ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION RICHARD II was entered in S.R. on 29 August, 1597, to Andrew Wise and published (Ql) in that year as 'The Tragedie of King Richard the second. As it hath been publikely acted by the right Honourable the Lorde Chamberlaine his Servants.' A. W. Pollard has shown that the other four Quartos before the 1623 Folio were reprinted successively from each other. He argues that Ql may have been taken from Shakespeare's MS. The 'Deposition scene' (IV.I.154-318) was not printed in the first three quartos, probably because the censor was sensitive about scenes of deposition, and about Richard II's in particular (cf. infra) but after Queen Elizabeth's death the fourth Quarto (1608) included the scene. F 1 was set up from one of the later Quartos, with readings from Ql or the prompt book.1
