Primary Texts and Secondary Souces On-line

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Full-text editions and extracts of fifteenth-through nineteenth-century sources on the Ricardian controversy; a hypertext edition of Shakespeare's play; essays on Richard III in history, drama, and literature, and resources for teaching. Arranged alphabetically by author.

• Anonymous, History of the Arrival of Edward IV. in England and the Final Recovery of His Kingdoms from Henry VI. Hypertext markup version of the anonymous contemporary chronicle, from the 1838 Camden Society edition. Take a break from all that Tudor propaganda and see Yorkist propaganda in one of its earlier manifestations. Six large files, ranging from 20KB-28KB each:
  • Part I: Introduction, with Footnotes and Transcriber's Notes on Textual Adaptation
  • Part II: Landing through the Reconciliation with Clarence
  • Part III: Confrontation at Coventry through the Battle of Barnet
  • Part IV: The Coming of Queen Margaret through the Battle of Tewkesbury
  • Part V: The Aftermath of Tewkesbury through the Surrender of the Bastard of Fauconberg
  • Part VI: Endnotes

• Austen, Jane. Excerpts from her history of England, a hilarious juvenile send-up of the Ricardian controversy, written in November 1791 when she was sixteen.

• Anonymous, "The Ballad of Bosworth Field"
  Long (163-stanza) sixteenth-century poem, thought to be written by an eye-witness to the battle, with exhaustive list of Richard III's supporters. With an introduction by Michael Bennett, University of Tasmania.

• Colley Cibber, The Tragical History of King Richard III as it is Acted at the Theatre Royal, eighteenth-century adaptation of Shakespeare's play used by most of the premier actors of the nineteenth century. Large file, ca 157KB.

• Godschalk et al., The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century History Play: A Working Bibliography, an extensive bibliography compiled for a graduate seminar in Shakespeare's histories and 16th-17th century historiography.

• Sharon D. Michalove, "The Reinvention of Richard III." Paper presented at the conference 'Reinventing the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Constructions of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods,' sponsored by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, February 17, 1995, in Tempe, Arizona. Also printed in the December 1995 issue of The Ricardian.

• James A. Moore, "Historicity in Shakespeare's Richard III, an analysis by the author of the Garland annotated bibliography on Richard III.

• Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV.Transcription of 1830 edition. Mounted on the server now: Nicolas's introductory memoirs of Yorkist royalty, with commentary on the Ricardian controversies of the time; the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of York. To come: the Wardrobe Accounts. A lengthy series of documents, consisting of 24 interlinked files, ranging in size from 22KB to 40 KB.

• Roxane C. Murph, Richard and Anne: A Verse Play in Two Acts by Maxwell Anderson. The text of a 1990 article by the editor of the edition of the play published for the first time in February 1995.

• Roxane C. Murph, Richard III: The Making of a Legend.
  Originally published in 1977, republished in 1984. The book combines a brief biography of Richard III with a historiographical survey and a review of Richard III in drama and fiction. The first two chapters, reproduced here by kind permission of the author, offer an introductory biography of Richard III.

• Richard Oberdorfer, Pursuing the White Boar: Approaches to Teaching Richard III
  The author surveys educators from the secondary to the graduate study level and offers up a review of Richard III in the classroom.

• William Shakespeare,The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. On-line hypertext edition with links to excerpts of Charles Ross's biography of Richard III.

• Ruth Anne Vineyard, "Oh, Tey, Can You See?"
  Published in 1987, this curriculum for a study unit for advanced-placement high school students has been popular with educators. In this excerpt, "You Can't Tell the Players Without a Scorecard," Vineyard manages to pack thirty years of armed conflict into three pithy pages.

• Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia, Books 23-25. History of the deposition of Edward V and the reign of Richard III by humanist historian Polydore Vergil. One of the classic traditionalist sources. HTML markup by Jeff Wheeler, San Jose State University. (Large file, ca. 109KB, original spelling, from 1846 J.B. Nichols edition). Also: Jeff Wheeler's essay on Vergil, "The Color of Honesty."

• Horace Walpole, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III -- Classic revisionist work, published in 1768.

• John Warkworth, DD. A Chronicle of the First Thirteen Years of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth. Contemporary chronicle with Lancastrian leanings.

• Judy Weinsoft, "Strutting and Fretting His Hour Upon the Stage: An Analysis of the Characterization of Richard in Shakespeare's Richard III and Daviot's Dickon
  Text of a lecture delivered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, August 27, 1993.

[Richard III Society Homepage]

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