Richard duke of York Author:William Shakespeare Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE. ,.i .-, i., - - -i i Toallwho are in the least familiar with the 'Historical Drama of Shakspeare., the difficulty tf the -present attempt mu... more »st be obvious. The valuable materials which lie dispersed through the three parts- of Henry the Sixth are at the ,same time so heterogeneous and unwieldy as to be scarcely -capable of being moulded into a/i theatrical form. And, though the rules of ,tihe' Historic Drama are extremely loose and indulgent, - and the critical unities of time ,and places i little operative in the most regular i productions f our Theatre, are wholly ex- /chidedr from any share of influence in this its .most peculiar province, it seems at least re quisite that -one principal object of action and interest should be distinctly traced from the commencement to the termination of the Poem. This principal object is more or less promi nently conspicuous in all the historical plays of Shakspeare which have obtained and held possession of the stage. In King John, it is the usurpation of the crown, connected with the imprisonment and death of Arthur., and followed by its just result in the distraction of the realm, and the degradation of the dastardly usurper. The life, deposition, and murder, of Richard the Second, are all connected by a natural and easy chain of events, affording one great and salutary lesson of morality. The conquest of Prance by Henry the Fifth, the consummation of ambition and its downfall, in the person of Richard the Third, are objects equally great in themselves, and susceptible of high dramatic effect from their simplicity and and the powerful interest which they excite, and which never flags so long as they are kept in view. The same may be said of the divorce of Queen Kather...« less