. Moreover, a nobler side of
Richard's character is portrayed. His deeply touching farewell to his
loving Queen, as he goes to his solitary confinement, though tinged
with almost unmanly meekness of spirit, is yet poignant with true
grief. And the last scene of all, in which he dies, vainly yet bravely
resisting his murderers, is a gallant end to a life so full of
indecision.

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In strong contrast with this weak and still absorbing figure are the
two high-minded and patriotic uncles of King Richard, and the masterful
though unscrupulous Henry. The famous prophetic speech of dying John
of Gaunt is committed to memory by every English schoolboy, as the
expression of the highest patriotism in the noblest poetry. And just
as our attitude towards Richard changes from contempt to pity and even
admiration, so our admiration for Henry, the man of action and, as he
calls himself, "the true-borne Englishman," turns into indignation at
his usurpation of the throne and his connivance, to use no stronger
term, at the murder of his sovereign. Throughout the play, however,
Shakespeare makes us feel that the national cause demands Henry's
triumph.

+Date+.--Marlowe's _Edward II_ is usually dated 1593; and Shakespeare's
_Richard II_ is dated the year following, in order to accommodate facts
to theory. The frequency of rime points to an earlier date, the
absence of prose to a later date. Our only certain date is 1597, when
a quarto appeared. Others followed in 1598, 1608, and 1615.

A play "of the deposing of Richard II" was performed by wish of the
Earl of Essex in London streets in 1601, on the eve of his attempted
revolt against the queen. If this was our play, then Essex failed as
signally in understanding the real theme of the play as he did in
interpreting the attitude of Englishmen toward him. Both the one and
the other condemned usurpation in the strongest terms.

+Source+.--Holinshed's _Chronicles_ furnished Shakespeare with but the
bare historical outline. It is usual to suggest that Marlowe's
portrayal of a similarly weak figure with a similarly tragic end
suggested Shakespeare's play; and this may be, though there is nothing
to indicate direct influence.

{141}

+Titus Andronicus+ has a plot so revolting to modern readers that many
critics like to follow the seventeenth-century tradition, which tells,
according to a writer who wanted to justify his own tinkering, that
Shakespeare added "some maste