The device of the predictive dream that comes true is a common one for the literature of the period, and indeed is prevalent in medieval and early modern theories of dreams and dreaming. Most striking, perhaps, from the point of view of Shakespeare's brilliant dramaturgy, are the hints strewn throughout this passage of Clarence's subconscious awareness that Richard means him harm, even as his conscious mind struggles to insist that Richard must, surely, love him. “Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower,” he tells Brackenbury, the Lieutenant of the Tower: And was embarked to cross to
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