— u.— Every thing seems to go to his liking. Hastings having brought him the news of the serious illness of his brother Edward, he hopes that he will not linger long on his sick-bed for: he hath kept an evil diet long, And overmuch consum'd his royal person; but the more Richard must hasten to stir up the hatred of Edward against Clarence, for he .... must not die Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven. And then there remains only one thing to be done: to marry Warwicks youngest daughter The which will I: not all so much for love

2 As for another secret close intent.(Ibid.)

And we see him execute this deseign without delay. Lady Anne is wooed and won, after which murderers are sent to Clarence before King Edward has time to release him as he intends. At the startling news of his brother's execution the sick king is beside himself with grief and remorse, and his death seems accelerated by it. The prospects of Gloster are fast improving. But the three events of the marriage of Gloster, of the murder of Clarence, and of the death of King Edward, which Shakespeare links so closely together, have in reality no conmmexion whatever with each other, but are separated by a number of years. The marriage of Gloster took place in spring 1472, the execution of Clarence on the 18th of February 1478, and the death of Edward on the 9th of April 1483..

It is a most astonishing scene in which Richard wooes and wins Warwicks youngest daughter. He meets her on the road, on her way to Chertsey Abbey where she is going to deposit the body of her murdered father-in-law, King Henry VI. She is, at first, very much startled at Richard'’s suit, and gets into the most violent passion; she gives him the worst names, spits at him, and thrusts his sword at his breast that he has bared to receive the blow, but he never for a moment loses his purpose out of sight, never gets out of temper, listens to her invectives with the greatest forbearence, answers by flatteries, calls her gentle Anne, whose beauty is haunting him night and day, tells her that he“would undertake the death of all the world, so he might live one hour in her sweet bosom“, and at last succeeds in making her believe that he loves her, that he cannot live without her, and induces her to accept his ringlet. Richard shows in this scene what a hypocrit he is, how he can conceal his real mind, listen calmly to injuries which otherwise put him into the most awful passion; he shows at the same time his irresistible elo- quence, and his unrelenting perseverance in the pursuit of his deseigns. He himself is astonished at his success, he can hardly believe that he, the cripple, he, the murderer of Anne’ betrothed and father-in-law should have won her“whom he intends not keeping very long“.

The whole scene from beginning to end is invented by the poet. The meeting, as related by Shakespeare, cannot have taken place because the body of Henry, after having been exposed in St. Paul's, was taken down to its resting place at Chertsey Abbey by water, and at midnight. Moreover Anne cannot have accompanied the body because she was for a time kept in a kind of state custody, after having been captured with Queen Margaret near Tewkesbury, a few days after that battle. The wooing of Richard, and his subsequent marriage may have come to pass this way. It has been mentioned higher up that Richard very likely passed some years in the house and family of his kinsman, the Earl of Warwick. There, of course, he will not have failed to