The Works of William Shakespeare

"First, he for whom thou dost this villainy,

Though pleas'd therewith will not avouch thy fact,
But let the weight of thine own infamy

Fall on thee unsupported and unback'd.
Then all men else will loathe thy treachery,
And thou thyself abhor thy proper act.

So th' wolf, in hope the lion's grace to win,

Betraying other beasts, lost his own skin."

There are other variations of the same nature, though of much less consequence. These, however, appear all sufficient to warrant the conclusion that when Daniel first published the Civil Wars in 1595 Shakespeare's Richard the Second had not been produced; but that previous to the publication of the second edition of the former in the same year, the historical play had made its appearance, and left a deep impression upon the mind of Daniel. We may therefore safely place the composition of Richard the Second in the latter part of the year 1594 or the beginning of 1595. This period accords entirely with the indications of the play itself, the style of which and the cast of thought belong to a time when Shakespeare had not yet attained the fulness of his powers either as a dramatist or a poet, and yet was rapidly approaching that rich middle period of his productive life, which gave us the two parts of Henry the Fourth, As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, and Troilus and Cressida. On its own evidence Richard the Second preceded King John, and perhaps The Merchant of Venice.

After two quarto editions of this History had appeared in 1597 and 1598, a third was published in 1608 with "new additions of the Parliament Sceane and the deposing of King Richard." Why the arraignment and deposition of Richard II. were omitted in the performance and in the published text in 1598, when Elizabeth was still alive, and not in 1608, when James had reigned for five quiet years, the reader of the first part of these remarks need not be here informed. The question has naturally arisen whether this Parliament Scene, which was first printed in 1608, was a part of the play as originally written, or an addition made some time after the death of Elizabeth. The point has hitherto been left to be the subject of fluctuating opinion, though it might have been decided by an examination of the quarto versions. The quartos of 1597 and 1598 present

a part of Act IV. Sc. 1, as follows, beginning with the last four lines of the Bishop of Carlisle's speech :—

"It will the wofullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent it, resist it, and let it not be so,

Least child, child's children crie against you woe.

North. Well have you argued sir, and for your paines,
Of capital treason we arrest you here:
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge,
To keep him safely till his day of trial.

Exeunt. Manet West, Carleill, Aumerle.

Abbot. A woefull pageant have we here beheld.
Car. The woes to come; the children yet unborne,

Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorne."

Now here we have the Abbot saying that he has beheld a woeful pageant (the deposition) which, according to this text, he has not beheld, and the Bishop of Carlisle repeating in the first words of one speech the very idea which occurs in the last words of the speech that he has just spoken. But in the 4to. of 1608, and the folio, these two speeches of Carlisle's are separated by one hundred and fifty-six lines which are spoken by the actors in the pageant to which the Abbot alludes. Consequently it is clear that the deposition formed a part of the play as it was originally cast; and the observant reader will see that the whole of this first Scene of the first Act, in which the deposition occurs, is homogeneous in style, and was evidently written at one time. It is possible, even, that it was performed when the play was first produced, (for Shakespeare was too prudent to write what he knew would be suppressed,) and that it was interdicted both to players and printers on account of the renewed anxiety caused by the bull issued by Pope Clement VIII. in 1596, in which he exhorted Queen Elizabeth's subjects to depose her. The deposition having been a part of the play as it was originally written, we have yet further evidence that the play was composed in 1595; for after the appearance of the Pope's bull in 1596, there could not have been the slightest hope that the representation of the dethronement of an English sovereign in full Parliament would be permitted.

See the text of the play for the correct version of this line.

The text of this play has not reached us in a very satisfactory condition. There are, it is true, not many passages in which the sense has been obscured by corruption; but those in which the carelessness of transcribers or printers has impaired the rhythm, or, at least, left the verse defective, are very numerous. This is equally true of all the early impressions of the play. Of the quarto impressions, the earliest that of 1597 — is justly pronounced by Mr. Collier "the most valuable for its readings and general accuracy;' as the critical reader who has not access to the original may see by an examination of Capell's careful collation of the variations of all the early editions in his Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare. Certain errors co:nmon to both texts show that the quarto of 1615 was made the basis of the copy from which the folio impression of this play was printed; but there are passages added and corrections made in the folio which show that the copy of the edition of 1615 furnished to the printers of the folio had been subjected to authoritative emendation, even if it were not the stage copy of the Globe Theatre. These passages are particularly pointed out in the notes to this edition. The quartos, especially that of 1597, are of essential service; but only in correcting the accidental errors or supplying the unaccountable omissions of the authentic copy. In cases of mere variation they have no authority; and some of the lines found in them but not in the folio were, in my judgment, struck out by the author himself. As, however, they appear to have been a part of the text as it was first written, and the omission, plainly accidental in on case, may possibly have been so in all, they have been allowed to remain in the text.

This play is quite unequal in style, and it seems to me not improbable that Shakespeare, according to a practice of his time, had some needless aid in writing it. It is possible that as Daniel was engaged on the same subject at the same time, he not only talked over the subject with Shakespeare, but furnished him some of the rhymed passages; and from such an intercourse may have arisen the similarity between some passages in the play and in the first edition of the Civil Wars.

The period of the action of this play is much briefer than that of either of the other Histories. It occupies but two years. from 1398, when Richard was thirty-two years old, to 1400, when he was put to death. In the proper putting of Richard

the Second upon the stage, accuracy of costume has an importance not generally its due. For splendor in apparel, carried to the most lavish expense and the extreme of foppery, marked the personal habits of the monarch, and, consequently, of his courtiers and all people of "fashion and fortune" in his reign. Richard himself had one coat or robe the cost of which was estimated at thirty thousand marks; which enormous value has been with probability attributed chiefly to the jewels with which, according to the fashion of the day, it was embroidered. Authorities for the costumes abound; but the most complete and satisfactory are found in the manuscript Metrical History of the Deposition of Richard II., written by a gentleman of the household to Charles VI., of France, who was in attendance upon Richard during the period which he describes, and which history (preserved in the Harleian MSS.) is copiously illustrated. The more important of these illustrations were engraved for Mr. Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare.