Richard III
Who is Richard III in Shakespeare’s plays?
How does Shakespeare portray Richard III?
What is Richard III’s famous line?
Richard III, fictional character, based on the historical Richard III, in William Shakespeare’s group of four plays known as the “first tetralogy,” which chronicle English history during the Wars of the Roses. He is the son of Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, and first appears in Henry VI, Part 2. He becomes the duke of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part 3 and king of England in Richard III. One of Shakespeare’s finest creations, the physically disabled Richard is among the earliest and most vivid of the playwright’s villains. In his plot to become king, Richard commits himself to murder, treason, and dissimulation with an inventive imagination that an audience can both relish and condemn.
Role in the plays
Henry VI, Part 2 (written in 1590–92)
Richard appears briefly in the second of the three parts of Henry VI. In the final act he and his elder brother Edward (the future Edward IV) publicly pledge their support for their father, York, when King Henry VI calls for his arrest. The play culminates with the first battle of Saint Albans, in which Richard kills the duke of Somerset, his father’s main rival.
Henry VI, Part 3 (written in 1590–93)
Richard’s role is greatly expanded in the third part of Henry VI. King Henry agrees to make York his successor after his reign ends. But Richard and Edward persuade York to take the throne by force. After York is captured and killed in the battle of Wakefield, his claim passes to Edward, who is supported by Richard as well as their brother George. The Yorkists defeat the royal army in the Battle of Towton.
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Edward is crowned king and makes Richard and George the dukes of Gloucester and Clarence, respectively. However, he alienates both his brothers as well as the powerful earl of Warwick when he marries Elizabeth Woodville and makes her his queen. The alliance was regarded as unfortunate for several reasons, not least of which was that the Lancastrian Woodvilles had opposed the Yorkists earlier in the Wars of the Roses. Richard privately reveals his own ambition to be king but rescues Edward when he is captured by Warwick and George, who have defected. Richard and Edward escape to Flanders, returning later with an army to recapture Henry. George rejoins his brothers and they defeat their enemies, including Prince Edward, in the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. By now ruthlessly committed to his quest for power, Richard kills Henry in the Tower of London, resolves that George will be next, and pledges to destroy Edward’s newborn son, Prince Edward.
Richard III has long been a byname for infamy, based on the disappearance of the princes in the Tower. Modern historians, however, take a more sympathetic view, and many contend that he was framed, possibly by Henry Tudor. Among the most well-known vindications of the historical Richard III is the novel The Daughter of Time (1951) by Josephine Tey, which makes a compelling argument for Richard’s innocence and Henry’s guilt.
Richard III (written in 1592–94)
Now in his own play, Richard declares his intent to “prove a villain” in an opening soliloquy that begins with some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York
The “son” refers to his brother Edward IV, who took the throne, but who, Richard learns, is now gravely ill. Richard has schemed to have George sent to the Tower of London but convinces him that Elizabeth is to blame for his imprisonment. He woos Henry VI’s daughter-in-law, Lady Anne, in the presence of the corpse of the late king (whom Richard murdered). At first she reacts with contempt and outrage but eventually relents when Richard feigns humility by offering her his sword and inviting her to use it on him. A triumphant Richard reveals to the audience his intent to dispose of Anne once she outlives her usefulness. George is killed in the Tower by Richard’s agents, and Richard contrives to blame the murder on Elizabeth’s family, which includes her brother Earl Rivers. George’s mother, the duchess of York, mourns her son and denounces Richard to her grandchildren.
After Edward IV’s death Richard and his ally Buckingham escort the heir, the 12-year-old Prince Edward, to London from his residence at Ludlow Castle. Elizabeth and her younger son, also named Richard, enter sanctuary after the elder Richard has Rivers (her brother) and Grey (Elizabeth’s son by her first marriage) imprisoned. Richard and Buckingham remove the young Richard from sanctuary, and send both him and Prince Edward to the Tower. Rivers, Grey, and the nobleman Sir Thomas Vaughan are executed. Buckingham is dispatched to persuade officials and citizens of the supposed illegitimacy of both Edward IV’s own birth and that of his sons. When they remain unconvinced, Richard makes a pretense of religious devotion: He makes a grand entry to see London officials, borne aloft and flanked by two bishops, and presents himself as a pious contrast to Edward IV, who was known for his many love affairs. This induces the Mayor of London to ask Richard to accept the kingship, which he does with a show of reluctance.
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Richard, now king of England, asks Buckingham to contrive the deaths of the young princes in the Tower. Finding him recalcitrant, Richard refuses to grant his former ally an earldom that he had been promised, prompting Buckingham to flee and gather an army. He is eventually defeated and executed. Richard recruits a soldier named James Tyrrell, who arranges the murder of the princes. Richard also eliminates his now-wife, Anne, in order to woo his niece Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.
In a fierce confrontation Richard is upbraided by his mother and Elizabeth Woodville. He then informs Elizabeth of his intent to marry her daughter. She appears to acquiesce, but the proposed marriage never comes to pass, as Richmond (or Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII), with whom Elizabeth has been conspiring, invades England.
Richard and Richmond meet in the Battle of Bosworth Field, before which Richard spends an introspective night, in which he is visited by a succession of ghosts, including those of Henry VI, George, and the two young princes. The battle is Richard’s reckoning; unseated from his mount, he calls out the famous line: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” He is killed by Richmond, who receives both the crown and the hand of Elizabeth of York in marriage.
Character appraisal: The complexities of Richard’s villainy
Richard is a nightmare figure, diabolical in thought and deed. Yet, when we first see him in Henry VI, Part 2, he is a loyal son. His transformation into a murderous usurper might never have taken place but for Edward IV’s catalytic marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, which estranges several of Edward’s allies. Even so, there are many obstacles in Richard’s way, as he acknowledges in Henry VI, Part 3:
I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand betweene me and home
No transgression is beneath him, be it regicide, fratricide, or smearing his mother’s reputation by discrediting Edward’s birth. Though Richard’s crimes are political in nature, the depths of his villainy are plumbed by the moral perspective—he is a study not only in power and ambition but also in wickedness. He self-identifies as “subtle, false, and treacherous.” His malignancy is as deliberate and manipulative (“Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous”) as it is performative and theatrical: He stages scenes and tableaux, such as the pious pretense for the benefit of the Mayor of London, and a simulated rebellion that serves as the justification for the execution of the nobleman Hastings. Most of all, he is a shape-shifter, skilled at deception and in presenting a facade of virtue that masks his reprehensible interior life. It is only to the audience that he repeatedly reveals his true nature by delivering revealing soliloquies, making the viewer complicit in his villainy.
As an embodiment of evil, Richard is depicted by Shakespeare as a dehumanized sum of his physical disabilities, disfigured in both appearance and character. The abiding image of him with a hunched back and a “withered” limb—his arm is “like a withered shrub” and he has an “envious mountain” on his back—owes its perpetuity to Shakespeare’s exaggeration of his outward form. In his character’s own words, Richard is “Deformed, unfinished”; dogs bark at him, rumor has it that he was born with a full set of teeth, and his birth is believed as having been heralded by ill omens. With his twisted body meant to reflect his twisted mind, Richard is presented as an affront to the natural order. The real Richard suffered from scoliosis, but Shakespeare likely exaggerated his appearance; nor was he likely to have been guilty of the many atrocities attributed to him in the plays. Such is the cultural impact of Shakespeare’s depiction, however, that historical fact has been obscured by the popular perception of Richard as a villain whose physical aspect reflects the absolute corruption within.
“Rudely stamped” though he is depicted, Richard has an abundance of charisma and humor and fascinates several characters in the play—his lack of outward graces notwithstanding. Despite his conviction that he “cannot prove a lover,” he proceeds to do just that with his extraordinary and macabre seduction of Anne. When she succumbs to his blandishments, an exultant Richard reviews his own performance:
Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
Anne’s capitulation is preceded by disgust and anger at Richard’s overtures. She spits at him, calls him “hedgehog” and “toad,” and tells him that he is “unfit for any place but hell.” Her initial response to him echoes the attitudes of the other women in the play toward Richard. He is reviled not just by Elizabeth Woodville but also by his own mother, the duchess of York. Both have lost sons to Richard’s scheming, and neither are taken in by his outward show of respectability as so many of the play’s male characters, such as George, seem to be. The duchess knows that Richard’s “virtuous visgard” hides “deep vice.” She and Elizabeth discern his essential beastliness, repeating the imagery invoked by Anne. The duchess addresses him as “Thou toad, thou toad,” and Elizabeth describes him as a “foul bunch-backed toad.”
In Henry VI, Part 3, Richard says, “Love forswore me in my mother’s womb.” Indeed, he is hated and feared for the most part, and this matters not because, as he puts it, “Richard loves Richard.” It is not until the very end that his self-regard is tempered by a belated self-loathing. “Alas, I rather hate my self,” he rues on the eve of battle, adding:
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree;
Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all “Guilty, guilty!”
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me,
And if I die no soul will pity me.
He dies the next day, calling for a horse. An ignominious end for an infamous king.
Adaptations
The first player of Richard III was English actor Richard Burbage, the star of Shakespeare’s dramatic company. Since then the play has been staged and filmed several times. The most famous renditions of Richard on screen include those by Laurence Olivier and Ian McKellen in films of Richard III made in 1955 and 1995, respectively. In the Olivier version Richard’s opening soliloquy is combined with his speech from Henry VI, Part 3. Benedict Cumberbatch took the role in The Hollow Crown (2012–16), a BBC series that adapted several of Shakespeare’s history plays. Other actors to have portrayed the role on stage and screen include Ralph Fiennes, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Alec Guinness, Kenneth Branagh, Antony Sher, Kevin Spacey, and Mark Rylance. Modern productions have focused on portraying Richard as realistically disabled rather than Shakespeare’s exaggerated “deformed,” with such actors as Peter Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism, and Paralympic athelete and actress Katy Sullivan, taking the role.