To entertain these fair well-spoken days,-
I am determined to prove a villain,

And hate the idle pleasures of these days."1

In looking for the psychological reason for his very pronounced criminal appetite and the marked cruelty in his make-up, the criminologist can but look to the natural isolation which Richard's deformity forced upon him, as the genesis for his criminal course. This bodily defect must have been construed by the Poet as the reason for his criminality, for he again and again presents it, as the reason for his extreme sensitiveness. Such deformity would naturally lead to so many humiliations, in a proud sensitive nature, as to make of him a lonely, revengeful creature, with his hand raised against all the world.

Of this bodily defect, as a basis for his criminality, the criminal expert, Goll, in contemplating the character of Richard, observes: "One only feels duties, as such, to one's own community. The soldier feels no duties to the enemy, the European feels himself released from all duties of civilization, when he is called to action, among savage tribes. And to Richard everybody else is an enemy, a foreigner, with whom he has no connection, to whose race he does not belong. Because he stands alone, every man's hand, has, from the first day, been lifted against him, therefore his hand, too, is lifted against every man, against all these hated, well-made people, who together form one community, opposed to him alone. He is at war with them all. And in war, war's deeds are done."2

1 King Richard III, Act I, Scene I.

2 Goll's Criminal Types in Shakespeare, pp. 197, 198.

In making love to Lady Anne, Richard taunts himself with his isolation: "I no friends to back my suit withal, But the plain devil and dissembling looks." (Act I, Scene II.)

Richard thus moralizes, after the determination to put his wife to death, in King Richard III: "K. Rich. . . . Uncertain way of gain: But I am in so far in blood, that sin will pluck

Sec. 313. Law of God and man.

"Anne. Villain, thou know'st no law of God 'nor man; No beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity."

Anne here declares that Richard is devoid of the first element of citizenship, being without fear of the law of either God or man. One without fear of the law of man alone, is a criminal, for criminality consists of following one's inclinations, regardless of the law, which protects the rights of others. If, added to this, one is also regardless of the obligations of the Divine law, and recognizes. no adherence thereto, he is, if possible, below the beasts, for, as the Poet has Anne say: "No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity."

on sin. Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye." (Act IV, Scene II.)

Referring to Richard III, Queen Margaret tells the Duchess of York, in King Richard III: "Q. Mar. Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer; Only reserv'd their factor to buy souls, and send them thither." (Act IV, Scene IV.)

Contemplating his own character, before the battle with Richmond, King Richard III thus concludes as to himself: "K. Rich. I shall despair.-There is no creature loves me; And, if I die, no soul will pity me:

Nay, wherefore should they; since that I myself

Find in myself no pity to myself.

Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd
Came to my tent: and every one did threat
To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard."
(Act V, Scene III.)

1 King Richard III, Act I, Scene II.

God was supposed, in the olden times, to lend assistance to the innocent and a prisoner was asked, before being put upon his trial, whether he would go to trial by ordeal, or by jury, i. e., by God or his country. If the former, he had the trial by battle, in which God was supposed to help the innocent, but if the latter, he was tried by a jury. 1 Chitty, Cr. Law, 416.

Sec. 314. Acquittal of the accused.—

"Glo.

Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman, Of these supposed evils, to give me leave, By circumstance, but to acquit myself." Richard here asks of Anne the privilege of establishing his innocence of the charges she has brought against him. In criminal practice, acquittal is the absolution of a person charged with a crime or misdemeanor. Acquittals are either by introduction of the facts, after a trial, or by law, because of the application of the law to the facts as shown to exist. The acquittal here invoked, is, of course, because of the facts as Richard claims them to exist.

Sec. 315. Accessory before the fact.—

"Glo.

Is not the causer of the timeless deaths,
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?"

Richard here puts the question as to whether or not the accessory before the fact, to these several murders, is not equally guilty, with the persons who carry out the murders as planned. An accessory in the perpetration of a crime, is one who, although not the chief actor therein, is in some way concerned in the crime, either before or after the crime is committed. An accessory before the fact, is one who, though absent when it was committed, yet procured, counselled or commanded its commission.* An accessory after the fact, is one who, knowing a crime to be committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon. Richard insists that the accessory before the fact is just as guilty as the executioner and attempts to thus shift the guilt from his own guilty shoulders to those of his brother.

1 King Richard III, Act I, Scene II.

2 Coke, 2' Inst., 364.

'King Richard III, Act I, Scene II. 1 Hale, Cr. Pl. 615.

4 Bl. Comm. 37.

Sec. 316.

"Glo.

Avouch.

I will avouch, in presence of the king: I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower." 771

To avouch is to assert publicly, or deliberately, a matter of fact, without equivocation, or vacilation, either by written declaration or by word of mouth, so that the fact thus asserted may be used as evidence of its existence." Richard here asserts his willingness to make public statement of the facts asserted, even if it results in his being arrested and sent to the Tower.

This

Gloster tells Anne, in King Richard III: "Glo. hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love, Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love; To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary." (Act I, Scene II.)

Explaining to her wronged lord, how her chastity was forced, the noble Lucrece narrated:

"Immaculate and spotless is my mind;

That was not forced; that never was inclined

To accessary yieldings, but still pure

Doth in her poison'd closet yet endure." (1656, 1660.)

1 King Richard III, Act I, Scene III.

2 Bouvier's Law Dictionary. In Deutoronomy occurs the following: "Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God." Deut. 26, 17.

Speaking of his contemplated charges against Cardinal Wolsey, Buckingham said, in King Henry VIII: "Buck. To the king I'll say't; and make my vouch as strong, as shore of rock." (Act I, Scene I.)

Horatio is made to say, in Hamlet: "Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch, Of mine own eyes." (Act I, Scene I.)

Brabantio charged Othello with seduction of his daughter, before the Duke, in the following lines:

"Bra. I therefore vouch again,

That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood,

Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect,

He wrought upon her."

(Act I, Scene III.)

Othello tells the Senators, in regard to Desdemona accompany. ing him to the wars: "Vouch with me, heaven; I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite." (Act I, Scene III.)

Sec. 317. Disputing with lunatic.

"Dor. Dispute not with her, she is lunatic."1

A lunatic, in law, is one who is without the power of reasoning which is possessed by individuals in health.2 A lunatic was said to be non compos mentis, not of sound mind, or understanding, and for this reason the person so found was not responsible, in law, for his or her acts.3

Of course not having any understanding or reasoning powers, a lunatic would be incapable of reasoning or dispute, in an intelligent manner, so this is why all further dispute is discouraged, in this instance.

Sec. 318. Clothing villainy with holy writ.—

"Glo.

And thus I clothe my naked villiany With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ; And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.” This verse is frequently quoted by lawyers, to meet the conditions in lawsuits, when an attorney or a party to the cause assumes a holy attitude as a cloak for some piece of villainy. The Poet seemed to possess a natural dislike for hypocrisy and never hesitated to express, in no unmeasured terms, his contempt for those who assumed a fair seeming outside, for the purpose of winning favor, or by feigning to be better than they really were. A false pretender to virtue and piety, or one who assumes such virtues when he has them not, is, indeed, an object of contempt, to all alike, so in presenting this side of human nature, the Poet but performs his object, of expressing the universal truth in human nature, as he sees it.

1King Richard III, Act I, Scene III.

2 Coke, Litt. 247.

34 Coke, 124.

Lord Stanley advises Queen Elizabeth, in King Richard III: "Stan. Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds, From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice." (Act I, Scene III.)

4 King Richard III, Act I, Scene III.