The first Quarto of Richard III (1597) provides the only external evidence for dating the play, but internal evidence is sufficiently great to point to the earlier date of composition cited above. Certainly the close relation to Henry VI, Part 3, wherein the character of Richard of Gloucester is fully […]
Read more Critical Essay Date, Style and Theme in Richard IIIWilliam Shakespeare Biography
From one point of view, modern scholars are fortunate to know as much as they do about a man of middle-class origin who left a small country town and embarked on a professional career in sixteenth-century London. From another point of view, they know surprisingly little about the writer who […]
Read more William Shakespeare BiographyCharacter Analysis The Duchess of York
God bless thee, and put meekness in thy mind, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty. (II. ii. 107-108) Nor is this blessing to lead one to assume that the duchess becomes one who is deceived by the arch-villain. It is a heartfelt plea to God that Richard may reform. Old […]
Read more Character Analysis The Duchess of YorkSummary and Analysis Act V
Scene 2 shifts to Richmond’s camp near Tamworth. Richmond, entering with drums and trumpets, addresses his “Fellows in arms” and “most loving friends,” inciting them against Richard, “that wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,” who has placed upon them the “yoke of tyranny” and has despoiled their “summer fields and fruitful […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act VSummary and Analysis Act IV
As they exchange greetings and make their errands known to one another, Brakenbury enters. Queen Elizabeth immediately asks how the princes are. He replies that they are well but that the king has ordered that they are to have no visitors. The reference to “the King” appalls Elizabeth, and she […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act IVSummary and Analysis Act III
Summary A flourish of trumpets announces the arrival of the young prince, followed by Gloucester and Buckingham, Cardinal Bourchier, Catesby, and others. From the first the prince is melancholy. He wants (that is, lacks) “more uncles” to welcome him and is not convinced when Richard implies that they were false […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act IIISummary and Analysis Act II
When Queen Elizabeth, anxious that the newfound amity be extended to all members of the court group, urges the king to pardon Clarence, Richard delivers the shocking news that Clarence is dead: Edward’s reprieve had arrived too late. Almost at once Derby enters and begs that his servant’s life, declared […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act IISummary and Analysis Act I
The thought of his handsome brother reminds Richard of his own deformity. He has one withered arm and a hunched back and so concludes that he is unfit for love. Therefore he will play the villain. The first of his wicked plots is already under way: He has told Edward […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Act ICharacter List
King Edward IV Edward IV, the eldest son of the Duke of York, ruled England from 1461 to 1483. Anything but a weak ruler, he nevertheless had his difficulties. First, his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, which had led to the disaffection of the Earl of Warwick, the chief support of […]
Read more Character ListAbout Richard III
Since constant reference to earlier events in the conflict are found in Richard III, readers should review the story of the Wars of the Roses, which lasted for thirty years and in which some eighty princes of the blood, many members of the nobility, and at least 100,000 commoners were […]
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