Page:Richard III (1927) Yale.djvu/162

148 Keeper are the same person. In the Folio Brakenbury does not enter until after line 75. It is possible that the Quarto text represents an acting version in which an extra character was omitted for economical reasons.

Burgundy. Clarence, when a child, had resided under Burgundian protection at Utrecht, the Netherlands being then a part of the domains of the Dukes of Burgundy.

melancholy flood. I.e. the river Styx, across which Charon, the 'sour ferryman,' conveys in his boat the souls of the newly dead into 'the kingdom of perpetual night,' i.e. Hades.

father-in-law. Clarence married Isabel Neville, the elder daughter of Warwick.

What scourge for perjury. Cf. 3 Henry VI, V. i. 106.

A shadow like an angel. I.e. the ghost of Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI.

That stabb'd me in the field by Tewkesbury. Cf. 3 Henry VI, V. v. 40, in which the killing is portrayed.

costard. A species of large apple. The term was a vulgar colloquialism for the head.

sop. A grim jest of the murderer. It was the custom to sop bread in wine. Probably there is also implied a quibble on 'milk-sop.'

This line is omitted in the Folio. The preceding half line in the Quarto is 'to have redemption.' Probably the Folio omits the line in accordance with the statute of 1606 against blasphemy.

gallant-springing. I.e. blooming Plantagenet; a prince in the spring of life (Johnson).

snow in harvest. Cf. Proverbs, xxvi, 1: 'As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.'

malmsey-butt. ' the duke was cast