ABSTRACT
The main source seems to have been either Hall's or Grafton's chronicle, which are so alike that it is usually impossible to distinguish between the dramatist's use of them. J. D. Wilson has suggested that Grafton was used because the false miracle of Simp cox, originally told in Sir Thomas More's Dialogue of the Veneration and Worship of Images (1529) was not in Hall but was added by Grafton, who concluded his account with a reference to Gloucester's being 'loved by the commons', and called 'the good Duke of Gloucester' (cf. I.I.I56-7). Shakespeare may indeed have got Simp cox from Grafton, but he could have found it in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments, which he certainly knew. If he dipped into Holinshed, as he almost certainly did, he would find himself directed to Foxe by the editors of the second edition who end the account of Duke Humphrey:
'But sith the praise of this noble man deserveth a large discourse ... I refer the readers unto maister Foxe's booke of Acts and Monuments.' (627/2/16-26)
I give Foxe's version [Text II] in which Gloucester is called 'the good Duke' and 'a supporter of the poore commons'. Since the use of Grafton is difficult to prove, I give excerpts from Hall for this playas for the rest of the trilogy. Shakespeare also made use of Fabyan's Chronicle, which is cited here from the 1559 edition.
