the King not be afraid of shadows, would be natural. Mr Grant White would insert them either after line 178, ‘Soft I did but dream,’ or after 212, ‘I have dream’d a fearful dream.’ As the Folios omit lines 212, 213, Ratcliffe’s allusion to the shadows, of which he has heard nothing, _is_ rendered absurd. Yet the absurdity escaped the notice of all editors before Capell.
NOTE XXVII.
V. 5. We have retained the stage direction of the Quartos and Folios, ‘they fight. Richard is slain,’ in preference to ‘they fight, and exeunt fighting’ of Mr Dyce, because it is probable from Derby’s speech, ‘From the dead temples of _this_ bloody wretch,’ that Richard’s body is lying where he fell, in view of the audience.
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
TRANSCRIBER’S ENDNOTE.
Original printed spelling and grammar are retained, with exceptions noted below. Small caps are changed to all capital letters. Italics _look like this_. Numerals originally printed as subscripts are shown inline e.g. “F1”. The changes recommended in the ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA section have been applied. Verse indents were sized using a monospace font. Proportional fonts will render the indents less accurately.
Linenotes in the original printed book resided on the page with the line referenced. In this edition, linenotes have been converted to footnotes and have been moved to the ends of the respective plays. Linenumbers, footnote anchors, and the footnote labels are shown with play number (in this book), Act number, and Scene number prefixed, coded a–f, a–e, and a–w, respectively. Thus a hypothetical line/footnote coded "[feb065]" designates line 65 in the sixth play (King Richard III), Act 5, Scene 2. A linenumber that is not also a footnote anchor looks like "·feb065·".
Pg. 276, l. cca028: _K. Ken._ is changed to _K. Hen._.
Pg. 318: two linenotes were missing line references. The first, “Sir John Somerville.]” seems to refer to line cea007; the second, “King E., Gloucester,]” seems to refer line cea016; anchors for these have been added.
In the fourth and fifth plays—“The First Part of the Contention &c.”, and “The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, and the Good Henry the Sixt”—some words or phrases were printed below or above the appropriate text line, preceded by left parenthesis “(”. These have been moved to the correct line of text. Examples include ll. dac113, dar067, eaa116, eal057, &c.
Pg. 350, Scene III l. 1: the footnote “_let vs_]” was originally anchored to Scene II l. 81, but Scene II ends at line 80. The anchor has been changed to Scene III l. 1, i.e. line dac001, in the notation used in this edition.
Pg. 363, ll. daf024-daf033: these lines were printed as prose, but with a strange line break after the phrase “true heire to Lyonell Duke”. This line break has been removed in this edition.
Page 410, l. eaa096: the sentence ending punctuation was not printed, and none has been supplied herein. On pg. 410, l. eaa129, and in the linenote associated with it, “T‛was” was printed with a U+201B (single high reversed-9 quotation mark). This is retained herein, but may not render properly in some browsers or e-readers. Pg. 411, l. eaa133: the sentence “Then am I lawfull king” was printed without punctuation, and none has been supplied. Other instances of missing sentence end punctuation include l. eae060.
Page 424, linenote to l. ead097: it is not clear whether the hyphen in “_Night-Owles_ Q3.” should be retained.
Page 428, l. eae076: “_Prince,_” changed to “_Prince._”.
Page 458, l. eas051: the two full stops printed at the end of the line are retained.
Page 541, l. fbb145: The two speakers for this line were indicated by a large right curly bracket “}” in the printed book, but like “_Q. Eliz. & Duch._” in this edition.
Page 622, linenote to l. fec130: “Keigthley” changed to “Keightley”.