ord Strange's company,
since a reference by Nash about this time refers to Talbot as a stage
figure. The _Second and Third Parts_ have no evidence other than that
of style, but are usually assigned to the period 1590-1592.

+Richard the Third+ is best treated at this point, although in the date
of composition _King John_ may intervene between it and _III Henry VI_.
It is the tale of a tyrant, who, by murdering everybody who stands in
his way, including his two nephews, his brother, and his friend, wins
the crown of England, only to be swept by {136} irresistible popular
wrath into ruin and death on Bosworth Field. This tyrant is scarcely
human, but rather the impersonation of a great passion of ambition.
In this respect, as well as in lack of humor, lack of development of
character, and in other ways less easy to grasp, Shakespeare is here
distinctly imitative of Marlowe's method in plays like _Tamburlaine_.

+Date+.--_Richard the Third_ was very popular among Elizabethans, for
quartos appeared in 1597, 1598 (then first ascribed to Shakespeare),
1602, 1605, 1612, 1629, 1622, and 1634. The First Folio version is
quite different in detail from the Quarto, and is thought to have been
a good copy of an acting version. The date of writing can hardly be
later than 1598.

+Source+.--An anonymous play called _The True Tragedie of Richard III_
had appeared before Shakespeare's; just when is uncertain. A still
earlier play, a tragedy in Latin called _Richardus Tertius_, also told
the story. Shakespeare's chief source was, however, Holinshed's
_Chronicles_, which learned the tradition of Richard's wickedness from
a life of that king written in Henry VII's time, and ascribed to Sir
Thomas More. In the _Chronicles_ was but a bare outline of the
character which the dramatist so powerfully developed.

+King John+, so far as its central theme may be said to exist, portrays
the ineffectual struggles of a crafty and unscrupulous coward to stick
to England's slippery throne. At first King John is successful.
Bribed with the rich dowry of Blanch, niece of England, as a bride for
his son the Dauphin, King Philip of France ceases his war upon England
in behalf of Prince Arthur, John's nephew and rival. When the Church
turns against John for his refusal to obey the Pope, and France and
Austria continue the war, John is victorious, and captures Prince
Arthur. At this point begins his {137} downfall. His cruel treatment