Page:Richard III (1927) Yale.djvu/163

Richard the Third into the Tower, and therewith adiudged for a traitor, and priuilie drowned in a butt of malmesie, the eleuenth of March, in the beginning of the seuententh yeare of the kings reigne.' Holinshed, iii. 708. The earlier portion of this scene is Shakespeare's invention.

Pilate. Cf. Richard II, IV. i. 239: 'Though some of you with Pilate wash your hands.'

united league. 'But [King Edward], in his last sicknesse, when he perceiued his naturall strength so sore infeebled, that he despaired all recouerie called some of them before him that were at variance, and in especiall the lord marquesse Dorset, the queenes sonne by hir first husband. So did he also William the lord Hastings.' The lords, Holinshed then tells us, 'ech forgaue other, and ioined their hands togither; when (as it after appeared by their deeds) their hearts were farre asunder.' Holinshed, iii. 713, 714. More, 8/15.

Rivers and Hastings. The Folio has 'Dorset and Rivers,' but these two were nephew and uncle, both belonging to the queen's party. Line 25 below shows that the reading of the Quarto is, in this instance, the correct one. See also note on l. 68 below.

So thrive I, as I truly swear the like. I.e. May my fortune be in accordance with the truth of my oath. See also line 16 and line 24 below.

award Either of you to be the other's end. I.e. cause each to die by the other's agency [either of you to suffer the other's end]. A prophetic warning. See III. iii. 14.

Of you, and you, Lord Rivers, and of Dorset. The Quarto reading is: 'Of you, Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey, of you.' It is Grey later who is associated in death with Rivers.

Lord Woodville, and Lord Scales. The