The True Tragedy of Richard III

It has attracted the attention of scholars of English Renaissance drama principally for the question of its relationship with William Shakespeare's Richard III.

In addition to Creede's 1594 quarto, another edition of the play was "Printed at London by W.W. for Thomas Millington and are to be sold at his shoppe under Saint Peters Church in Cornewall, 1600.

The title page of the 1600 quarto states that the play was acted "sundry" times by the "Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his servantes".

Critics are not unanimous on the view that Shakespeare used The True Tragedy as a source for his play, though the majority tend to favour this judgement.

"[12] The uncertainty in dating has allowed a few commentators to propose a reversed priority, and to argue that the author (or reviser) of The True Tragedy may have borrowed from Shakespeare's play.

[13] Shakespeare appears to have known of The True Tragedy, since he paraphrases it in Hamlet, III, ii, 254, "the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge."

Cover of the 1594 quarto of The True Tragedy of Richard III , which was "[p]rinted by Thomas Creede and ... to be sold by William Barley , at his shop in Newgate Market".