The True Tragedy of Richard III

"The True Tragedy of Richard III" is an anonymous Elizabethan history play on the subject of Richard III of England. It has attracted the attention of scholars of English Renaissance drama principally for the question of its relationship with Shakespeare's "Richard III". [Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., "The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama", Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973; pp. 274-7.]

("The True Tragedy of Richard III" should not be confused with "The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York"; the latter is the early alternate version of Shakespeare's "Henry VI, Part 3".)

Publication

The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on June 19, 1594; it appeared in print later that year, in a quarto printed and published by Thomas Creede and sold by the stationer William Barley, "at his shop in Newgate Market, near Christ Church door." Creede's 1594 quarto was the sole edition of the play prior to the nineteenth century. [E. K. Chambers, "The Elizabethan Stage", 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 4, p. 43.]

W. W. Greg perpared a modern edition of the play for the Malone Society; it was published in 1929.

Date

"The question of date is confused and unsettled." [Logan and Smith, p. 273.] Most scholars and critics, relying on internal clues in the text, have estimated a date of authorship within a year of two of 1590, though dates as early as c. 1585 have also been posited. [Chambers, Vol. 4, pp. 43-4; Logan and Simth, pp. 273-4.]

The title page of the 1594 quarto states that the play was acted by Queen Elizabeth's Men — the single fact about the play's early performance history that has survived. Any date of authorship for "The True Tragedy" in the mid-to-late 1580s to the early 1590s would be compatible with performance by the Queen's Men.

Critics generally judge the author of "The True Tragedy" to have been influenced by Thomas Legge's Latin play "Richardus Tertius" (c. 1580) — though that relationship is of little help in dating the "True Tragedy".

ources and Genre

Apart from the question of "Richardus Tertius", the author of "The True Tragedy" relied upon the standard historical sources of his generation for the story of Richard — principally Edward Hall's chronicle on the Wars of the Roses, and the chronicle by John Hardyng later continued by Richard Grafton.

While "The True Tragedy" clearly belongs to the genre of the Elizabethan history play, some critics have also pointed out its relationship with the revenge tragedy.

Authorship

There is no external attribution of authorship for "The True Tragedy"; and the question of authorship is complicated by the fact that the single text of the play, the 1594 quarto, is notably inferior. Modern critics have tended to treat it as a bad quarto and a "reported text." Individual commentators have nominated Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Lodge, George Peele, and Thomas Kyd, among other writers of their generation, as possible authors or revisers of the play; but no scholarly consensus in favor of any single candidate or hypothesis has evolved. [Logan and Smith, pp. 272-3; Chambers, Vol. 4, p. 44.]

And Shakespeare

"The True Tragedy" inevitably bears a general resemblance to Shakespeare's "Richard III", as any play on the same subject would. Critics are not unanimous on the view that Shakespeare used "The True Tragedy" as a source for his play, though the majority tend to favor this judgement. Geoffrey Bullen treats "The True Tragedy" as a "probable source" for "Richard III", citing several commonalities (as when, in both plays, Richard calls for a horse on Bosworth Field, yet refuses to flee the battle) — though Bullen admits that the nature of the plays' relationship is "not clear." [Geoffrey Bullen, ed., "Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare", Vol. 3; New York, Columbia University Press, 1960; pp. 237-9, 317-45.]

The uncertainty in dating has allowed a few commentators to propose a reversed priority, and to argue that the author (or reviser) of "The True Tragedy" may have borrowed from Shakespeare's play. [Logan and Smith, p. 276.]

Shakespeare appears to have known of "The True Tragedy", since he paraphrases it in "Hamlet", III,ii,254, "the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge." Line 1892 in "The True Tragedy" reads "The screeking raven sits croking for revenge."

References

External links

[http://www.elizabethanauthors.com/truetragedy01.htm The text online]