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Peter Cockett is an associate professor in the iArts (Integrated Arts) program at McMaster University. He is the co-editor, with Melinda Gough, of Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond (University of Toronto Press, 2025) which publishes the findings of their 2018 Performance as Research (PaR) workshop at the Stratford Festival Lab. He is the general editor (performance), and technical co-ordinating editor of Queen’s Men Editions. His PaR directing credits include King Leir, The Famous Victories of Henry V, and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (2006), Clyomon and Clamydes (2010), and Three Ladies of London (2015) for the Shakespeare and the Queen’s Men project (SQM). The process behind the 2006 productions is documented in depth on the project website Performing the Queen’s Men. For the PLS, the University of Toronto’s Medieval and Renaissance Players, he has directed the Digby Mary Magdalene (2003) and the double bill of George Peele’s The Old Wives Tale and the Chester Antichrist (2004). He also directed An Experiment in Elizabethan Comedy (2005) for the SQM project and Inside Out: The Persistence of Allegory (2008) in collaboration with Alan Dessen. Peter is a professional actor and director with numerous stage and screen credits. He can be contacted at cockett@mcmaster.ca.

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Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

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Project Manager, 2025-present; Assistant Project Manager, 2024-2025; Research Assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA (honours with distinction) in 2024, and an MA English in 2026. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Her SSHRC-funded MA thesis project focuses on transcribing, editing, and encoding early modern girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s May Masque in collaboration with LEMDO.

 Andrew Griffin Andrew Griffin

Andrew Griffin is an associate professor in the department of English and an affiliate professor in the department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is general editor (text) of Queen’s Men Editions. He studies early modern drama and early modern historiography while serving as the lead editor at the EMC Imprint. He has co-edited with Helen Ostovich and Holger Schott Syme Locating the Queen’s Men (2009) and has co-edited The Making of a Broadside Ballad (2016) with Patricia Fumerton and Carl Stahmer. His monograph, Untimely Deaths in Renaissance Drama: Biography, History, Catastrophe, was published with the University of Toronto Press in 2019. He is editor of the anonymous The Chronicle History of King Leir (Queen’s Men Editions, 2011). He can be contacted at griffin@english.ucsb.edu.

 Martin Holmes Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

 Janelle Jenstad Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Beatrice Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

 Kate LeBere Kate LeBere KL

Project Manager, 2020–2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019–2020. Textual Remediator and Encoder, 2019–2021. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her degree she published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet during the Russian Cultural Revolution. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.

 Toby Malone Toby Malone

Toby Malone is an Australian/Canadian academic, dramaturg, and librarian. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto (PhD, 2009) and the University of Western Australia (BA Hons, 2001), and the University of Western Ontario (MLIS, 2023). He has worked as a theatre artist across the world, with companies including the Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Driftwood Theatre Group, the Shaw Festival, Poorboy Theatre Scotland, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, CBC, BT/A, and Kill Shakespeare Entertainment. He has published in Shakespeare Survey, Literature/Film Quarterly, Canadian Theatre Review, Borrowers and Lenders, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, appears in published collections with Routledge, Cambridge, and Oxford. Publications include two monographs: dapting War Horse (Palgrave McMillan) and Cutting Plays for Performance: A Practical and Accessible Guide (Routledge), and is currently co-writing an updated version of Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet with Jill L. Levenson for Manchester UP. Toby has previously taught at the University of Waterloo and the State University of New York at Oswego, is currently Research Impact Librarian at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Helen Ostovich Helen Ostovich

Helen Ostovich, professor emerita of English at McMaster University, is the founder and general editor of Queen’s Men Editions. She is a general editor of The Revels Plays (Manchester University Press); Series Editor of Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama (Ashgate, now Routledge), and series co-editor of Late Tudor and Stuart Drama (MIP); play-editor of several works by Ben Jonson, in Four Comedies: Ben Jonson (1997); Every Man Out of his Humour (Revels 2001); and The Magnetic Lady (Cambridge 2012). She has also edited the Norton Shakespeare 3 The Merry Wives of Windsor Q1602 and F1623 (2015); The Late Lancashire Witches and A Jovial Crew for Richard Brome Online, revised for a 4-volume set from OUP 2021; The Ball, for the Oxford Complete Works of James Shirley (2021); The Merry Wives of Windsor for Internet Shakespeare Editions, and The Dutch Courtesan (with Erin Julian) for the Complete Works of John Marston, OUP 2022. She has published many articles and book chapters on Jonson, Shakespeare, and others, and several book collections, most recently Magical Transformations of the Early Modern English Stage with Lisa Hopkins (2014), and the equivalent to book website, Performance as Research in Early English Theatre Studies: The Three Ladies of London in Context containing scripts, glossary, almost fifty conference papers edited and updated to essays; video; link to Queen’s Mens Ediitons and YouTube: http://threeladiesoflondon.mcmaster.ca/contexts/index.htm, 2015. Recently, she was guest editor of Strangers and Aliens in London ca 1605, Special Issue on Marston, Early Theatre 23.1 (June 2020). She can be contacted at ostovich@mcmaster.ca.

 Jennifer Parr Jennifer Parr

Jennifer Parr holds a Masters degree in European and Renaissance Drama from the University of Warwick. She is an independent scholar and professional director and dramaturge based in Toronto. As an undergraduate at the University of Toronto she became involved as an actor with the P.L.S. Medieval and Renaissance Players’ productions of the Medieval Mystery Cycles returning later to direct an all female company in the York Cycle Fall of the Angels for the international full cycle production in 1998. Her recent productions as director and dramaturge include an all female Julius Caesar and an experimental all female adaptation of Richard III: RIchard 3, Queens 4. Her ongoing research into the historical Richard III and the various theatrical interpretations led to her joining the company of TTR3 as an observer and historical resource for the cast. She also writes a monthly column on music theatre and dance for The WholeNote magazine.

 Jennifer Roberts-Smith Jennifer Roberts-Smith

Jennifer Roberts-Smith is an associate professor of theatre and performance at the University of Waterloo. Her interdisciplinary work in early modern performance editing combines textual scholarship, performance as research, archival theatre history, and design in the development of live and virtual renderings of early modern performance texts, venues, and practices. With Janelle Jenstad and Mark Beatrice Kaethler, she is co-editor of Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words New Tools (2018). Her most recent work has focused on methods for design research that deepen interdisciplinary understanding and take a relational approach. She is currently managing director of the qCollaborative (the critical feminist design research lab housed in the University of Waterloo’s Games Institute, and leads the SSHRC-funded Theatre for Relationality and Design for Peace projects. She is also creative director and virtual reality development cluster lead for the Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project. She can be contacted at jennifer.roberts-smith@uwaterloo.ca.

 Samuel Seaberg Samuel Seaberg

Samuel Seaberg, a University of Victoria English undergrad, enjoys riding his bike. During the summer of 2025, he began working with LEMDO as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Unfortunately, due to his summer being spent primarily in working to establish an edition of Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 2 and consequently working out how to represent multi-text works in a digital space, his bike has suffered severely of sheltered seclusion from the sun. Note: Samuel now works for LEMDO as the Assistant Project Manager, much to his bike’s chagrin.

 Dimitry Senyshyn Dimitry Senyshyn

Dimitry Senyshyn (Clyomon and Clamydes, text) has current research focusing on Shakespeare’s tragicomic romances and their relation to a native tradition of popular romance. He has co-edited an old-spelling edition of The True Tragedie of Richard the Third for QME with Jennifer Robert-Smith. He contributed to the preparation of the REED Inns of Court volume, and he has published in Theatre Research in Canada, Early Theatre, and the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. He can be contacted at dimitry.senyshyn@gmail.com.

 Joey Takeda Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

 Nicole Vatcher Nicole Vatcher NV

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was women’s writing in the modernist period.

 Anonymous Giles Fletcher Giles Fletcher Fletcher, Giles. The Rising to the Crown of Richard the Third. Written by Himself. Licia, and Other Love-Poems, and Rising to the Crown of Richard the Third. Cambridge: 1593. L2r–M3v. STC: 11055. OED: The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1989. LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/ QME Editorial Board

The QME Editorial Board consists of Helen Ostovich, General Editor; Peter Cockett, General Editor (Performance); Andrew Griffin, General Editor (Text); and Janelle Jenstad General Editor (Text).

This modernized text of The Rising to the Crown of Richard the Third. Written by Himself was prepared from Licia, and Other Love-Poems, and Rising to the Crown of Richard the Third (Fletcher).

The stage is set, for stately matter fit, Three parts are past, which prince-like acted were, To play the fourth, requires a kingly wit, Else shall my muse, their muses not come near. Sorrow sit down, and help my muse to sing, For weep he may not, that was called a king. Shore’s wife, a subject, though a prince’s mate, Had little cause her fortune to lament. Her birth was mean, and yet she lived with state, The king was dead before her honor went. Shore’s wife might fall, and none can justly wonder, To see her fall, that useth to lie under. RosamondRosamund Clifford (c.1150-c.1176), mistress to Henry II, who was famed for her beauty. Contemporary readers would have been familiar with Samuel Daniel’s poem The Complaint of Rosamond, which described her beauty. was fair, and far more fair than she: Her fall was great, and but a woman’s fall. TriflesMatters of little consequence (OED trifle, n. 2.a). are these, compare them but with me, My fortunes far, were higher than they all. I left this land possessed with civil strife, And lost a crown, mine honor, and my life. ElstredThe grieving queen portrayed in Thomas Lodge’s The Complaint of Elstred (1593). I pity, for she was a queen, But for myself, to sigh I sorrow want; Her fall was great, but greater falls have been; Some falls they have, that use the court to haunt. A toy did happen, and this queen dismayed, But yet I see not why she was afraid. Fortune and I (for so the match began) Two games we played and tennis for a crown: I played right well, and so the first I won: She scorned the loss, whereat she straight did frown. We played again, and then I caught my fall, England the court, and Richard was the ball. Nor weep I now, as children that have lost, But smile to see the poets of this age: Like selyInnocent, harmless (OED sely, adj. 5). boats in shallow rivers tossed, Losing their pains, and lacking still their wage. To write of women, and of women’s falls, Who are too light, for to be Fortune’s balls. A king I was, and Richard was my name, Born to a crown, when first my life began. My thoughts ambitious, ventured for the same, And from my nephews I the kingdom won. Nor do I think that this my honor stained, A crown I sought, and I a kingdom gained. Time-tyrant fate, did fit me for a crown, My father’s fall did teach me to aspire: He meant by force his brother to put down, That so himself might hap to rise the higher. And what he lost by fortune, I have won, A duke the father, yet a king the son. My father Richard, duke of York was called; Three sons he had, all matchless at that time, I Richard youngest, to them both was thrilled, Yet two of us unto the crown did climb. Edward and I think realm as kings did hold, But George of Clarence, could not, though he would. Sad Muse set down in terms not heard before, My sable fortunes, and my mournful tale: Say what thou canst, and wish thou could say more, My bliss was great, but greater was my bale.Misery, sorrow, grief (OED bale, n.1 3). I rose with speed, and so did fall as fast, Great was my glory, but it would not last. My brother George did plot for to be king, Sparks of ambition did possess us all: His thoughts were wise, but did not profit bring, I feared his rising, and did make him fall. My reachingAmbitious. brain did doubt what might ensue, I scorned his life, and so he found it anew. My brother George, men say, was slain by me, A brother’s part, to give his brother wine, And for a crown I would his butcher be, (For crowns with blood the brighter they will shine) To gain a kingdom still it me behooved:Required, needed (OED behoove, v. 1). That all my letsObstacles (OED let, n.1 1). full soundly were removed. Henry the Sixth deprived of his crown, Fame doth report I put him to the death, Thus Fortune smiled, though after she did frown. A dagger’s stab, men say, did stop his breath. I careless was both how, and who were slain, So that thereby a kingdom I could gain. Clusters of grapes full ripened with the heat, Nor smaller timber builded up on height, Fall not so fast as persons that are great: Losing their honors, bruised with their weight. But fewer means, the faster I did rise, And to be king, I fortune did despise. My thoughts ambitious spread, began to fly, And I a crown did follow with full wing, My hope was small, but yet I thought to try, I had no right, yet longed to be a king. Fear or respect amazed me not at all, If I were crossed, the worst was but to fall. The lion fierce despoiledDeprived, stripped (OED despoil, v. 1). of his prey, Runs not with speed so fast as did my thought My doubtful mind, forbade me long to stay; For why a kingdom was the thing I sought. Now was the time when this was to be done, Or blame my thoughts, because they it begun. My brother died, and left two sons behind, Both underage, unfit to guide the land, This right fell out according to my mind, For not these two were ruled with my hand. England’s great lord the subjects did me call, And I was made protector over all. But as the wolf defends the harmless sheep Whose bloody mouth can hardly be content Until he spoil what he was set to keep, And sely beast be all to pieces rent. So still a crown did hammer in my head, Full of mistrust, till both these two were dead. The elder son with speed to London came, And walls forsook where he had lived before: London, the place of greatest strength and fame, The island’s treasure and the English store. For him lord Rivers was appointed guide, The king’s own uncle by the mother’s side. Rivers was wise, but him I could not brook,Endure, tolerate (OED brook, v.1 3.a). I well foresaw what harm there might ensue, This to prevent with speed I counsel took, And as I thought, so did I find it true. For if that Rivers should obtain his mind, My heart’s desire, then hardly could I find. Rivers and Grey of treason I accused, And told the prince, what both they did intend. My tale was false, and I the king abused: Thus both their lives unjustly did I end. The king was young, the greater was the grief, And needs my words did urge him to belief. Not long this past, but hastingHurrying, hastening (OED haste, v. 1.a). to the queen, A post was sent to show what did befall, And who the actors of this fact had been: That Lord Protector was the cause of all. The queen, amazed, did wonder at this news, And scarce did think it, yet she could not choose. Possessed with fear, four daughters and her son She then conveyed into a sacred place: Supposing true, the harm but now begun, And that I thought to murder all her race. She York’s archbishop did entreat for aid, Who in the Abbey not far distant laid. The bishop came, and mourning found the queen Who did lament the fortune of her son: The realm’s distress, the like before not seen, Her own misfortune, and the state undone. Thus sighed the queen, and wished her state were less, And prayed that heavens would give the king success. My lord (she said), my thoughts presage some ill, And mournful sorrow siezeth on my heart: This sudden news with grief my soul doth fill, And I for fear do quake in every part. In this distress we cannot hope to live, Except this sacred place some safety give. He then replied: dread sovereign, do not faint, A causeless fear, in wisdom do withstand: Yield not too soon, with grief to make complaint, When no such cause approaching is at hand. For feeble minds through weakness coin new fears, When stronger hearts true grief more wisely bears. And if they crown some other, not your son, A thing unlike (yet fear what may befall) Then shall the same unto this child be done, Whom brother’s right by due a king shall call: But tyrant’s force will hardly be so bold, During the time the other is in hold. Then more advised, he told her what he thought She and her son some causes had to fear: And England’s sealThe Great Seal of the Realm, indicating the authority of the monarch. Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, carried the seal in his separate role as Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of the Seal. he therefore with him brought, Which by his place he ’customed was to bear. Thus he resolved to leave the seal behind, Till wiser thoughts straight altered had his mind. The bishop home returned in all haste, And sadly sat, suspecting what might fall. But then my coming made them all aghast, And for the bishop I did straightway call. I knew his deed, and blamed him to his face, And for the seal, another had his place. Thus tyrant hate possessed me for a crown, My mind the anvil of a thousand harms. I raised my friends, my foes I cast them down. This made the subjects flock to me in swarms. My will was strong, I made it for a law, For basest minds are ruled best by awe. I called the council, and did straight persuade From mother’s side to fetch the other son. My drift was further than they well could wade; I gave them reasons why it must be done. The king a playmate wanted for his years, And could not well be fitted with his peers. The cardinal went on message to the queen And used persuasions for her other child, He plainly said, her fear had causeless been, Nor need she doubt by me to be beguiled, I was Protector, chosen by consent, With council grade all treason to prevent. And I protest (quote cardinal) on my life, (For so indeed the cardinal did suppose) Your son with safety shall cut off this strife, And you, nor place, nor land, nor son shall lose. Dread sovereign grant, and let your son be free, If he have harm, then set the fault on me. The queen was moved and quaking did reply, A mother’s love doth breed a mother’s fear, And loath I am those mischiefs for to try, With doubtful hazard of a thing so dear, I doubt (my lord) the nearest of his blood, In true intent scarce wisheth any good. The laws do make my son his mother’s ward, Religion bids I should not slack my care, And nature binds mine own for to regard, These and his health (my lord) good reasons are, To make my fear no smaller than it is, Whilst fear persuades what harm may come of this. Yet take my son, and with my son take all. Come kiss me (son), thy mother’s last farewell Thy years (sweet boy) suspect not what may fall: Not can my tongue for tears thy fortune tell. But hardly crowns their kindred will discern, As you (sweet child) I fear yet long shall learn. God bless thee, son, and I my son thee bless, Thy mother’s comfort, and thy brother’s life. Nay weep not, son, God send thee good success, And safe defend thee from that tyrant’s knife. Cardinal, farewell, be careful of my son, For once I vowed, this never to have done. I and the council in Star Chamber were, To whom the cardinal did in haste resort, Who brought the child which ended all my fear, The mother’s care he briefly did report. I kissed the child, and took it in my arm, Thus none did think I meant it any harm. Then as the wolf half famished for his prey, Or hungry lion that a lamb hath got, My thirsty mind, I meant his blood should stay And yet the wisest not perceive my plot. To the Tower in haste I sent him to his brother, And there with speed, I both at once did smother. Now two there was but living in my way: Buckingham and Hastings both, to cross my mind, The one was headed straight without delay, The other, favors did unto me bind. To match our children, I did him persuade, And earl of Hereford he did himself be made. Now as the sea before a storm doth swell, Or fumes arise before we see the flame; So whispering bruitRumors, reports (OED bruit, n. 4.a). began my drifts to tell, And all imparted unto babbling fame. I deemed it danger, speech for to despise, For after this I knew a storm would rise. London’s Lord Mayor, I used for my turn, And caused him speak what treason had been done, I by these means the people’s hearts did turn, And made them eye me as the rising sun. Thus whilst I meant the island to bring under, The people’s heads on news I set to wonder. Then at the cross I caused a doctorDoctor of Theology, Ralph Shaw, who preached a poorly-received sermon espousing Richard’s claim to the throne. preach, To tell the subjects what I wished them know; The man was cunning, and had skill to teach, Out of my brain I made his sermon flow. Thus everywhere I did such notice give, As all did cry, Heavens let king Richard live! So did I live, and called was a king, Friends swarmed so fast, as bees until the hive, Thus basest means the highest fortunes bring. The crown obtained did cause my thoughts revive: I scorned my friends, and those did most despise That were the means, by which I did arise. Blood and revenge did hammer in my head, Unquiet thoughts did gallop in my brain: I had no rest till all my friends were dead, Whose help I used the kingdom to obtain. My dearest friend I thought not safe to trust, Nor scarce myself, but that perforce I must. Nor speak I now, as if I did repent, Unless for this a crown I bought so cheap. For meaner things men wits and lives have spent, Which blood have sown, and crowns could never reap. Live Richard long, the honor of thy name, And scorn all such as do thy fortune blame. Thus have I told how I a crown did win, Which now torments me that I cannot sleep. Where I do end, my sorrow did begin, Because I got which long I could not keep. My verse is harsh, yet (reader) do not frown, I wore no garland but a golden crown.