P. 316. (172)

"London. A room in the Tower. King Henry is discovered," &c.

Here the stage-direction in The True Tragedie, &c. is "Enter Gloster to king Henry in the Tower."-The folio has "Enter Henry the sixt, and Richard, with the Lieutenant on the Walles:"--which is at variance with Richard's words in the concluding couplet of the present scene,-"I'll throw thy body in another room."

The Cambridge Editors remark; "We have retained the stage-direction of the Folios on the walls' instead of adopting Capell's alteration 'a Room in the Tower,' as it seems likely that the mistake lies in the expression 'another room,' which was retained from the older play, the author forgetting that he had changed the scene to the walls." This is not the only note in which the Cambridge Editors account for some strange mistake by attributing it to a constitutional forgetfulness on the part of Shakespeare.-Nearly all the headings of scenes and the stage-directions throughout the folio were doubtless added by the players.

P. 317. (173)

The folio has "

Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,

That taught his son the office of a fowl!

And yet, for all his wings, the fowl was drown'd."

the Foole was drown'd" (which, according to what precedes, would mean Dædalus).-The passage stands thus in The True Tra

gedie, &c.;

"Why, what a foole was that of Creete?

That taught his sonne the office

Of a birde, and yet for all that the poore
Fowle was drownde."

P. 317. (174)

And

"fate,

Words added in the second folio.-On these two lines and the two preceding ones Mr. W. N. Lettsom observes, "I can make nothing out of them but that they are corrupt."

P. 317. (176) "An indigested and deformed lump,”

The True Tragedie, &c. has

The folio has

"To wit: an vndigest created lumpe."

"To wit, an indigested and deformed lumpe :"

But I have no doubt that the words "To wit" were retained in the folio contrary to Shakespeare's intention,-he having expanded the rest of the original line into a complete verse. (In The Sec. Part of King Henry VI. act v. sc. 1 (p. 191), Richard is called, as in the present passage, "foul indigested lump.")

Glo. I'll hear no more :—die, prophet, in thy speech: For this," &c.

The True Tragedie, &c. has

Theobald printed

"Thou cam'st into the world with thy legs forward.
Glo. I'll hear no more: die, prophet, in thy speech;
For this," &c.

"Had our editors," he observes, "had but a grain of sagacity or due diligence, there could have been no room for this absurd break ["Thou cam'st· -"], since they might have ventured to fill it up, with certainty too. The old 4to would have led them part of the way,

'Thou cam'st into the world ·

And that the verse is to be completed in the manner I have given it, is incontestable; for unless we suppose King Henry actually reproaches him with this his preposterous birth, how can Richard in his very next soliloquy say, 'Indeed, 'tis true that Henry told me of;

For I have often heard my mother say

I came into the world with my legs forward' ?

I can easily see that this blank was caused by the nicety of the players, to suppress an indecent idea [?]. But, with submission, this was making but half a cure, unless they had expunged the repetition of it out of Richard's speech too."

So the third folio.-The earlier eds. have "keptst" and "keept'st."

P. 319. (179)

"top"

The folio has "tops" (and so the older play).

P. 319. (180)

"renown'd

For hardy and undoubted champions;"

So The True Tragedie, &c. ("renowmd" and "renownd").—The folio has "Renowne," &c.-Here Capell conjectured, and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads, "redoubted champions."

P. 319. (181) "Work thou the way,-and thou shalt execute."

So The True Tragedie, &c.-"The folio reads '. and that shalt execute.' But as the word 'shalt' is preserved, the other must have been an error of the transcriber or compositor." MALONE.-"I suppose he speaks this line, first touching his head, and then looking on his hand." STEEVENS.

So The True Tragedie, &c. ("Queen," &c.)—The folio has "Cla. Thanke," &c.-Mr. Collier says that in the folio 1664 this line "is correctly given to the King:"-he ought to have said "incorrectly."

The True Tragedie, &c. has "befits the pleasures;" the folio,

pleasure."

"befits the

KING RICHARD THE THIRD.