This article is classified "Real"
"The Life and Death of Richard III" is a member of Shakespeare's History
play series. In a nutshell, it shows playgoers, the Mad Hunchback's [1]
rise to and fall from the English throne. Sir Lawrence Olivier made a
decent movie from the play [2], well worth seeing, especially since
watching his version is, in terms of a report, just as good as reading the
play. Also, the latest version, staged in the 1930's, is excellent, and
well worth watching.
The play starts out with the line, "Now is the Winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this sun of York". As far as consensus goes, even
the Bard himself didn't know what he really meant; he was just being
clever. There are a few interpretations, and I shall give my own.
Richard III was set at the end of the "Wars of the Roses", fought between
the houses of Lancaster and York. York, Edward V, was crowned King of
England, having scored a pretty nice victory over Lancaster. Now, Dick
here spent the entire war helping Eddie out. He's an ambitious son of a
bitch, but couldn't win a war by himself [3]. Thus his discontent with
being second-place was dormant. When the sun came up over an England
ruled by the ex-Duke of York, the time came to put his schemes into action.
The entire first scene is devoted to making Dick, the Duke of Gloster [4],
look like a jerk. He plots to kill the King and take the throne, he has
his own brother thrown in jail, and to top it off, he owns up to killing
Lady Anne's husband (and his father) so that he might be able to convince
her to marry him. (She knew about this, by the way.)
Lady Anne is an interesting piece of work, too, because she agrees. Their
courtship is bizarre, to say the least. His basic argument is that she
could do worse [5]. A short spell of vanity overtakes him, shown by the
line, "I'll be at charge for a looking-glass; and entertain a score or two
of tailors, to study fashions to adorn my body." Then he leaves.
We then learn several things. For one, the King is a little ill. For
another, not everyone likes our dear Duke of Gloster, most notably the
Queen and Lord Hastings. And, to whom have the young princes been
unfortunately entrusted? That's right: Tricky Dick. For that matter,
everyone except the King seems to be onto him.
Well, not everybody. Poor Clarence, you remember, is rotting in jail,
while his dear brother is constantly petitioning the King for a death
warrant. It is issued, but quickly the King thinks better of it, and
writes a reprieve. Guess who the messenger ends up being? If you guessed
our dear friend Richard, you'd be right. Clarence is quickly stabbed to
death and stuffed in a barrel to drown, as if he's not dead enough
already. The King receives word of this on his death-bed. He then dies,
and his young son, the up-and-coming Edward VI, is to be named King.
The Queen finally catches on to exactly what's happening, takes her
youngest son, and claims sanctuary in the church [6]. Gloster is charged
with bringing the new King back from the country for his coronation, and
manages to force the Queen to let both boys out into the open.
From this point, things fit nicely for ol' Dick. He manages to
successfully spread a rumor that both Princes are bastards, and, basically,
campaigns for King, with the help of Lord Buckingham. He is crowned King,
has the two Princes murdered, and manages to tick everyone off.
Lord Stanley is spurred to send a messenger to ask Henry, Earl of Richmond,
to attack, and the poor, neglected Buckingham is compelled to join him.
War is shortly declared, and the newly-crowned King Richard III goes off to
battle, keeping Buckingham's youngest son as hostage to prevent an open
revolt. We get one of the coolest dream sequences ever (I won't spoil
it!), the all-famous line: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
[7]. This is concluded by the final triumph of King Henry VII, thus the
death of King Richard III.
If, like most people, you stepped out for a quick drink or two, and missed
the last Act, don't sweat it. Richard III is a decent read, a good story,
and obtuse enough to make the average hitchhiker look brilliant when
discussing it. Also well worth watching is the recent release of Richard
III, set in the 1930's. The lines were very close to the original, many of
the changes being a matter of omission rather than addition.
The theme of "Richard's evil being his own undoing" is a good place to
start. This one's popular amongst those people who enjoy ranting about
such things. If not that, then the whole "power corrupts" bit is okay,
particularly the idea that once in office someone will usually turn on you.
Great to use right after an election with a disappointing President, Prime
Minister, etc.
If you're into memorizing scenes to make yourself look bright [8], try the
beginning monologue where Richard tells the entire story, the scene where
the Princes are going to be murdered, and the dream sequence scene. And,
of course, know where the "A horse!" line came from, and you're all set.
[1] Ole Dick wasn't, in real life, a hunchback. In fact, he wasn't even
ugly, or particularly evil. Shakespeare probably only made him so in
order to make his successor, Henry VII, look like an okay guy. Henry
was the conversational equivalent of a dead fish.
[2] If you don't mind a few annoyances. He made a great Richard, but being
made back when color was still called "newfangled", there are numerous
problems. For instance, the battle at the end looks as if it were
filmed in Southern California rather than in Merry Olde England. Heck,
it probably was. If you enjoy heckling such films, a few shots at the
orchestra would be appropriate.
[3] That doesn't stop him from trying at the end.
[4] Normally spelled Gloucester.
[5] Probably not true. He does kill her, but then, she did become Queen,
for a little while.
[6] Reminiscent of the story of another hunchback, eh?
[7] He wasn't, by the way, offering a trade. He'd had two horses killed
out from under him, thus he couldn't command, and thus the battle was
being lost. He really was losing his kingdom for lack of a horse, and
was understandably ticked off.
[8] Shakespeare is good for that. A number of his soliloquies worm their
way into the collective unconscious, and if you can place them, you
instantly look educated.