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grave(Halsted, Richard III.). From this peaceful life he was called away several times by his brother Edward. Once it was to take part in a warlike expedition against France which Edward undertook in order to reconquer the old, English possessions. This expedition left in June 1475, but returned after a few months without having done anything, because the sly, French king, by bribing Edward's counsellors, succeeded in averting war by the paying of a sum of money. And here again Richard showed the sincerity of his brotherly affection by loudly remonstrating against the shameful treaty of Picquiny, but yet remaining faithful to his brother when his remonstrances proved of no use. A few years after, in 1478, he was again called away from his peaceful hearth by his brother's appointing him chief commander in a war against Scotland. Gloucester invaded Scot- land, laid siege to Berwick, marched his army under the walls of Edinborough, and forced the king to sue for peace. Berwick surrendered to the English(Pauli, Aufsätze). To all this only once allusion is made in Shakespeare when Buckingham on haranguing the citizens in the Guildhall is expounding them Richard's merits.

After having wooed and won Lady Anne, Shakespeare makes Richard hasten to get rid of his brother Clarence before Edward dies or releases him from prison. It is a very touching scene indeed. The murderers Richard sent to Clarence have the greatest difficulty of convincing him of the horrid truth that they have been sent by his brother Gloster, the same Gloster that but lately assured him of his tender affection, even when they tell him:

It is he that sends us to destroy you here, he replies: It cannot be, for he bewept my fortune.

And hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs,

That he would labour my delivery.(Richard III. I. 4.) His most touching appeal to their pity and compassion is of no avail, and he is stabbed, and thrown into a malmsey-butt. It has already been stated, that the imprisonment of Clarence which, according to Shakespeare, preceds the wooing scene, and the murder of Clarence that follows it closely, are in reality posterior to it by about six years. Again Clarence, who was, indeed, a very fine-looking person, and endowed with many amiable qualities, is painted by Shakespeare with much brighter colours than his character really deserves. He is not, indeed, that simple-hearted, good- natured, and straight-forward youth he appears in Shakespeare, but he is rather of a very fickle, and especially most egotistical and avaricious disposition which often led him astray. He, therefore, had repeatedly given his brother Edward a good deal of trouble, and cause for serious displeasure. After having married at the age of twenty years,(Jan 15th 1469) against his brothers will or consent, Isabel, the elder daughter of the Earl of Warwick, he afterwards sided with that ambitious nobleman who had risen in open revolt against his king, and succeeded in sending him at first a prisoner to Warwick castle, and in forcing him afterwards to escape to France. During Edward's absence Clarence and Warwick reigned in England, and Clarence was declared heir to King Hen- ry VI. When six months after his two brothers returned to England, and all their friends flocked from all sides to them, Clarence at once abandoned his father-in-law, and was reconciled with Edward, yet Edward could never forget the unloyal behaviour of a brother who was said to keep in his possession the paper by which he had been declared heir to the crown. And, indeed, nothing could have shown more evidently that he had not given up yet the deseign of stepping forward, one day, with renewed claims to the crown. When after the unsuccessful expedition to