'' Richardus Tertius'' is a play written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

about

King Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Batt ...

Thomas Legge Thomas Legge (; 1535 – 12 July 1607) was an English playwright, prominently known for his play ''Richardus Tertius'', which is considered to be the first history play written in England. Biography Legge was the second of three sons born to S ...

. The play was acted by the students of

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

1579 Year 1579 ( MDLXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Monday of the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. Events January–June * January 6 ...

. It was possibly seen by two of the

University Wits The University Wits is a phrase used to name a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities ( Oxford or Cambridge) and who became popular secular writers. Prominent members of this group were ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

at the time: Christopher Marlowe and Robert Greene. The play was never printed in its historical era (in fact, not until 1844); but it survives in nine manuscripts, and is thought to have been well known in its time. Scholars have studied the relationships between ''Richardus Tertius'' and the later plays about Richard III, the anonymous play ''

The True Tragedy of Richard III ''The True Tragedy of Richard III'' is an anonymous Elizabethan history play on the subject of Richard III of England. It has attracted the attention of scholars of English Renaissance drama principally for the question of its relationship wi ...

'' (printed 1594) and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's '' Richard III''. In one view, the unknown author of ''The True Tragedy'' used Legge's play occasionally as a source, but Shakespeare did not.Robert J. Lordi, "The Relationship of ''Richardus Tertius'' to the Main Richard III Plays," ''Boston University Studies in English'' Vol. 5 (1961), pp. 139-53.

References

External links

hypertext edition of the play
1579 plays Plays set in the 15th century English Renaissance plays Plays about English royalty Plays in manuscript 16th-century Latin books Richard III of England {{latin-stub