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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2010
An analysis of Thomas Mare's English version of The history of King Richard III indicates that the popular mystery cycles influenced his composition. Associated with the celebrations of Corpus Christi Day, the cycles present a series of biblical plays, beginning with the Creation and ending with the Last Judgment. The important themes of tyranny and sacrifice, which this drama explores, also loom large in Richard III. The theme of tyranny is loosely related in the cycles through Lucifer's functioning as the prototype of all earthly tyrants, including More's Richard III. Evidence of the sacrifice, which is at the heart of the mass, can also be found in many biblical scenes. More's reference to Richard's adolescent nephews as ‘innocent babes’ links them to the infants Herod earlier sacrified to his ambitions. Indeed, in Richard III, More does make an intriguing reference to a cobbler performing the role of a ‘sowdayne’ in a play. The suggestion that this drama influenced More's writing is consistent with the speculation that he composed the English version first and then, with the classics in mind, wrote out a separate Latin text, for the two versions have significant differences in imagery, word choice and structure.
1 I wish to thank Sir Geoffrey Elton for reading early drafts of this paper and making useful structural and organizational suggestions. I wish also to thank Arthur Kinney, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, for his assistance. A version of this essay was given at the ‘Conference on framing fact and fiction: Perspectives in early modem England’, Arizona State University, April 1990, and at the British History Seminar, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, January 1991. Citations to More's work are from the Yale edition of the Complete Works of St Thomas More: Sylvester, Richard L., ed., The history of King Richard III, II (New Haven, CT, 1962)Google Scholar and Kinney, Daniel, ed., Historia Richardi Tertii, xv (New Haven, CT, 1986)Google Scholar; Bevington, David, From mankind to Marlowe: growth ofstructure in the popular drama ofTudor England (Cambridge, MA, 1962), pp. 1–2, notes an overemphasis on classical origins for renaissance dramaCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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