In an interesting Memoir of Bishop Braybroke (1381-1404),
printed in the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeo-
logical Society (vol. iii. 1870), Mr. E. W. Braybrook, F.S.A., after
remarking that the theory of slow starvation is more probable than
that of assassination, adds : " But whether this starvation was an
act of murder by Henry's orders, or an act of voluntary suicide, is
uncertain. The secrets of the dreadful prison-house at Pomfret
have never been revealed ; and the documentary evidence, when
allowance is made for the partialities of the writers, is about equal
on either side. There remains, however, another alternative, for
which there is no documentary evidence whatever, but which may
after all afford the true explanation — that Richard's death was
natural ; that the few short steps between the prisons and the
graves of princes were traversed the sooner by the natural effect
of his recent sad experiences on a constitution weakened by indul-
gence. Not a single testimony rests upon any personal knowl-
edge, and the tongues of rumour are always busy when the great
ones of the earth die suddenly."

Scene VI. — 3. Cicester. That is, Cirencester, in Gloucester-
shire. The early eds. have Ciceter, which indicates the common
pronunciation.
8. Salisbury, Spencer, etc. The 1st quarto has "Oxford, Salis-
bury, Blunt." It has been suggested that, as the name of Oxford
frequently occurs in Holinshed, S. may inadvertently have taken it
for the title of one of the conspirators. It is corrected in the folio,
but the Cambridge ed. follows the quarto.
15. Consorted, See on v. 3. 138.
