Richard III
(1592 first printing)

Backgrounds

The Wars of the Roses

•The “roses” were the symbols that represented two factions in the same royal house that vied for the throne of England for some 30 years.

•Both factions came from the same family, the Plantagenet family, whose patriarch Edward III was King of England.

The Wars of the Roses, 2

•House of Lancaster: red rose

•House of York: white rose

•“Wars of Roses” were 30 years of fighting for the crown within one extended family (brothers, uncles cousins, and their families)

•What you must know: whoever tells the story puts a slightly different spin on it. Richard is a figure of tremendous controversy!

This Play:          Last Chapter of Wars of Roses

•Before the play opens:

–Lancaster monarch Henry VI  (married to Queen Margaret) and his son Prince Edward (married to Anne Neville) from the House of Lancaster have just been killed by the House of York (Richard, Duke of Gloucester and his brothers Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence).

–Edward IV has come back to be King, and with him Queen Elizabeth.

•Their children: princes Edward and Richard and princess Elizabeth;

•Queen Elizabeth’s brother is Rivers and her sons from her 1^st marriage are the Marquess of Dorset and Lord Grey)

The family in charge:

•King Edward IV (Queen Eliz.)

–His brothers

•Richard, Duke of Gloucester

•George, Duke of Clarence

–Their mother, the Duchess of York

The rival:

•The Duke of Richmond, Henry Tudor

–Descended not from York or Lancaster but from the marriage of Queen Katherine, widow of Henry V, to Owen Tudor.

ON RICHARD’S SIDE

•Buckingham (but not all the way!)

•Catesby

•Ratcliffe

–…? (look at the list but also try to figure it out scene by scene. It’s not always clear-cut.)

Against Richard

•Duke of Richmond, a.k.a. Henry Tudor

–Complications:  son of Margaret Beaufort and
Edmund Tudor; after Edmund’s death Margaret marries Lord Stanley

–Later: the Marquess of Dorset, one of Queen Elizabeth’s older sons, from her first marriage to Lord Grey, goes to join Richmond 

“Swing” characters (partial list)

•Hastings (Richard wants to sound out his participation in the murders of the princes and doesn’t like his answer)

•Buckingham-latest “swing”

•Stanley (most successful “swing” character; keeps Richard guessing while he makes allegiances with Richmond; his son George is in danger but survives)

Who Was Shakespeare?

•We know very little about him and also the controversies rage on about who really wrote these plays!

•What we know:

–Birth in Stratford-upon-Avon

–Attendance at grammar-school and received beginnings of a basic classical education

–Participation in King’s Men and other companies (rise and expansion of theatre and its technologies)

–Immense popularity as actor and as playwright

–(more on staging when we return)

–People argue about his authorship still, as well as about his sexuality (plays but also sonnets)

What you must remember:

•These plays were written for performance, not to be read quietly in solitude!

•They were pop culture, both in Shakespeare’s time and later (in this country in the nineteenth century, for ex.) and only became “cultural spinach” later!

•People often behaved badly at the plays! They were a place to have fun!

What you must remember, 2

•Shakespeare always tells a good story, in this case, a story about power, troubled family relations, deception, and the use of women. He uses Richard’s body to tell this story and it’s a good question whether Richard’s villainy would be as popular without the element of disability.

What you must remember, 3

•Actors have made much of this aspect of Richard and have brought both devices, training, and thought to the question of what difference it makes.

•You will bring more than most audiences to the question of Richard’s disability based on your study of Renaissance medicine and the meanings given to a “hunchback.”

Why Richard III in this course?

•To consider:  Think of Job, Philoctetes, and then this play as different perspectives on the meaning of disability

•What difference does it make to the play that Shakespeare makes a big deal out of Richard’s “deformity”? What does this have to do with the play’s concerns with “blood,” power, and family?

•How does Shakespeare use Richard’s back in the play? Consider, for example, how he describes himself; how Anne and other characters describe him; the whole issue of inheritance based on blood; and so on.

•In what ways does Shakespeare’s use of Richard’s back connect with other ideas about disability, “deformity,” and congenital difference in the Renaissance? (consider, for example, Paré, Montaigne, and/or Bacon.)

Other themes of great interest!

•Shakespeare’s use of religion to make a point in this play of power (God’s law vs. the King’s law)

•Shakespeare’s use of the supernatural (dreams and witchcraft?) to make a point in this play

•Shakespeare’s regular questioning of the notion of “authenticity” in people’s behavior and words

•Shakespeare’s use of women characters and children characters to make significant points in this play (be sure to watch the relationships between Queen Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, and the Duchess!)

Reminder:

•Be sure to READ THE PLAY, understand the plot, look closely at the speeches, practice some of them, and expect a quiz on Monday!!!!!

•It REALLY helps to read along with a video. Try to get the BBC version but in a pinch the others will work also!