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chard's objection to his title, as unlucky, is suggested by a remark of Holinshed.*

The third act commences with the taking of Henry prisoner. We are thus carried over three years, to 1464. After his defeat at Towton, Henry, who may be considered as having, for the time, abdicated the throne, had retired into Scotland with the queen and prince. According to Scottish historians,† James II. had, two years before, promised assistance to Henry, in return for the promised cession of Northumberland and Durham. The Scottish and Yorkist armies made sundry demonstrations, but never came to action. Of the stipulated cessions, only the town of Berwick was now given up to James III.

From Scotland Margaret went into France,§ to beg succours from Louis XI., who gave her some naval and military succours, with which she returned to Scotland, and thence, with some asistance from the Scots, she invaded the north of England, and obtained some slight advantages; but Warwick soon got the success on his side, and the queen,

* Hol., 211, enumerates Hugh Spencer, who was Earl of Gloucester; Thomas of Woodstock; Duke Humphrey; and lastly, this Richard himself.

+ In 1458. Bishop Lesley, p. 29. Tytler, iv. 158; Henry, ix. 362.

Rolls, v. 478.

§ Lesley, 35. Tytler, 194.

after suffering many personal hardships,* repaired to the court of the Duke of Burgundy, and thence to Bar, in Lorraine, where she remained for some time. Meanwhile Henry made an incursion into England, was defeated at Hexham,† by Warwick's brother, Montagu; he took refuge in Lancashire and Westmoreland, but was betrayed, taken, delivered to Warwick, and imprisoned in the Tower.‡

In the play, he is seized in a park by two keepers; there has been some doubt as to the names of his takers, but it is certain that Sir James Harrington, and several Talbots, were rewarded by King Edward for the caption.§

In the midst of these events, Edward had been in possession of the government, and had held three parliaments, the first of which|| had declared the Lancastrian dynasty an usurpation, and amply retaliated the attainders enacted by the adverse party.

We have now¶ the petition of Lady Grey, for the restitution of her husband's lands.

*

Including the story of the Robber, which rests on the authority of Monstrelet, iv. 108; there is much doubt as to time and place, if the event happened at all. See Henry, ix. 186; Turner, iii. 259.

† May 15, 1463.

‡ June, 1465.

§ Lingard, 181; Rymer, xi. 548. li Westminster, Nov. 4, 1461. 463, 476.

Parl. Hist., 419; Rolls,
Act iii. Sc. 2.

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This lady's husband, Sir John Grey, was slain;
His lands then seiz'd on by the conqueror ;

Her suit is now, to repossess those lands,
That we in justice cannot well deny ;
Because in quarrel of the house of York,
The worthy gentleman did lose his life."

Malone that these lines are full of error.

says

Grey was slain at the second battle of St. Albans, fighting for Lancaster, and the lands were seized by Edward himself.*

In the play, Edward's intention to marry Elizabeth is at once announced to his brothers, who greatly disapprove of it. Holinshed says, that it was opposed by the old Duchess of York.† It certainly is not likely that Richard, who was still a mere boy, should have made any active opposition. The marriage, according to Holinshed, was pri

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She was a woman of a more formal countenance than excellent beauty, and yet both of such beauty and favour, that with her sober demeanour, sweet looks, and comely smiling (neither too wanton nor too bashful), besides her pleasant tongue and trim wit, she so allured and made subject unto her the heart of that great prince, that after she had denied him to be his paramour, with so good manner, and words so well set as better could

* See Malone's note in Bosw., 454.

+ See Laing (in Henry, xii. 403), from Sir Thomas More.

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not be devised, he resolved with himself to marry her, not asking counsel of any man; till they might perceive it was no booty to advise him of the contrary of this his concluded purpose. .. But yet the Duchess of York letted this match as much as in her lay, and when all would not serve, she caused a precontract to be alleged, made by him with Lady Elizabeth Lucy, that all doubts resolved, all things made clear, and all cavillations ended, privily in a monastery he married the kind Lady Elizabeth Grey, at Grafton, aforesaid, where he had first fancied her."*

In the play

66

:

K. Edw. Her looks do argue her replete with modesty,

Her words do shew her wit incomparable,

All her perfections challenge sovereignty.
One way or other, she is for a king;

And she shall be my love or else my queen.

66

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Lady Grey. I know I am too mean to be your

queen,

And yet too good to be your concubine."

Other parts of this wooing, are equally supported by the Chroniclers.†

Contemporary historians+ give us no circum

* Hol., 283.

† See Bosw. 459.

‡ Croyl. Cont., 539; Hearne's MS., 292; Fabyan's traditions are a little more particular, but not important, p. 654.

stances, simply stating that the marriage was clandestine, and without communication with the great men of the land, to whom, when known, it was very unacceptable, by reason of the inferior birth of the lady. Nevertheless, we are told, Elizabeth Grey was, at Michaelmas 1461, presented to the nobles as queen, by Clarence and Warwick.*

Shakspeare closes this scene with the first of the speeches in which Gloucester laments the deformity of his body, and disclaiming all the gentler feelings of humanity, announces the evil tendencies of his mind ;

"for I should not deal in her soft laws,
Shet did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part."

This description is carried further than in the original play, and Shakspeare has also enlarged upon the powers of mischief of which Richard boasts. But

"I can smile, and murder whilst I smile." And

"Can I do this, and cannot get the crown?" are in both plays.

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