power that afterwards he achieved, of himself interpreting his vision
by many-coloured images. It is not one of the beloved plays.

Bolingbroke has been praised as a manly Englishman, who is not "weak"
like Richard, but "strong" and a man of deeds. In Act IV he shows his
English kindness of mind and love of justice by a temperate wisdom in
the trying of a cause and by saying that he will call back from exile
his old enemy Norfolk. The Bishop of Carlisle tells him that that cannot
be. Norfolk having worn himself out in the wars in Palestine has retired
himself to Italy, and there, at Venice, given

"His body to that pleasant country's earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long."

It is instructive to note how Bolingbroke takes the news--

_Bol._ Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?

_Carl._ As surely as I live, my lord.

_Bol._ Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom
Of good old Abraham. Lords appellants,
Your differences, etc.

The feeling that the poet's mind saw the clash as the clash between the
common and the uncommon man is strengthened by the Queen's speech to
Richard as he is led to prison--

"thou most beauteous inn,
Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodged in thee,
When triumph is become an alehouse guest?"

_King Richard III._

_Written._ 1594 (?)

_Published._ 1597.

_Source of the Plot._ The play is founded on the lives of Edward
IV, Edward V, and Richard III, as given (on the authorities of
Edward Hall and Sir Thomas More) in Holinshed's _Chronicles_.
Shakespeare may have seen a worthless play (_The True Tragedy of
Richard III_) which was published in 1594, by an unknown author.

_The Fable._ Act I. The play begins in the last days of King Edward
IV, when the King's two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, are
debating who shall succeed to the throne when the King dies. In the
first scene Clarence is led to the Tower under suspicion of
plotting to succeed. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the cause of the
committal, pretends to grieve for him, but hastens to compass his
death. In the next scene Richard woos the Lady Anne (widow of the
dead son of Henry VI, and daughter of the Earl of Warwick), who is
likely to be useful to him for the moment as an ally (she being of
the house of Lancaster). Th