I add his brief and distorted character of

Richard III. :

Richard, the third son, of whom we now entreat, was in wit and courage equal with either of them, in body and prowess far under them both; little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crook-backed, his left shoulder much higher than his right, hard-favoured of visage, as such as is in states called warlike, in other men otherwise. He was malicious, wrathful, envious, and from afore his birth ever froward. It is for truth reported, that the Duchess his mother had so much ado in her travail, that she could not be delivered of him uncut; and that he came into the world with the feet forward, as men be borne outward; and (as the fame runneth) also not untoothed; whether men of hatred report above the truth, or else that nature changed her course in his beginning, who in the course of his life many things unnaturally committed.

None evil captain was he in the war, as to which his disposition was more meetly than for peace. Sundry victories had he, and sometimes overthrows; but never in default as for his own person, either of hardiness or politic order. Free was he called of dispense, and somewhat above his power liberal. With large gifts he gat him unsteadfast friendship, for which he was fain to pillage and spoil in other places, and get him steadfast hatred. He was close and secret; a deep dissimuler; lowly of countenance; arrogant of heart; outwardly coumpinable where he inwardly hated, not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill; dispiteous and cruel, not for evil will alway; but after for ambition, and either for the surety or increase of his estate. Friend and foe was much

what indifferent, where his advantage grew; he spared no man's death, whose life withstood his purpose. He slew with his own hands King Henry VI., being prisoner in the Tower.'*

In his Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation,' More has drawn so lively and characteristic a picture,

* The classical reader may not be displeased to have an opportunity of seeing the same character portrayed in Latin by the same hand:

Richardus hic, de quo præsens sermo instituitur, ingenio atque animi robore utrivis fratrum par, formâ probitateque utrique fuit inferior; habitu corporis exiguo, inæqualibus atque informibus membris, extanti dorso, alteroque humero erectior; os inamabile, torvum, ac planè ejusmodi quale bellicosum in purpuratis ac Martium appellari, in aliis aliter solet. Versipellis, iracundus, invidus, semperque etiam ante partum pravus: quippe quem fama est haud aliter alvo maternâ eximi, quàm obstetricante ferro potuisse. Quin Agrippam etiam natum eum, pedibusque prælatis exiîsse ferunt. Præterea, nec indentatum; sive aliquid adstruxit vero, odio natus rumor, sive natura futuri præscia præposterè multa in ejus ortu ostendere voluit, qui multa foret in vita contra naturæ fas desig

naturus.

Cæterùm bello haud instrenuus dux est habitus, cui quàm ad pacem naturâ fuit accommodatior: sæpè victor evasit; subinde etiam victus, quam rem ne æmulorum quidem quisquam ipsius aut inscitiæ aut ignavia unquam tribuit. Supra facultates profusus ; quæ ne deficerent, ex aliis exhaurire cogebatur quod in alios effunderet. His artibus factum, ut amicitiam instabilem, stabile odium pareret. Consilia sua non aliis unquam credere, quàm per quos exequi necesse fuit; at ne iis ipsis quidem aut ante, aut ampliùs, quàm res urgebat. Personam quamlibet induere, gerereque et tueri gnaviter; hilarem, severam, gravem, remissam, prout sumere aut ponere suasit commodum. In cultu modestia; in animo fastus impotens, immanis. l'erbis adblandiens his, quos intus impensè oderat; nec eorum abstinens complexibus, quos destinabat occidere: crudelis atque immitis, haud ob iram semper, sed ambitionis ergô sæpius, dum vel augendæ fortunæ suæ vel firmande studeret. Quippe amici inimicique æqua ratio fuit, comparati cum commodis; neque cujusquam morte abstinuit unquam, cujus vita

designed no doubt to represent Cardinal Wolsey at the head of his own table, that though the extract is long, the reader I think will not be displeased with it's insertion; in the very orthography, too, for once, of the time when it was written. The title of the chapter is, Of Flattery.' III.

Anthony. I pray you, Cosyn, tell on.

"Vyncent. Whan I was fyrste in Almaine, Uncle, it happed me to bee somewhat favoured with a great manne of the churche, and a great state, one of the greatest in all that countrey there. And indede whosoever might spende as muche as hee mighte in one thinge and other, were a ryght great estate in anye countrey of Christendom. But glorious was hee verye farre above all measure, and that was great pitie, for it dyd harme, and made him abuse many great gyftes that god hadde geven him. Never was he saciate of hearinge his owne prayse.

So happed it one day, that he had in a great audience made an oracion in a certayne maner, where in he liked himselfe so well, that at his diner he sat, him thought on thornes, till he myghte here how thei that sat with him at his borde woulde commende it. And whan he had sitte musing a while, devysing (as I thought after) uppon some prety proper waye to bryng it in with all, at the laste, for lacke of a better (leste he should have letted the matter to long) he broughte it even blontly forth, and asked us al that satte at his bordes end (for at his owne messe in the middes ther sat but himself alone) howe well we

videretur consiliis suis obstare. Constans fama est Henricum Sextum, dum excitus regno in arce Londinensi captivus adservaretur, ab isto (crudeliter adacto sub costas pugione) confossum ac trucidatum, &c. &c. (Hist. Reg. Rich. III.)

lyked his oracyon that he hadde made that daye. But in fayth, Uncle, whan that probleme was once proponed, till it was full aunswered, no manne (I wene) eate one morsell of meate more. Every manne was fallen in so depe a studye, for the fyndynge of some exquisite prayse. For he that shoulde have brought oute but a vulgare and a common commendacion woulde have thought himself shamed for ever. Than sayde we our sentences by rowe as wee sat, from the lowest unto the hyghest in good order, as it had bene a great mater of the comon weale, in a right sólempne counsayle. Whan it came to my parte, I wyll not saye it (Uncle, for no boaste) mee thoughte, by our Ladye, for my parte, I quytte my selfe metelye wel.

• And I lyked my selfe the better, beecause mee thoughte my woordes beeinge but a straungyer, wente yet with some grace in the Almain tong, wherein lettying my latin alone me listed to shewe my cunnyng. And I hoped to be lyked the better, because I sawe that he that sate next me, and shold saie his sentence after mee, was an unlearned Prieste, for he coulde speake no latin at all. But whan he came furth for hys part with my Lordes commendacion, the wyly Fox hadde be so well accustomed in courte with the crafte of flattry, that he wente beyondé me to to farre.

And than myght I see by hym, what excellence a right meane witte may come to in one crafte, that in al his whole life studyeth and busieth his witte about no mo but that one. But I made after a solempne vowe unto my selfe, that if ever he and I were matched together at that boorde agayne; whan we should fall to our flattrye, I would flatter in latin, that he should not contende with me nomore. For though I could be content to be out runne of an horse, yet would I

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no more abyde it to be out runne of an asse. But, Uncle, here beganne nowe the game. He that sate hygheste, and was to speake, was a greate beneficed man, and not a doctour onely, but also somewhat learned in dede in the lawes of the churche. A worlde it was, to see howe he marked every mannes, worde that spake before him. And it seemed that every worde the more proper it was, the worse he liked it, for the cumbraunce that he had to study out a better to passe it. The manne even swette with the laboure, so that he was fain in the while now and than to wipe his face. Howbeit, in conclusion, whan it came to his course, we that had spoken before him, hadde so taken up al among us before, that we hadde not lefte hym one wyse worde to speake after.

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Anthony. Alas, good manne! amonge so manye of you, some good felow shold have lente hym one.

Vincent. It needed not, as happe was, Uncle. For he found out such a shift, that in hys flatteryng he passed us all the myany.

Anthony. Why, what sayde he, Cosyn?

Vincent. By our Ladye, Uncle, not one worde. But lyke as, I trow, Plinius telleth, that whan Appelles the Paynter, in the table that he paynted of the sacryfyce and the death of Iphigenia, hadde in the makynge of the sorrowefull countenaunces of the other noble menne of Greece that beehelde it, spente out so much his craft and hys cunnynge, that when he came to make the countenance of king Agamemnon her father, whiche hee reserved for the laste-he could devise no maner of newe heavy chere and countenance -but to thentent that no man should see what maner countenaunce it was, that her father hadde, the paynter was fayne to paynte hym, holdyng his face in his handkercher.