Synopsis:
As the Duchess of York mourns Clarence’s death, Queen Elizabeth enters grieving for the death of King Edward IV. Richard and Buckingham make plans to escort King Edward’s heir, Prince Edward, to London.
Richard IIIRichard III
Contents
Characters in the Play
Entire Play
As Richard III opens, Richard is Duke of Gloucester and his brother, Edward IV, is king. Richard is eager to clear his…
Act 1, scene 1
Richard, alone onstage, reveals his intention to play the villain. He then pretends to console Clarence, the first victim of…
Act 1, scene 2
Richard woos Lady Anne over the corpse of King Henry VI, Anne’s father-in-law, whom Richard murdered.
Act 1, scene 3
Queen Elizabeth bemoans her situation in the face of her husband’s serious illness; Richard quarrels with Queen Elizabeth, her brother,…
Act 1, scene 4
Richard’s agents murder the imprisoned Clarence.
Act 2, scene 1
The dying King Edward IV attempts to reconcile the quarreling factions in his royal court. Queen Elizabeth and her kindred,…
Act 2, scene 2
As the Duchess of York mourns Clarence’s death, Queen Elizabeth enters grieving for the death of King Edward IV. Richard…
Act 2, scene 3
Three citizens discuss the possibly tumultuous succession of Prince Edward.
Act 2, scene 4
As Queen Elizabeth awaits the coming of Prince Edward, news arrives that Richard has imprisoned her brother Rivers, her son…
Act 3, scene 1
Richard and Buckingham arrive in London with Prince Edward and order that Edward’s brother, the Duke of York, be taken…
Act 3, scene 2
Responding to Catesby, Hastings flatly refuses to support Richard’s bid for the throne, and takes great satisfaction in the news…
Act 3, scene 3
The Queen’s brother Rivers, her son Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan are led to execution. They recall Margaret’s curse, and…
Act 3, scene 4
A council of lords meets to plan the coronation of Edward V. Richard, learning from Buckingham of Hastings’ refusal to…
Act 3, scene 5
Richard and Buckingham excuse the summary execution of Hastings to the Mayor of London by staging an “uprising” that they…
Act 3, scene 6
The professional scribe who has just finished transcribing Hastings’ indictment shows how the charge against Hastings had been prepared and…
Act 3, scene 7
Richard and Buckingham, having failed to persuade London’s officials and citizens that Richard should be king, stage a scene of…
Act 4, scene 1
Queen Elizabeth, her son Dorset, and the Duchess of York meet Lady Anne and Clarence’s daughter as all approach the…
Act 4, scene 2
The newly crowned Richard asks Buckingham to arrange the deaths of Prince Edward and the Duke of York. When Buckingham…
Act 4, scene 3
Tyrrel reports the deaths of Edward IV’s sons. Richard then reveals that Anne is dead and that he will now…
Act 4, scene 4
Queen Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, and the Duchess of York grieve for their dead. Richard enters on his way to confront…
Act 4, scene 5
Lord Stanley sends news to Richmond, whose army is marching on London: Stanley will be unable to help because Richard…
Act 5, scene 1
Buckingham is led to execution.
Act 5, scene 2
Richmond and his army march against Richard.
Act 5, scene 3
Richard and Richmond and their supporters prepare for battle. Asleep, Richard and Richmond are each visited by the ghosts of…
Act 5, scene 4
In battle Richard has been unhorsed and faces defeat.
Act 5, scene 5
Richmond kills Richard and is given the crown that he will wear as King Henry VII. His coming marriage to…
Scene 2
Enter the old Duchess of York with the twochildren of Clarence.
BOY
Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?
DUCHESS No, boy.
DAUGHTER
Why do ⟨you⟩ weep so oft, and beat your breast,
And cry “O Clarence, my unhappy son”?
BOY
5 Why do you look on us and shake your head,
105
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
If that our noble father were alive?
DUCHESS
My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
I do lament the sickness of the King,
10 As loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
BOY
Then, you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
The King mine uncle is to blame for it.
God will revenge it, whom I will importune
15 With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
DAUGHTER And so will I.
DUCHESS
Peace, children, peace. The King doth love you
well.
Incapable and shallow innocents,
20 You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
BOY
Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester
Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,
Devised impeachments to imprison him;
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
25 And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
Bade me rely on him as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as a child.
DUCHESS
Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice.
30 He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
BOY
Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
DUCHESS Ay, boy.
BOY
I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?
107
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
Rivers and Dorset after her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
35 Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
To chide my fortune and torment myself?
I’ll join with black despair against my soul
And to myself become an enemy.
DUCHESS
What means this scene of rude impatience?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
40 To make an act of tragic violence.
Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
If you will live, lament. If die, be brief,
45 That our swift-wingèd souls may catch the King’s,
Or, like obedient subjects, follow him
To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.
DUCHESS
Ah, so much interest have ⟨I⟩ in thy sorrow
As I had title in thy noble husband.
50 I have bewept a worthy husband’s death
And lived with looking on his images;
But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
And I, for comfort, have but one false glass
55 That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left,
But death hath snatched my husband from mine
arms
60 And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries!
109
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
65 How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
DAUGHTER, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned.
Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Give me no help in lamentation.
I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
70 All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being governed by the watery moon,
May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!
CHILDREN
Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!
DUCHESS
75 Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What stay had I but Edward? And he’s gone.
CHILDREN
What stay had we but Clarence? And he’s gone.
DUCHESS
What stays had I but they? And they are gone.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Was never widow had so dear a loss.
CHILDREN
80 Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
DUCHESS
Was never mother had so dear a loss.
Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
Their woes are parceled; mine is general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
85 I for a Clarence ⟨weep;⟩ so doth not she.
These babes for Clarence weep, ⟨and so do I;
I for an Edward weep;⟩ so do not they.
Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
111
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
90 And I will pamper it with lamentation.
DORSET, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeased
That you take with unthankfulness His doing.
In common worldly things, ’tis called ungrateful
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
95 Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.
RIVERS
Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son. Send straight for
100 him.
Let him be crowned. In him your comfort lives.
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward’s grave
And plant your joys in living Edward’s throne.
Enter Richard, ⌜Duke of Gloucester,⌝ Buckingham, ⌜Lord
Stanley, Earl of⌝ Derby, Hastings, and Ratcliffe.
RICHARD, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝
Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
105 To wail the dimming of our shining star,
But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
Madam my mother, I do cry you mercy;
I did not see your Grace. Humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing.⌜He kneels.⌝
DUCHESS
110 God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD, ⌜standing⌝
Amen. ⌜Aside.⌝ And make me die a good old man!
That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing;
I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
115 You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
113
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 2
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
120 The broken rancor of your high-swoll’n hates,
But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that with some little train
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
125 Hither to London, to be crowned our king.
RIVERS
Why “with some little train,” my lord of
Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
130 Which would be so much the more dangerous
By how much the estate is green and yet
ungoverned.
Where every horse bears his commanding rein
And may direct his course as please himself,
135 As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.
RICHARD
I hope the King made peace with all of us;
And the compact is firm and true in me.
RIVERS
And so in me, and so, I think, in all.
140 Yet since it is but green, it should be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,
Which haply by much company might be urged.
Therefore I say with noble Buckingham
That it is meet so few should fetch the Prince.
HASTINGS 145And so say I.
RICHARD
Then be it so, and go we to determine
115
Richard III
ACT 2. SC. 3
⟨Ludlow.⟩—
Madam, and you, my sister, will you go
150 To give your censures in this business?
All but Buckingham and Richard exit.
BUCKINGHAM
My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
For ⟨God’s⟩ sake let not us two stay at home.
For by the way I’ll sort occasion,
As index to the story we late talked of,
155 To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.
RICHARD
My other self, my council’s consistory,
My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin,
I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
Toward ⟨Ludlow⟩ then, for we’ll not stay behind.
They exit.
