Richard III (play) "Hamlet" is shorter than its Quarto counterpart. The play is often abridged; for example, certain peripheral characters are removed entirely. In such instances, extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere in the sequence to establish the nature of characters' relationships. A further reason for abridgment is that Shakespeare assumed that his audiences would be familiar with his "Henry VI" plays and frequently made indirect references to events in them, such as Richard's murder of Henry VI or the defeat of Henry's wife, Margaret. "House of York" "House of Lancaster" "Woodville family" "Richard III's group" "Earl of Richmond's group"
Characters of Shakespear's Plays weakness is made to undermine his strength. Hazlitt often focuses, as well, on specific traits by comparing the characters not to those of real life but to characters in Shakespeare's other plays, comparing, for example, Iago with Edmund in "King Lear". His interest in the art of drama emerges even more obviously when he compares Iago with the villainous character Zanga in Edward Young's "The Revenge" (1721), still a popular play in Hazlitt's day. For Hazlitt, "Othello" is especially notable for the interplay between the characters, and the way Shakespeare communicates the slow and gradual "movement of passion [...] the