Language of Richard III #
There is only one reason why Shakespeare’s plays are still alive and read 400 years after they were written; his mastery of clear, powerful visual language. As we have seen most of his plots are not original, but it is ability to revitalise old stories and histories, shape them into compelling dramas with syncopated plots and revitalise them with resonant forceful language that still appeals to us today.
It is interesting to note that in most transformations or adaptations to contemporary productions, directors may update everything except Shakespeare’s Language. Al Pacino admits that it is the appeal of Shakespeare’s language that convinced him to attempt to attract more people to his plays.
Features #
Some outstanding features of Shakespeare’s Language are:
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His powerful imagery which allows us to visualise his scenes without props or concrete backdrops.
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The use of nuances, the power of suggestion, implied meanings.
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His varied vocabulary, including the fact that he coined many new words and hundreds of new sayings that have become part of our argot.
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The lyricism of his verse and sometimes even his prose has a lightness and resonance or lingering effect on us.
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The wide range of his allusions to classical, religious and historical icons, stories and people.
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The play on words; he likes to use puns, oxymorons, s-xual innuendo, assonance, alliteration, ambiguity and any other tactics to engage and entertain his audiences.
Monologues #
The following self introduction by Gloucester (later to become Richard III) is a foretaste of what is to come; using the archetypal winter to describe hard times of the past we are presented a picture of good times (summer) due to the “sun” (pun for son) of York, his older brother Edward who had won victory over the Lancasters at the Battle of Teweskbury in 1471. Since he is alone on the stage, he levels with us in a confiding and self effacing manner Gloucester presents himself as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He is not suited to these new times where – peace has broken out and love-making in lady’s chambers is in vogue, but prefers “Grim visaged war”. The personification of war creates a stark contrast with the peace he dreads.
While he may deceive others, to us he uses no guises.
GLOUCESTER
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
He ends the soliloquy by dropping all pretence, informing us of how false and deceptive he is prepared to be to advance his own cause despite all his failings:
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
*Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
- I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty*
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish’d, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them; ……
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5JF9Gq5tL4
The Pun #
A Pun is part of word play where the same word has the same sound but different meanings.
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
The play on “sun” refers to both the season of summer and the fact that the King Edward IV was the first born “son” of The House of York.
Today the pun is out of vogue, but during Medieval times it was very popular.
It is undeniable that the British, especially in Shakespeare’s time were fond of puns. But the pun may contain a very high form of wit, and may please either for its cleverness, or for its amusing quality, or for the combination of the two. Naturally, the really excellent pun has always been in favour with the wits of all countries.
The pun is of the sort that may be appreciated intellectually for its cleverness, while not calculated to cause laughter.
Courtship scene: #
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnIAqbdyVe0&t=164s
The formal patterns or iterations of scenes and language often counter-point each other. There are two wooing scenes, Richard with Anne and later with Elizabeth. The language patterns have often been compared to the stroke to stroke of royal tennis. Some see influences of Seneca.
This rhetorical game of tennis is seen best in the first wooing scene as Richard attempts to woo the recently widowed Anne (16) from Edward IV son Edward.
Most of Shakespeare’s mature plays can be seen as symphonic structures of a five movements with primary and secondary leitmotifs.
Act I SCENE II. The same. Another street.
Enter the corpse of KING HENRY the Sixth, Gentlemen with halberds to guard it; LADY ANNE being the mourner
LADY ANNE
Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,
Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of Poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter’d son,
Stabb’d by the selfsame hand that made these wounds!
Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes!
Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness!
If ever he have wife, let her he made
A miserable by the death of him
As I am made by my poor lord and thee!
Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul’s to be interred there;
And still, as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry’s corse.
Enter GLOUCESTER
GLOUCESTER
Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.
LADY ANNE
What black magician conjures up this fiend,
To stop devoted charitable deeds?
GLOUCESTER
Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul,
I’ll make a corse of him that disobeys.
Gentleman
My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.
GLOUCESTER
Unmanner’d dog! stand thou, when I command:
Advance thy halbert higher than my breast,
Or, by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
LADY ANNE
What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
His soul thou canst not have; therefore be gone.
GLOUCESTER
Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
LADY ANNE
Foul devil, for God’s sake, hence, and trouble us not;
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill’d it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry’s wounds
Open their congeal’d mouths and bleed afresh!
Blush, Blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For ’tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
O God, which this blood madest, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink’st revenge his death!
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth, gape open wide and eat him quick,
As thou dost swallow up this good king’s blood
Which his hell-govern’d arm hath butchered!
GLOUCESTER
Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
LADY ANNE
Villain, thou know’st no law of God nor man:
No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
GLOUCESTER
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
LADY ANNE
O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
GLOUCESTER
More wonderful, when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed-evils, to give me leave,
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.
LADY ANNE
Vouchsafe, defused infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.
GLOUCESTER
Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
LADY ANNE
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current, but to hang thyself.
GLOUCESTER
By such despair, I should accuse myself.
LADY ANNE
And, by despairing, shouldst thou stand excused;
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
Which didst unworthy slaughter upon others.
GLOUCESTER
Say that I slew them not?
LADY ANNE
Why, then they are not dead:
But dead they are, and devilish slave, by thee.
GLOUCESTER
I did not kill your husband.
LADY ANNE
Why, then he is alive.
GLOUCESTER
Nay, he is dead; and slain by Edward’s hand.
LADY ANNE
In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw
Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood;
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.
GLOUCESTER
I was provoked by her slanderous tongue,
which laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.
LADY ANNE
Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind.
Which never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
Didst thou not kill this king?
GLOUCESTER
I grant ye.
LADY ANNE
Dost grant me, hedgehog? then, God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous!
GLOUCESTER
The fitter for the King of heaven, that hath him.
LADY ANNE
He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.
GLOUCESTER
Let him thank me, that holp to send him thither;
For he was fitter for that place than earth.
LADY ANNE
And thou unfit for any place but hell.
GLOUCESTER
Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
LADY ANNE
Some dungeon.
GLOUCESTER
Your bed-chamber.
LADY ANNE
I’ll rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
GLOUCESTER
So will it, madam till I lie with you.
LADY ANNE
I hope so.
GLOUCESTER
I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
And fall somewhat into a slower method,
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?
LADY ANNE
Thou art the cause, and most accursed effect.
GLOUCESTER
Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
Your beauty: which did haunt me in my sleep
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
LADY ANNE
If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
GLOUCESTER
These eyes could never endure sweet beauty’s wreck;
You should not blemish it, if I stood by:
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.
LADY ANNE
Black night o’ershade thy day, and death thy life!
GLOUCESTER
Curse not thyself, fair creature thou art both.
LADY ANNE
I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
GLOUCESTER
It is a quarrel most unnatural,
To be revenged on him that loveth you.
LADY ANNE
It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be revenged on him that slew my husband.
GLOUCESTER
He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.
LADY ANNE
His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
GLOUCESTER
He lives that loves thee better than he could.
LADY ANNE
Name him.
GLOUCESTER
Plantagenet.
LADY ANNE
Why, that was he.
GLOUCESTER
The selfsame name, but one of better nature.
LADY ANNE
Where is he?
GLOUCESTER
Here.
She spitteth at him
Why dost thou spit at me?
LADY ANNE
Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!
GLOUCESTER
Never came poison from so sweet a place.
LADY ANNE
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
Out of my sight! thou dost infect my eyes.
GLOUCESTER
Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
LADY ANNE
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead!
GLOUCESTER
I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Shamed their aspect with store of childish drops:
These eyes that never shed remorseful tear,
No, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at him;
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father’s death,
And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks
Like trees bedash’d with rain: in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend nor enemy;
My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;
But now thy beauty is proposed my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.
She looks scornfully at him
Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true bosom.
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.
He lays his breast open: she offers at it with his sword
Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,
But ’twas thy beauty that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabb’d young Edward,
But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
Here she lets fall the sword
Take up the sword again, or take up me.
LADY ANNE
Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,
I will not be the executioner.
GLOUCESTER
Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
LADY ANNE
I have already.
GLOUCESTER
Tush, that was in thy rage:
Speak it again, and, even with the word,
That hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love,
Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.
LADY ANNE
I would I knew thy heart.
GLOUCESTER
‘Tis figured in my tongue.
LADY ANNE
I fear me both are false.
GLOUCESTER
Then never man was true.
LADY ANNE
Well, well, put up your sword.
GLOUCESTER
Say, then, my peace is made.
LADY ANNE
That shall you know hereafter.
GLOUCESTER
But shall I live in hope?
LADY ANNE
All men, I hope, live so.
GLOUCESTER
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
LADY ANNE
To take is not to give.
GLOUCESTER
Look, how this ring encompasseth finger.
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted suppliant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
LADY ANNE
What is it?
GLOUCESTER
That it would please thee leave these sad designs
To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby Place;
Where, after I have solemnly interr’d
At Chertsey monastery this noble king,
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you:
For divers unknown reasons. I beseech you,
Grant me this boon.
LADY ANNE
With all my heart; and much it joys me too,
To see you are become so penitent.
Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.
GLOUCESTER
Bid me farewell.
LADY ANNE
‘Tis more than you deserve;
But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.
Exeunt LADY ANNE, TRESSEL, and BERKELEY
GLOUCESTER
Sirs, take up the corse.
GENTLEMEN
Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
GLOUCESTER
No, to White-Friars; there attend my coining.
Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER
Was ever woman in this humour woo’d?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I’ll have her; but I will not keep her long.
What! I, that kill’d her husband and his father,
To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of her hatred by;
Having God, her conscience, and these bars
against me,
And I nothing to back my suit at all,
But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
Stabb’d in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,
Framed in the prodigality of nature,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
The spacious world cannot again afford
And will she yet debase her eyes on me,
That cropp’d the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed?
On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
On me, that halt and am unshapen thus?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass,
And entertain some score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
Will maintain it with some little cost.
But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave;
And then return lamenting to my love.
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.
Second wooing scene: #
KING RICHARD III spreads malicious evidence that Lady Anne is about to die before attempting to woo his cousing Elizbeth.
Rumour it abroad
That Anne, my wife, is sick and like to die: ….. I must be married to my brother’s daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin:
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
KING RICHARD III negotiates with Elizabeth’s Mother for her hand:
Stay, madam; I must speak a word with you.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
I have no more sons of the royal blood
For thee to murder: for my daughters, Richard,
They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens;
And therefore level not to hit their lives.
KING RICHARD III
You have a daughter call’d Elizabeth,
Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.
KING RICHARD III
Then know, that from my soul I love thy daughter.
KING RICHARD III responding to her objections:
Be not so hasty to confound my meaning:
I mean, that with my soul I love thy daughter,
And mean to make her queen of England.
QUEEN ELIZABETH Say then, who dost thou mean shall be her king? KING RICHARD III
Even he that makes her queen who should be else? QUEEN ELIZABETH What, thou? KING RICHARD III I, even I: what think you of it, madam? QUEEN ELIZABETH How canst thou woo her? KING RICHARD III That would I learn of you,
As one that are best acquainted with her humour. QUEEN ELIZABETH And wilt thou learn of me? KING RICHARD III Madam, with all my heart. QUEEN ELIZABETH Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,
A pair of bleeding-hearts; thereon engrave
Edward and York; then haply she will weep:
Historical Accuracy #
There is no evidence that Richard killed either Henry VI or Edward IV.
In terms both of birth and wealth, Anne Nevill was the obvious bride for Gloucester. No one had seriously suggested that he might marry abroad. From the bride’s standpoint also there was much to be said for the match. Only Gloucester possessed the political muscle to wrest her from the grasp of Clarence, and force him to disgorge her share of the Warwick inheritance, although even this would be at the expense of her unfortunate mother. Probably, therefore, she willingly consented to her abduction by Duke Richard from Clarence’s care. In law, their marriage could only be valid with the aid of a papal dispensation, since they were related within the prohibited degree. Political urgency, however, demanded that the marriage should take place as soon as possible without Rome’s affidavit. The precise date of the marriage is unknown but it probably did not take place until after Easter 1472. This would put her age at 16, and his at 20. (pg. 28-29)
Language of Conflict #
Drama is driven by conflict and Shakespeare is a master at creating tension and high drama by dialectic language of argument from diametric opposites. Much of the play Richard III is driven by this vigorous repartee much of it derisive, scathing and contemptuous abuse.
LADY ANNE
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.*
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
…….. defused infection of a man,
And thou unfit for any place but hell.* (*Act I, Scene 2)
Irony is used throughout the play
“Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it” (Act 1 Sc 2 by Anne)
This important scene exposes Richard’s seductive side. while he claims he is ‘rudely stamped’, Shakespeare exposes his ability to seduce simply through a tennis match of words between Anne and Richard with Richard twisting her words somewhat. He is actually most deceitful when he is really telling the truth, because the real truth is too unbelievable. “But since you teach me how to flatter you”
Richard actually manages to turn a woman who starts off cursing him, to being persuaded into later becoming his wife (whom he kills, because he no longer needs her)
Useful quotes follow after she exits, which display to the audience Richard’s intentions for Anne and the future:
“Was ever woman in this humor wooed? Was ever woman in this humor won?” and
“But I’ll not keep her long”
QUEEN MARGARET
Out, devil! I remember them too well:
A murderous villain, and so still thou art.
Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave the world,*
Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.
QUEEN MARGARET: talking to the Duchess of York, Richard’s mother:
I had an Edward, till a Richard kill’d him;
I had a Harry, till a Richard kill’d him:
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill’d him;
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him;
DUCHESS OF YORK
I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
I had a Rutland too, thou holp’st to kill him.
QUEEN MARGARET
Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard kill’d him.
From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood,
That foul defacer of God’s handiwork,
That excellent grand tyrant of the earth , That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls,
Thy womb let loose, to chase us to our graves.
O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur
Preys on the issue of his mother’s body,
And makes her pew-fellow with others’ moan!
DUCHESS OF YORK on meeting her son, King Richard III:
O, she that might have intercepted thee,
By strangling thee in her accursed womb
From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done!
RICHARD has preemptorily executed four nobles: Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey.
GLOUCESTER - Richard III, (To Former Queen Margaret)
Foul wrinkled witch,…….
,……….. thou hateful wither’d hag!
QUEEN MARGARET
….. stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
……
On thee, the troublerof the poor world’s peace!
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!
………….
Thou elvish-mark’d, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast seal’d in thy nativity
The slave of nature and the son of hell!
Thou slander of thy mother’s heavy womb!
Thou loathed issue of thy father’s loins!
Thou rag of honour! thou detested _
……
O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,
His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
HASTINGS
Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm;
Language of Cant, #
deceit - duplicity – false piety - sanctimonious puritanical hypocrisy - spin
GLOUCESTER
As I am subtle, false and treacherous (Act I, Scene i)
“O, do not swear, my Lord of Buckingham (Act III.vii. 219)
DUCHESS OF YORK (on Gloucester)
Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,*
And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile!
BUCKINGHAM
Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;*
Speak and look back, and pry on every side,
…………………………to grace my stratagems.
GLOUCESTER (on seeing the Head of Hastings )
So dear I loved the man, that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature
That breathed upon this earth a Christian;
…..
So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue,
That, his apparent open guilt omitted,
GLOUCESTER (Instructions to Buckingham spreading rumours to discredit King Edward’s children.)
Infer the bastardy of Edward’s children:*
….*
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury*
And bestial appetite in change of lust;
Which stretched to their servants, daughters, wives,
Even where his lustful eye or savage heart,
Without control, listed to make his prey.
Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
Tell them, when that my mother went with child
Of that unsatiate Edward, noble York
My princely father then had wars in France
And, by just computation of the time,
Found that the issue was not his begot;
Which well appeared in his lineaments,
Being nothing like the noble duke my father:
But touch this sparingly, as ’twere far off,
Because you know, my lord, my mother lives.
Notable quotes from Richard III
“Now is the winter of our discontent.
Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” (Act I, Scene i)
Perhaps the most famous introduction of Shakespeare’s plays.
GLOUCESTER
[Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
“Off with his head!” (Act III, Scene iv)
Richard’s signature phrase.
“A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!” (Act V, Scene iv)
A line that has been parodied time and time again. It is likely a construct by Shakespeare.
Imagery #
GLOUCESTER
……… but I was born so high,*
Our aery buildeth in the cedar’s top,
And dallies with the wind and scorns the sun. (Act I, iii 264)
His pompous arrogance is equated to the eagle’s airy (aerie/eyrie) in a cedar tree, both ranked highly in the hierarchy of the plant and animal kingdoms.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Edward, my lord, your son, our king, is dead.*
Why grow the branches now the root is wither’d?
Why wither not the leaves the sap being gone?
First Citizen (On the death of Edward)
Come, come, we fear the worst; all shall be well.
Third Citizen
When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks;*
When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.
QUEEN EIZABETH (on the arrest of Rivers, Grey and Vaughan,)
Ay me, I see the downfall of our house!
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind;
Insulting tyranny begins to jet
Upon the innocent and aweless throne:
Welcome, destruction, death, and massacre!