Richard III (1927) Yale/Appendix A
APPENDIX A
Sources of the Play
The second edition of Holinshed's Chronicles (1st ed., 1577; 2d ed., 1587) is the chief historical source of Richard III. Often the account in Holinshed is a paraphrase of Halle, The Vnion of the two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (1550),[1] which in turn is based upon Sir Thomas More's History of King Richard the thirde, published 1513. The authorship of More's history has been attributed to Cardinal Morton, who died in 1500. For matter not in More, Halle was indebted to Polydore Vergil's Historia Angliæ, Basel, 1555. Textual references to Holinshed, Halle, and More in this edition are derived from Shakspere's Holinshed, edited by W. G. Boswell-Stone, London, 1896. Boswell-Stone's references to More's history are from the text of More's Workes, edition of 1557, the paging from J. R. Lumby's edition, 1883.
Matter relating to Richard III in the second edition of Holinshed, that is not to be found in the first, is as follows: Holinshed, iii. 702 (the fire-new stamp of Dorset's title, I. iii. 255, 256); Holinshed, iii. 754 (Richard's friends resorting to him through fear, but wishing and working his destruction, V. ii. 20, 21); Holinshed, iii. 757 (Richmond's oration to his army, V. iii. 236); Holinshed, iii. 756 (Richard's oration to his army, V. iii. 313); Holinshed, iii. 756 (Richmond kept in Brittany by Richard's mother's means, V. iii. 325).
Two plays on Richard's life preceded the first publication of Shakespeare's in 1597. These were Dr. Thomas Legge's Richardus Tertius, a tragedy in Latin performed at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1579, and The True Tragedie of Richard III, with the conjunction and joining of the two noble houses, Lancaster and Yorke; as it was playd by the Queenes Maiesties Players. 1594.
Shakespeare owes little or nothing to Dr. Legge's play.[2] There has been considerable difference of opinion concerning the relation of Shakespeare's play to the True Tragedie. In general, it is safe to say that there are certain resemblances, such as Richard's cry for "A horse, a horse, a fresh horse," but that Shakespeare's indebtedness hardly extends beyond a few hints. Artistically and dramatically the two plays are from pole to pole apart.[3]
To sum up, Shakespeare's conception of Richard's character consistently follows More; for his incidents, the dramatist used the second edition of Holinshed, inspired perhaps in his choice of subject by the success of the True Tragedie. The passages from Holinshed quoted in the notes will illustrate Shakespeare's use of his principal source.