ʒ;

from the fact that during his short reign as protector and king there were issued no less than 2378 articles of grants, and public documents of which many are still in use(Halsted, Richard III.). Of all this nothing whatever is said in Shakespeare's play.

The scenes following Richard'’s accession to the throne concern the murder of his nephews. As long as they are alive he feels uneasy, and cannot enjoy his crown. He must get rid of them, and opens his mind to Buckingham who, however, feigns not to understand him till Richard says rather angrily:

Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:

Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead;

And I would have it suddenly perform'd.

What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.(Richard III. IV. 2.) But Buckingham has rather scruples whether he can agree, and asks for some time to consider by himself. During his short absence Richard's attention is by a page directed to a man just present in the anteroom, Tyrrel by name. That person is at once ready to do the bloody deed.

Let me have open means to come to them,

And soon III rid you from the fear of them.(Richard III. IV. 2.) As Brakenbury, the lieutenant of the Tower, has refused to have anything to do with the murder, he is ordered to deliver up the keys of the Tower but for one night during which the children are stifled in their sleep by two wretches Forrest and Dighton, hired by Tyrrel. Tyrrel has seen the deed done, and ordered the chaplain of the Tower to burry them. Where they have been burried he knows not. Richard feels very much relieved by that report, and quite at ease for every thing has gone to his liking so far.

History differs but little from the above representation of Shakespeare. Although Richard tried hard to reconcile the discontented minds, he succeeded little in it, and on his return from York where he and Queen Anne had been crowned a second time, he was alarmed by the news, that a general rising of the people was preparing in the south. Whether the reason of it was the dis- contentment with the measures taken by Richard to provide the money necessary for his liberalities and prodigalities, or whether it was the pity generally felt with the princes imprisoned in the Tower of which the disaffected nobility took advantage in order to spread discontent, and to excite the common people to open revolt, it seems that Richard saw in it the longing of the people for the sons of their beloved Edward IV., and the intention of delivering them from their imprisonment. To prevent this, he at once took his measures. The boys disappeared from the Tower(Pauli, Aufsätze). A noise was spread by Richard himself, that the boys had been removed to some other place, and profiting by it one Perkin Warbeck pretended afterwards to be the Duke of York until he was convicted to be an impostor. There is no doubt now that the princes were put to death at Richards command, and however atrocious the measure may appear to us, it was but a very com- mon one at Riehard's time, and was but a consequence of the measures adopted by Richard to settle the cromn firmly upon his head. The order of putting the princes to death was given to Sir Thomas Tyrrel when Brakenbury had declined doing so. Tyrrel, whom Shakespeare represents as an obscure person, was, however, a great officer of the crown, and already under Edward IV. master of the horse. He hired two wretches Forrest and Dighton, who stifled the princes in their bed, and the latter of whom is said to have confessed his deed(Pauli, Aufsätze). The bodies are