The History of King Richard the Third : by Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels

Abstract

Sir George Buc (1560-1622), one of the careful antiquarian scholars of the English Renaissance, is famous in literary history as Master of Revels under King James I. In 1619 Sir George wrote The History of King Richard the Third, a study of Richard’s life and reign and a defence of his historical reputation. In the late 1960s/early 1970s Arthur Kincaid embarked on creating the first authentic edition of Sir George Buc’s History from the badly fire-damaged manuscript draft, now in the British Library. This book presents George Buc’s History, painstakingly reconstructed from the original text. In this latest edition Kincaid has thoroughly updated and revised his introduction, discussing Sir George’s position in the literary and scholarly world of his day, and tracing the mystery of the text’s transmission. Extensive notes document the facts of Richard’s reign and controversies surrounding them.