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''The Tragedy of King Richard the third.'' is William Shakespeare 's unflattering depiction of the short reign of Richard III Of England . The play is sometimes classified as a Tragedy (as in the earliest quarto); but it more correctly belongs to the Histories , as classified in the First Folio . It picks up the story from Henry VI, Part III and concludes the historical series that stretches back to Richard II . After Hamlet it is Shakespeare's second longest play and is the longest of the First Folio , whose version of Hamlet is shorter than the Quarto version. The length is generally seen as a drawback, for which reason it is rarely performed unabridged. It is often shortened by cutting peripheral characters. SOURCES Shakespeare's primary source for ''Richard III'', like most of his histories, was Raphael Holinshed 's ''Chronicles''; the publication date of the second edition, 1587, being the '' Terminus Ad Quem '' for the play. Shakespeare likely consulted Edward Hall 's ''The Union of the Two Illustrious Families of Lancaster and York'', and according to scholars, was familiar with Samuel Daniel 's poem on the Civil Wars . DATE AND TEXT ''Richard III'' is believed to be one of Shakespeare's Earliest Plays , preceded only by the three parts of ''Henry VI'' and perhaps his earliest comedies. It is believed to have been written circa 1591 . Although ''Richard III'' was entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on October 20, 1597 by the bookseller Andrew Wise , who published the First Quarto (Q1) later that year (with printing done by Valentine Simmes ), Marlowe 's Edward II , which cannot have been written much later than 1592 (Marlowe died in 1593) is thought to have been influenced by it. A Second Quarto (Q2) followed in 1598 containing an attribution to Shakespeare on its title page. Q3 appeared in 1602 , Q4 in 1605 , Q5 in 1612 , and Q6 in 1622 ; the frequency attesting to its popularity. The First Folio version followed in 1623 . PERFORMANCE The earliest certain performance occurred on Saturday, November 17, 1633 , when Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria watched it on the Queen's birthday. Yet plainly it had been performed many times before that. The Diary of Philip Henslowe records a popular play he calls ''Buckingham'', performed in Dec. 1593 and Jan. 1594 ; this ''might'' have been Shakespeare's play. Colley Cibber produced the most successful of the Restoration adaptations of Shakepeare with his version of '' Richard III '', at Drury Lane starting in 1700 . Cibber himself played the role till 1739 , and his version was on stage for the next century and a half. (It contained the immortal line "Off with his head; so much for Buckingham" — possibly the most famous Shakespearean line that Shakespeare didn't write.) The original Shakespearean version returned in a production at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1845 .F. E. Halliday, ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964,'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 102 and 414. CHARACTERS (Links are to articles on the historical personages, who may not precisely correspond to Shakespeare's portrayal of them.)
SYNOPSIS The play begins with Richard describing the accession to the throne of his brother, King Edward IV Of England , eldest son of the late Richard, Duke Of York . : Now is the winter of our discontent : made glorious summer by this son (or sun) of York (may refer to the symbol of Richard of York) The speech reveals Richard's jealousy and ambition, as his brother, King Edward the Fourth rules the country successfully. Richard is an ugly hunchback, describing himself as "rudely stamp'd" and "deformed, unfinish'd", who cannot "strut before a wanton ambling / And hate the idle pleasures of these days." Richard plots to have his brother Clarence, who stands before him in the line of succession, conducted to the Tower Of London over a prophecy that "G of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be" - which the king interprets as referring to George of Clarence (although the audience later realise that it was actually a reference to Richard of Gloucester). Richard next ingratiates himself with "the Lady Anne" -- Anne Neville , widow of the Lancastrian Edward Of Westminster , Prince Of Wales . Richard confides to the audience, "I'll marry Warwick 's youngest daughter. What though I kill'd her husband and his father?" Despite her prejudice against him, Anne is won over by his pleas and agrees to marry him. This episode illustrates Richard's supreme skill in the art of insincere flattery. The atmosphere at court is poisonous: the established nobles are at odds with the upwardly-mobile relatives of Queen Elizabeth, a hostility fueled by Richard's machinations. Queen Margaret , Henry VI's widow, returns in defiance of her banishment and warns the squabbling nobles about Richard. The nobles, Yorkists all, reflexively unite against this last Lancastrian, and the warning falls on deaf ears. Richard orders two murderers to kill his brother Clarence in the tower. Clarence, meanwhile, relates a dream to his keeper. The dream includes extremely visual language describing Clarence falling from an imaginary ship as a result of Gloucester, who had fallen from the thatches, striking him. Under the water Clarence sees the skeletons of thousands of men "that fishes gnawed upon." He also sees "wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, inestimable stones, unvalued jewels." All of these are "scatterd in the bottom of the sea." Clarence adds that some of the jewels were in the skulls of the dead. Clarence then imagines dying and being tormented by the ghosts of his father-in-law (Warwick, Anne's father) and brother-in-law (Edward, Anne's former husband) in a hellish afterlife. After Clarence falls asleep, Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, enters and observes that between the titles of princes and the low names of commoners there is nothing different but the "outward fame," meaning that they both have "inward toil" whether rich or poor. When the murderers arrive, he reads their warrant (which is falsely portrayed as being from the king), and exits with the Keeper, who disobeys Clarence's request to stand by him, and leaves the two murderers the keys. Clarence wakes and pleads with the murderers, saying that men have no right to obey other men's requests for murder, because all men are under the rule of God not to commit murder. The murderers imply Clarence is a hypocrite because he "unripdst the bowels of (his) sovereign's son (Edward) whom (he was) sworn to cherish and defend." Tactically trying to win them over, he tells them to go to his brother Gloucester who will reward them better for his life than "Edward will for tidings of (his) death." One murderer insists Gloucester himself sent them to perform the bloody act, but Clarence does not believe this. He recalls the unity of Richard Duke of York blessing his three sons with his victorious arm, bidding his brother Gloucester to "think on this and he will weep." Sardonically, a murderer says Gloucester weeps millstones. Next, one of the murderers explains that his brother Gloucester hates him, and sent them to the Tower to perform the foul act. Eventually, the murderer with a conscience is persuaded by Clarence not to kill him, but it is too late. The other killer stabs Clarence and drowns him in "the Malmsey Butt within". The remorseful murderer regrets the death, and is chastised by the other for not participating. The first act closes with the perpetrator needing to find a hole to bury Clarence. Whether this murderer is Tyrell is unclear, but seems rather logical as Richard later says he "partly know(s) the man" when calling for Tyrell to perform a heinous deed in Act IV. Edward IV, weakened by a reign dominated by physical excess, soon dies, leaving as Protector his brother Richard, who sets about removing the final obstacles to his accession. He meets his nephew, the young Edward V , who is en route to London for his coronation accompanied by relatives of Edward's widow. These Richard arrests and (eventually) beheads, and the young prince and his brother are coaxed into an extended stay at the Tower Of London . Assisted by his cousin Buckingham ( Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke Of Buckingham ), Richard mounts a campaign to present himself as a preferable candidate to the throne, appearing as a modest, devout man with no pretensions to greatness. Lord Hastings , who objects to Richard's ascension, is arrested and executed on a trumped-up charge. The other lords are cajoled into accepting Richard as king, in spite of the continued survival of his nephews (the Princes In The Tower ). |
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