SHAKESPEARE | Richard III - A Tragic Summary

Richard III is the conclusion of Shakespeare's History of the Wars of the Roses, which began in the three parts of Henry VI. It is probably one of the better-known of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, with performances not being as frequent as the more popular Hamlet, Macbeth, and that one about love-stricken Italian teenagers. Modern performances of Richard III create some challenges. Being one of Shakespeare's longest works, it's necessary to shorten it for the modern audience. In order to reduce the length of the production, dialogue sometimes has to be cut, or lesser characters have to be removed. However, because it is seldom performed in conjunction with Henry VI, it is sometimes necessary to add parts from Henry as we see in movie adaptations. For example, to add colour to the plot or explain Richard's reasoning, it's sometimes necessary to add extracts from Henry VI to the opening soliloquy. Some of the most famous actors of the 20th and 21st centuries have taken on the role of Richard. Among those, Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, and of course, each has a different way of interpreting Richard. And there have been many theories concerning why Shakespeare created such an extreme character. While many probably accept the legend of the child-killing, wife-killing, brother-killing, king-killing, Machiavellian monster, many others feel that Shakespeare created this character in order to please his Tudor patrons and further vilify the man that Henry Tudor defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Contemporaries of Shakespeare, like Thomas More, could be accused of the same thing. The story of the princes in the tower captures the imagination and is probably the vilest of Richard's offences. Who else could probably have had issue with one or two of Edward IV's children sitting in a prison in London? Who, I wonder? Who? However, there are also some other theories, some interesting ones, involving actual hunchbacks, like Robert Cecil. But we digress. Unlike most of Shakespeare's works, we don't open with a narration by an outside party. In lieu of this, we come across Richard, Duke of Gloucester, on a London street. He is less than pleased with life and embarks on his winter discontent soliloquy. It is the time when the House of Lancaster held the throne and the House of York was in open rebellion. Now, Henry VI has died, as has his son. Richard is seen to them. With no suitable Lancastrian heir, the House of York is now in a glorious summer, free of ominous clouds. Richard contrasts his own fortunes with that of his brother, King Edward IV. While the king enjoys the spoils of victory, exchanging marches for dancing, Richard extracts no joy from this piece. In the final part of Henry VI, we found out that Richard dreams of being king. And he now tells us that he has made some plans and set them in motion. Firstly, he has convinced Edward that there is a prophecy saying that a relative of Edward's, whose name starts with the letter G, will kill him. Edward has taken that to mean their brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Clarence has now been escorted to the tower with Brackenbury. They come across Richard, who feigns surprise at Clarence's arrest. They discuss the matter and Richard tells his brother that this is the doing of Queen Elizabeth. It's worth noting that Edward's brothers have had no time for the queen and vice versa. Richard will do all he can to help and his brother mustn't worry. At Brackenbury's insistence, the brothers separate and now Lord Hastings appears to tell Richard that his brother, the king, has taken ill and things don't look good. Richard realises that he needs to get a move on with his plans. Clarence needs to be dead before Edward, otherwise he will be in front of Richard in the line of succession and become another more difficult obstacle to remove. However, Richard needs to start work on stage two of his plan. He needs a wife and Lady Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker, who placed Edward on the throne and removed him before Richard killed him in battle, will do very well. She is also the widow of another of Richard's victims, Edward, Prince of Wales, the only son of Henry VI. She'll suit Richard's purposes very well. As he walks along, Richard comes across the funeral cortege of Henry, followed by Lady Anne. He stops the procession to speak to Anne. At first she is repulsed by him and shows him anger. However, after claiming to be penitent for killing her husband and father-in-law and saying many other sweet things, she's won over and agrees to come to him after she buries Henry. Meanwhile at the palace, Queen Elizabeth is with her brother, Lord Rivers, and her son from a previous marriage, Lord Grey. They are concerned about what will happen to their family if the king dies, especially as their enemy, Richard, will be made Lord Protector until the young prince is old enough to rule by himself. The Duke of Buckingham and Lord Stanley arrive, and the latter has a disagreement with the Queen concerning his wife. Lady Stanley happens to be the mother of Henry Tudor, the Duke of Richmond, who is apparently stirring up a claim for the throne. The Queen feels that Lady Stanley shows her no respect and gives her funny looks. Lord Stanley disagrees. But all that aside, Lord Buckingham tells them that the king is a bit better and would like to see everybody. Richard arrives with Hastings and Lord Dorset, Elizabeth's other son from the previous marriage. Richard accuses them all of making the king think ill of him. Because Richard doesn't know how to be dishonest and devious, he can't compete with their lies. The Queen tells Richard that he's always been jealous of their family's rise to fortune. While Richard says that she was never a suitable wife for his brother, her being so old and widowed and Edward so young and strong, she resolves to tell on him. To add to the tinderbox that is this gathering, the widow of Henry, Margaret of Anjou, arrives and begins to rant against Queen Elizabeth and Richard. They ignore her, but she goes on regardless. Richard now speaks about loyalty and how he and Clarence were loyal to York while Elizabeth's family were for Lancaster. Rivers rip ups that they were always loyal to the lawful king. The Queen has a woe to me moment about how hard her life is. Margaret, tired of being ignored, has had enough. She's fed up that they stole everything she had and that whatever she did to their family, her losses make up for it. She places curses on all of them, calling Elizabeth a poor-painted imitation queen. Buckingham tries to restrain Margaret, who tells him that her curses don't apply to him because he never fought her. He's not really interested in the offer, so off she goes. Now Richard sympathises with Margaret's suffering, while Elizabeth believes that she has no part in it. Richard isn't accepting that, seeing as everything Elizabeth has gained is what Margaret lost. Furthermore, he's still peeved about the incident with Clarence and asks that heaven forgive whomever is responsible. Note that he does not curse the person. Rivers sarcastically congratulates Richard on his moralistic stance. Catsby, who in real life will later be the Speaker of the House of Commons under Richard's rule, comes in and calls everyone to see Edward. Richard stays behind, where he is met by two men. He hires them to kill Clarence immediately, but warns them to be careful of his brother's smooth talking. Meanwhile, now in the Tower, Clarence is with Brackenbury. He's had a disturbing dream where him and Richard were on a boat to Burgundy and were reminiscing about the war. Richard took a tumble, but when Clarence tried to help him, Richard bumped him over the head and sent Clarence into the ocean, where he has a vivid experience of drowning. He meets Prince Edward of Lancaster and the Earl of Warwick. He must be in hell, but now he wonders how he got there. Clarence dozes off and the murderers arrive. After a brief attack of conscience by one of the assailants, they resolve to just get this done and to drown Clarence in malmsy wine. Clarence wakes up and, with cruel irony, asks for some wine. When Clarence realizes what's going on, he pleads his case, but eventually he realizes his misunderstanding. The brother he's offended that they are referring to is not Edward, but Richard. One of the men has an attack of conscience, but in the scuffle, Clarence has an attack of death. The two men then argue about the second man's cowardice. So at the end of the first act, Richard's plan has been set into motion. Clarence is dead. He has Anne for a wife. King Edward is still clinging to life, but has a little bit of business to attend to, part of which concerns the Queen's fears about what Richard is going to do when he is protector. Finally, we meet King Edward, who is with the Queen and her family. He makes them take a solemn oath to refrain from enmity. Richard arrives and, despite congratulating them all on the new peace, he doesn't take the oath himself. The Queen asks that the new peace be extended to Clarence, to which Richard tells them that Clarence is dead. The King feels some guilt, but also blames everybody else, because nobody made any petition for Clarence. Together with Hastings, the King retires. And as a parting shot, Richard points out to Buckingham how guilty the Queen's family look. Elsewhere, Clarence's children are afraid that their father is dead, but they don't know yet. Their grandmother, the Duchess of York, laments having given birth to Richard. We're going to hear that a lot. But this doesn't convince Clarence's children against Richard. Elizabeth arrives to tell everybody that the King is dead, and Rivers points out that they need to get the Prince back from Ludlow Castle. Richard arrives and offers condolences. Privately, he and Buckingham resolve that they need to get to the Prince first, so they set out for Ludlow. Now, for no apparent reason, we meet three people on the street. They're discussing how worrying it is to have the new King being a child. They remember that when King Henry VI became King, he was only 9 months old, and despite having good counsel, things went wrong. In this case, the young Prince only has Elizabeth's family and Richard. Worrying indeed. At the palace, the Archbishop announces that the Prince will be there in a day or two, and Elizabeth and the Duchess of York, with the youngest Prince, are chatting. However, the conversation just ends up being about how deformed Richard is. Dorset arrives to tell Elizabeth that the rest of their family have been imprisoned by Buckingham and Richard. After the Duchess spends some more time bemoaning this family feud, they take sanctuary in a church. Amid much fanfare, the Prince arrives with Richard and Buckingham. The Prince is not amused with how few uncles London has. He's told that his uncles from his mother's side were bad news anyway. So now he's upset about the shortage of Lord Hastings. That is resolved when Hastings arrives to tell them that the Queen and the Duchess are in sanctuary. After a bit of laughter, Buckingham convinces the Cardinal to allow them to go and fetch the younger Prince. While waiting for them to fetch the boy, the Prince asks where they're going to stay, and is not really impressed when the answer is the Tower of London. Going off the legend that Caesar built the Tower, he and Richard begin to discuss Caesar and loyalty and similar topics. But now Hastings and the Cardinal bring the younger Prince, who spars with Richard. The conversation eventually breaks down to Richard's disfigurement again. Sensing that enough is enough, Richard suggests that they get on with their trip to the Tower. Richard and Buckingham now discuss getting Hastings on their side, and they get Catsby to go and sound him out when they send Catsby to request Hastings' attendance at a meeting to discuss the coronation. If Hastings won't agree, then he'll have to go. Buckingham reminds Richard to give him the Earldom of Hereford when the dust settles on all this. Over at Lord Hastings' house, Lord Stanley sends a messenger to Hastings to tell him that he's had a terrible nightmare involving Richard's emblem, a boar. Stanley would like them to both flee north because of this dream. Hastings politely declines and reminds him that if they have anything to worry about, running away is going to make it a lot worse. Catsby arrives when the messenger leaves to call Hastings to the meeting, and he now tests him to see how Hastings feels about Richard being king. It seems it's a no, and furthermore, Hastings isn't actually worried about his position or safety. Catsby knows otherwise. Stanley now arrives himself, and Hastings calms him before setting off for the tower, telling pretty much anybody that will listen about his importance and how safe he is. What could go wrong? Meanwhile, at Pomfret Castle, Elizabeth's family members are being led to execution, and they remind us of Margaret's curse, pointing out that Hastings, Buckingham, and Richard still have some comeuppance due. At the Tower of London, Hastings, Stanley, and the Bishop of Ely have gathered to discuss the coronation. They don't want to settle on anything until Richard arrives, though, and when he does, he's in a very good mood and asks the bishop for some strawberries. Richard and Buckingham then go privately to discuss what happened between Catsby and Hastings. A few moments later, a very unhappy Richard returns, ranting about people planning to kill him and performing witchcraft on him. His proof is his withered arm. When Hastings tries to discuss it, he is sentenced to death immediately. Before losing his head, he reflects that perhaps he should not have been so confident earlier. A show is now put on for the benefit of the Mayor of London. Richard and Buckingham put on armour and made as though there was a scuffle and they had to kill Hastings. Richard pleads that despite his love for Hastings, it was unrequited and Hastings wanted to kill Richard. It was better for everyone that Hastings died instead. The Mayor is convinced. Now Richard sends Buckingham to rouse some people into support of Richard's claim. Part of this will be to convince people that Edward's children, and possibly Edward himself, were illegitimate. They retreat to Baynard's Castle. Buckingham reports to Richard that he spoke to the crowd and after a shaky start, he wasn't supposed to talk to them but rather he should have got a sort of town crier to do it. The paid members of the crowd call out, God save King Richard and now the Mayor is coming to offer the crown to Richard. They agree that Richard must pretend to be shocked and should not seem too happy to take it. Buckingham meets the Mayor outside and they ask Catsby to call Richard. He says Richard is in prayer and will see them all tomorrow. They insist so Catsby goes back and while he's away Buckingham points out what a big difference a prayerful Richard is to the indulgent Edward. Catsby returns and confesses that Richard is just nervous about a crowd demanding him but eventually convinces him to come out. After a few refusals and them dropping the news of the illegitimacies and also threatening to find a new king, Richard reluctantly, seemingly, accepts. He does lay it on very thick that he's only doing this because they've really twisted his arm. At the Tower, Elizabeth, the Duchess and Dorset encounter Anne Neville and Clarence's daughter at the gate of the Tower. Brackenbury tells them that the King has forbidden visitors. Elizabeth is stunned at the use of the word King and Brackenbury has to correct himself and say Protector. Stanley then arrives to take Anne away to be crowned Queen. Shock! Elizabeth and Stanley agree that Dorset must go and see Richmond in France and the Duchess curses her womb again. Elizabeth gives sympathy to Anne. Still cursing, the Duchess leaves too and so Elizabeth is left alone at the gate. Over at the Palace, Richard has now been crowned and asks Buckingham to kill the princes. This might be too much and Buckingham is shocked and needs time to think about it. Richard, angered, claims to be finished with Buckingham. He is advised to contact Tyrell to do the deed. Stanley arrives and reports that Dorset has gone to Richmond. Nobody hears him. Richard asks Catsby to let people know that Anne is unwell. She is so unwell that she probably isn't going to be seen again. Tyrell arrives and it is contracted to kill the princes. Stanley is cautioned at the same time regarding his relationship to Richmond, being his stepfather. Meanwhile, Buckingham is back. He's had some time to think about things, but he also wants to remind Richard about his earldom. Richard is ignoring him now. Buckingham resolves that he will not be getting any joy here and it's probably best for him to flee. Some time later, Tyrell returns to the Palace and reports on the death of the boys. He reports of how difficult his hired hands found it, killing two children. Richard asks him to return the next day for a full debrief and, at the same time, he can choose what reward he wants. Richard now takes stock of who he has deposed and realises that he has just one more thing to do. Richmond is to marry Queen Elizabeth's daughter, also Elizabeth. He needs to get in on that and take Richmond's bride. Catsby returns to tell Richard that Buckingham and the Bishop of Ely have marched off to join Richmond. This doesn't bother Richard too much and he's ready for a fight. Meanwhile, outside, Margaret is still loitering about London and finally decides she's seen enough and is going back to France. She comes across Elizabeth and a sobbing Duchess. Eventually, all three are arguing about who has suffered the most. For something a little different, Richard and the army now appear to join the women and they block his way. The Duchess wants to give him an earful but he's not interested, threatening to drown her voice with his band. She ends up just giving him a curse and Elizabeth follows it up with an Amen. However, Richard needs to speak to Elizabeth. Richard takes Elizabeth aside and asks for her daughter's hand. After some initial resistance, Elizabeth agrees. Her giving in so easily really doesn't help Richard's opinion of her. Richard is now informed of a few rebellions around the country as well as the arrival of Richmond off the coast of Wales. He resolves that the best thing to do is to bring all this to a head and have the fight. He orders that the now captured Buckingham be brought to him at Salisbury. Meanwhile, Lord Stanley sends a message to Richmond, telling him that he will bring his army to Richmond. But not soon, because Richard has his son as a hostage. Also, Richmond has permission to marry Elizabeth Jr. Thought he should know. At Salisbury, Buckingham has been brought to Richard for execution. But the King won't see him before his head's cut off. Over at Richmond's camp, Richmond is encouraging his men and his advisors tell him that they don't believe Richard has real followers. Only people who are afraid of him. This means that those followers will soon disappear and come over to Richmond's side. On one side of Bosworth Field, Richard pitches his camp. With an army of three to one, he feels confident. On the other side of the field, Richmond makes camp too and admires the sunset. They both settle in to make battle plans. Richard is preoccupied, he won't eat. Catsby sends for Stanley with an order to bring his army before the battle begins. They don't know that Stanley has sided with Richmond. Richard calls for wine and goes to bed. Meanwhile, Richmond has a guest. The same Lord Stanley has smuggled himself in and gives Richmond regards from his mother and promises his support. That night as they both sleep, the ghosts of everybody Richard has killed appear to both Richard and Richmond. They wish Richmond well while cursing Richard. As a result, Richard has a terrible night's sleep and Richmond wakes up feeling fresh as a daisy. Now to rouse their troops for battle. Richmond makes a speech full of hope and bravery. Richard is more fiery, mocking Richmond for his Frenchness and rousing his men with a speech full of fire and vigour. Despite Stanley not coming for Richard, he decides not to kill his son. In the battle, Richard is dislodged from his horse. Catsby comes to him and tries to get him away from the field but Richard refuses, saying that he has killed five Richmonds today but there seems to be six of them. Richard runs the battlefield calling out for a horse. A horse! My kingdom for a horse! Finally, Richmond and Richard meet and Richmond kills Richard. Richmond leaves the field and is congratulated. Stanley crowns him with the crown picked up off the battlefield. As we saw at the beginning of the play, where Richard's soliloquy replaces the usual preface, here, instead of a conclusion by an outside party, King Henry ends the scene. He declares that he will now go to mass, then marry Elizabeth Jr. And in an emotional speech, he declares that the feuding houses of York and Lancaster are now united, ending the civil war and bringing eternal peace to England. Eternal. Forever.