Honing a History: Thomas More's Revisions of his Richard III

摘要

The texts of Thomas More's Historia Richardi Regis Angliae Tertii that survive, in whole or in part, witness More's propensity for revising that work. But hitherto it has been difficult to detect any pattern in his revisions, because in editing their respective volumes in the Yale Complete Works of Saint Thomas More, R. S. Sylvester and Daniel Kinney held conflicting views about the nature and date of the version first printed in 1565. Nor did either of them seriously consider that the version of the English History of King Richard the Thirde that was printed by Richard Grafton in 1543 might incorporate More's own revisions of a text which is otherwise known only from the defective draft that William Rastell published in 1557, with the assurance that it emanated from his uncle's own hand. This article examines More's practices in revising both his Latin and English texts of Richard III. New evidence from Grafton's editing of his manuscript of the Chronicle of Iohn Hardyng is also adduced.