Excerpt from The Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies of Mr. William Shakespeare: As Presented at the Globe and Blackfriars Theatres, Circa 1591 1623; Being the Text Furnished the Players, in Parallel Pages With the First Revised Folio Text, With Critical Introductions<br/><br/>The period of English history that includes the reigns of the kings of the house of York is more obscure than any other period subsequent to the time when William the Conqueror landed on the coast of Sussex. This is especially true as to the ao cession and reign of Richard III. The contemporary writers were principally monks, whose narratives were composed in bad Latin, who described events of which they knew but little or nothing except by perverted hearsay, whose fables far exceed their facts, and in whose books uncertain traditions are inter woven with pious homilies and superstitious legends. If better and clearer authorities once existed they were destroyed when the monasteries were sacked and burned under Henry VIII., or rotted in the receptacles where they had been stored, or, if favor able to Richard III., they were suppressed by his successors. Only distorted views of the period were left for the honest historian.<br/><br/>About the Publisher<br/><br/>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br/><br/>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.