Show rt t TU mE P LD S CircIe 4 Cc CopyrIght lS by b Seymour Eaton Y t Directed by Prof Seynour Eaton 1 H 1 4 t POPULAR STuDIES IN c i j Contributors to tIa cruise Q z e Dr Dr Ed Edward Edward I j ward Dowden n J 3 Rolfe Relfe Dr Hamilton Hamil Albert Ubert S Cook Dr H n Dr ISaac N Demmon Dr IX Ve TI V a Jt B D cu der and others 1 XI HL IlL The English Chronicle Play When the first collected edition of ot plays was wis w published In IKS 1623 the pl edIt S divided the dramas iato into comedies c medie histories and I tragedies I doing they recognized a species of drama peculiar to their j age and Th history or I chronicle play was w a 3 unique and dis I Wb r JT i 1 l l ee I P ta AW I Ll I snit IIi S h 1 I MB In the character of Richard Iii English branch bran h of dramatic lit As Coleridge has said it oc occupies copies an intermediate place between the epic and the drama proper For it was by no means a a dramatization of some episode of the nations history but rather an attempt to present upon the stage stag within the brief compass of an acting play the whole story of some someI I monarchs reign This Is shown in the very titles of such plays as the Trou Troublesome Troublesome Troublesome Reign of King John or the Life and Death of ot Richard the Sec Sea Second Secondo ond ondo And for the most part the early histories adhered with a fidel fidelity fidelity ity jt to the on which they were ere founded They were more mors careful to tell a true story than to secure dra tire dramatic I I matic math effect or to evolve dramatic character That such chronicle plays i iI I were popular among the Elizabethans we have abundant proof Beginning I With Bales BaJes fiery polemic papal papa j I I usurpation m the P play I lof of Kinge Johan a long line of his bis histories histories i iI I tories by Greene Peele Pesie Marlowe i I Shakespeare re Ford Fordi i Dekker Rowley and a 0 host Hest of unknown i 1 authors covers rovers with hardly a 9 break a i it period of English history from the ac accession accession accession t cession of John in 1109 1199 to the defeat of 1 the Armada Annada In 1688 Of varying Interest I II scale of dramatic I and far apart in the thit are two to characteristics to all these plays an exultant pride in the glorious history of England and a sin sincere sincere i cere desire to Instruct an English au audience In the annals of the past Even Eyen such a reign of or shame as en Johns is up uplifted u uplifted lifted and glorified by the figure of the Bastard ge the true son of Coeur de Lion Llop whose lofty boast This Tha England never asser never did and never shall shalli i Lie a at the toe proud feet Ceet of o a n conqueror I But when it il old did help to around it ft itself Itself I self i a ready echo In the hearts of a generation that had bat bad seen a united England shock into ruin the worldwide monarchy of Spain j I I The Authorship Authors ip or ot or This Play I I There are nearly as many theories as asto asI asto I to the authorship ef of this play In both its forms as there are gre Ie critics c who have i i investigated the problem 11 So much i however is practically established by bythe the nce of later critics that thet the I Third Part of King VI YI Is the I joint work of Marlowe and Shakes Shakespeare Shakespeare peare pears And whether the fhe two great poets wrote in collaboration w ur sepa separately i Shakespeare as the younger J and less experienced playwright p 1 worked here In hi the spirit and finder tinder the influence of Marlowe What that In Influence InI influence fluence was can ca n be told to Idi in a a few words I Marlowe was waz the father er almost the creator of English Englis tragedy I He adopted the drumming bon bun of ot the classical school of dramatists anti and an by changing it fro frosja i ia a quantitative to an accentual meter j i created the th mighty line which evoked i the wonder of his contemporaries drove the jigging rhymed forever from the stage andi an In the hands of Shakespeare and Milton be became became became came the organ voice of England At Atthe A Athe the too stone same time since he wrote for the public of the playhouses es and not for forthe forthe forthe the learned society of the tho court or uni university university university he took up the popular dreamt drama of action rather than reflection cleared it of clownish conceits and substituted living breathing men for the automatic puppets that had clattered about the stage It is In plays that we find for the first time in modem modern tragedy character and character de development development development In short be breathed into the crude and formless drama of his day his own fiery self a rare compound of poetry and passion At the feet of such a master even the young Shakes Shakespeare Shakespeare peare pears with all sI his consciousness of coming glories might be well content to sit That Shakespeare almost at the be beginning beginning beginning ginning of his career earns came under the influence of Marlowe 1 Is undeniable His Hs own natural bent was toward rhyme and the linked sweetness s of Venus and Adonis shows us how perfectly the young poet had bad caught the secret of measures Rhyme occurs at frequent Intervals Jn In most of Shakes r eare early earl plays and it was W 5 only a along along along long apprenticeship In school that led him hint to exchange ex bange it for blank verse eTie This apprenticeship extends over a considerable portion of Shakes pearCe peares early work Titus was perhaps written by Marlowe him himself himself self lf it is certainly a play pIa of his school and his drama was retouched by prentice hand It Is by byno byno byno no means unlikely lyo that Marlowe was one of the collaborators in L King Henry VI to which Shakespeare s f added ute tile of or the quarrel quarrel rel r l in the TemPle gardens and of ot Tal Ta Talbots TalbotS bots hots d death ath the last and loftiest fare Care farewell well 11 note of a Mar lowes wor work c and Sh peares appear side by side sida In iti IlIthe the second and ad third parts of Kins Henry Heni VI and Mar lowers lowes most meat finished hed play served as a amodel amodel model for II IL IV Richard Kichard HL lU a 11 a Play of pf Marlo s School Nowhere is fe influence over ss Shakespeare plainer than th in Richard III So apparent is 18 it indeed that Mr Mv Floey believes that Shakespeare de do derived derived rived deed not only his plot but a g consider Ider considerable able part rt of his text from an unfinished play on the same came subject by Mar Marlowe Marlowe Marlowe lowe This Is a hypothesis that tt we are by no means menns called CaliSti on to accept We may rather say with that this only of or all play plan belongs absolutely to tn the school of Mar Marlowe Marlowe lowe Marlowe had blocked out the character of Richard In the true e tra gedy Shakespeare bad already ad added added added ded to t and developed it in tb the Third Part of King Henry VI And then while still under the masters ma Influence Shakespeare undertook a further and andi I i independent treatment of the seine same 1 theme and executed it with a dash I and subtlety that raise it far above his hie masters best work Professor Wendell i has pointed out certain a archaic ele eie elements ments meats in the play the of fill Gloaters wooing Anne In hi the open street th the choral lamentation of ef the widows in the fourth scene of the fourth act and Richards frank avowal avol of his Villainy in the opening lines Jines All MI these remind us ef of Marlowe who writ writing writing ing inS for or a simple aad uncritical audi audience enee ence made large Jorge on Oft their im Ins imagination imagination and ea car little for verill verisimilitude verisimilitude so he could but accomplish accompli k his effect j The Character of Richard HI Ir There are aro other characteristics of this play which show very plainly the Influence of Marlowe Uw headlong h g i energy of the action ution the sonorous rhetoric of the tha th verse vene the absence a of rhyme e and in a large measure of the tho fanciful conceits that disfigure much of or earlier work But most In uses characteristic of all aU is be the com cosm complete subordination of the minor per persons persons persons sons of the drama drams to the central char chac character acter aster of Richard Marlowe loved a 8 play With the possible po ex ox exception exception of ot Edward II his dramas 8 are devoted devote to the Ute exposition of one great in one almost superhuman figure And not only does Richard dominate the other figures in the play plaT which his noise name he is himself him elf dominated by one master passion the th lust of or sovereignty But in the evolution evolution evolution tion of his passion Shakespeare works by subtler means than Marlowe ever dreamed of He gives it a background of history he explains and humanizes it by heredity The he passion of cover sovereignty r was waa an inherited characteristic hn in the t house of York Richards seu hA 1 In an against his king before the outbreak of tHe tIie civil wars we find Richards father dreaming of the golden circuit of or the crown elL IL King Henry VI act 3 scene 1 I Richards brother est ox exclaims claims Id break bre k a thousand oaths to reign one ORe year H IT King Henry VI act 1 scene 2 In Ix Richard this family characteristic reaches its climax and becomes a Ii fierce overmastering passion a demonical possession And Richards native egoism has lias been nurtured and magnified by the atmos almos atmosphere almost t pliers phere In Which he grew to manhood m I for in the wars of the roses ro all laws human and divine were WesO set aside Bide so 50 men might wreak their lust of power I upon the world Nature Natura herself ber lf has done her part to toI intensify and give direction direct ion to t this passion She has bas misshaped Richard I from his mothers womb like to a chaos or an bear whelp Not that Richard Is a villain because he is isa IsI isI I a monster of deformity The frequent frequently ly misunderstood lines of 0 his opening soliloquy And therefore since I cannot play the be belover lover loer loverTo loverTo To entertain these fair n days daysI da daI I am determined to too prove a ViUl n And hate the idle l le pleasures of ot these days are ore not spoken in fri earnest bUt in the spirit of mocking irony which ia Is 90 so characteristic of Richard It cannot be bo seriously maintained that Richard d became bame a hypocrite hyp ite a perjurer nd a murderer because e he could not play pIty the lover and strut before bore a wanton ambling nymph But the bodily de deformity deformity fortuity which cut him off oft from the delights of love and the friendship of men steeled st ed his heart and steadied his hand band to the accomplishment o 0 his In la Inherited laI purpose a He is not embittered I against mankind because of his de dc deformity he gladly accepts it tt as JS g a finger mark of destiny It If he lie waa born with teeth it plainly signified that thai he Be hedog should snarl and bite and play the dog He revels in allusions Ions to his misshaped form and exaggerates ex it with the habitual jocularity which Lamb points out as a prime feature of his character The sane same subtle critic has shown how in these theae allusions there thae mingles a perpetual reference nce to the tha powers and capacities by which Rich Richard Richard ard am is enabled to surmount his h bodily deformity the Joy of a d t con eon conquered conquered or turned into an advantage is isI the th cause of or these very allusions 8 and anti I of the satisfaction with ith which his hi mind recurs to them Nowhere Now er are arp these th powers powe and capa caps capacities capacities cities so 50 magnificently displayed aa u in his courtship of Anne The scene scone le lenot I Int not nol uncommonly condemned as JA a apiece piece of or Elizabethan extravagance a reckless defiance of tl the possibilities of ot nature That such a monster as Rich Richard 1 ant ard could WI win the love loe or of a princess lately widowed by his ha d dar daz her In her hr h J hearts tarts T Tover i h 1 over the vary body hod hd nf r f whom he had t lis critics Is a flat imp imi in I t such a criticism mi k i f point of the sc S scene ne K H Kwin F 1 win Annes love losa he h o e 1 m reason rea un thi she h falls fails ira iru ir al the t bird bint into the jaws Jam Joet before she meets hm lu 11 e ht h ber heart beart of cUr cun cunis cu f is by the very veTY 11 lOt Richard RI on u th h r ee to her hi In the full i t f the throne as 1 l h he has baa chosen v t a as a Jq It partner of u t if r fully the his hi Li H aad to overcome thorn them t path it i i strained to the utmost a r h hs ar s sing lug ing powers power of dir diF I I l Ii hypocrisy are brought in lL f fj J JH H 11 Re the tho th pallbearer Ii h a f rud lud ay imperious texture oven in with a flood of flatten r tl t i 1 ari r finally Anally proclaims his v A th th blunt fra which ti tt p I i y a acome I t come editors cute cuts out f tho S the bitter lows loss of or I I m mat f lug lag I He Be calmly confer the th jurd with which Anne charges hUll him aJ a rs d i with superb effrontery lays lay lav the tIt t h hI I II at her bEt door toor I did kill kUl King KID Henry But thy thet t provoke t N Nay y now cb iwas I a na t i young Edward ward But thy heavenly face fae ih t 1 toil 1 l t me Itt on oil If she treasures resentment J It t t hr r sia sa Ial k hint him here heie to I his hia sword anSI and n h r V h naked breast bread b Or let her bu sa my ay the theand th 11 w wand and he be will execute her v Y t lr r upon himself She hesitate I Wu i I 1 knew thy heart aa ud anti i is i 1 word of love lon falls fells from tier her hf n 11 t I her resistance rte is beaten down tiu an ti 1 leaves the scene Richards bride e The whole scene is an tn xhi th tion flea of the devilish power nf II t t 1 u J will over a weak l an nt t a m nature today wt WI we call all it 1 t n hypnotism any tern term you will To ar it t tan WM Wi Wian an instance of it 1 the might an ani of evil evil the problem over or wh h 1 h i ito Vs t to struggle so sorely in his ia iaIn a yta Yat In this scene are Iii th G characteristics that carry carr 1 triumphantly to the hi i rv j 1 energy his ate intellectual ascend u 11 hi hi power of assuming a hat shape lie will wUI and his biting cra rn ni nithe th tHe poor victims of his J s raft A Ai these thele spring from his hb one mat mas 1 passion pu the lust Just at of sovereignty nty an anare anare ant are its instruments tar for the of the goal Note This study 1 by Profesor T ir y Parrott of ot Princeton will be bo on HI Thursday |