“OBSEQUIOUS LAMENTS”: MOURNING AND COMMUNAL MEMORY IN SHAKESPEARE’S Richard III

KATHARINE GOODLAND College ofStaten Island,City University ofNew York

n1590,outraged reformers inLancaster documented“ enormitiesand I abuses”and “ manifoldpopish superstition used in the burialof the dead”by the local community:

And when the corpse is readyto be put into the grave, some bykissing the deadcorpse, others bywailing the deadwith morethan heathenish outcries,others with open invocationsfor the dead,and another sort with jangling the bells, sodisturb the whole action,that the minister is oftcompelled to let pass that partof the service andto withdrawhimself fromtheir tumultuousassembly. 1

The Elizabethan prelates decry the practice of“ wailingthe dead”as alawless abominationthat undermines civil authorityand impedes the progressof the reformedchurch. In Shakespeare’s Richard III,Gloucester andBuckingham similarly view lamentationas athreat.They worry that their furtiveexecution ofHastings will cause the citizens torevolt, andthey imaginethat rebelliontaking the formof wailing the dead. Buckingham asks the mayorto justify their assassination tothe citizens because he fears they “haply may /Misconstrue us in him andwail his death”(3.5.60-1). 2 Buckingham’s wordsdirectly link politicsand lamentation:he impliesthat the citizens will “wail”for Hastings, not as amatter ofcourse,but as adeliberatemeans ofprotest. The citizens donot rebel against Richard, but the women do,staging their rebellionin the same manner that is denouncedboth within the worldof the playand without. In Act Four,Scene Four,which Nicole Lorauxdubs “ the scene ofmothers” (1), the Duchess ofYork, Queen Elizabeth, andOld Queen Margaretcongregate outside the Tower and“ wail”their dead.They invokethe spiritsof their deadsons and husbandswith “heathenish”cursing andchanting. Earlier inthe play, LadyAnne performsa similarritual over King Henry VI’s corpse, Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access RELIGION and the ARTS 7:1-2(2002): 31-64. c KoninklijkeBrill NV,Leiden ° RELIGION and the ARTS invokinghis ghost,weeping over his body,and calling downcurses on his murderer. Scholars oftenrefer tothe ritualisticnature of the women’s laments in Richard III.However, noone has yet recognized that these scenes evoke actualmourning practices that were viewedas increasingly problematic afterthe Reformation.In this essay, IexploreShakespeare’ s tragichistory ofan England dividedagainst herself in the context ofElizabethan tensions overmourning and burial ritual. As Ihopeto show, the reintegrationof the fragmentedkingdom depends not upon the proud elegies ofthe men in power,but instead upon the woefullaments of the disenfranchised women.My approachqualiŽ es Stephen Greenblatt’s recent readingof Richard III,in which he arguesthat the ghosts in the play,“ functionas the memory ofthe murdered,a memory registered notonly in Richard’s troubledpsyche : : : butalso in the collective consciousness ofthe kingdom. : : : [And]as the agents ofarestoredhealth andwholeness tothe damagedcommunity” (180). I proposethat itis the women,not the ghosts, who articulatethe communal consciousness and catalyze the healingof the kingdom.For the appearanceof the ghosts andRichard’ s troubleddreams arepoetically and dramatically linked tothe rituallaments ofthe widowedqueens. Richard III thus probes the relationshipbetween funeralritual and communal consciousness, registeringa sense ofloss forthe medievalstructure ofcommunal mourningand remembrance that was dismantledby the Reformation.

I

Shakespearewrote Richard III “about1592” (Baker 708),within two years ofthe riotousceremony recordedin Lancaster. It is astriking coincidence that he stages asimilarLancastrian uprisingwith his weeping widowedqueens. Whether ornot he knew aboutthis particularevent, however, the conjunctionof dramaand ecclesiastical recordsuggests that “wailingfor the dead”was amatter ofsome concern inlate sixteenth- century England. What is itabout “ wailingfor the dead”that threatens those seeking politicalpower, as inthe case ofShakespeare’s Richard III,orecclesiastical control,as inthe case ofthe Lancastrian visitationrecord? For Buck- inghamand Gloucester itrepresents notonly publicgrief, but civic grievance: acommunal commemorativeritual that wouldcall them to account fortheir crimes. Forthe Elizabethan reformers,the practice demonstrates the tenacity ofindigenous mourning customs despitean extensive ofŽcial programto eliminate them. 3 These instances embody Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 32 Katharine Goodland differentanxieties, butboth demonstrate the powerof funerary rites to performand suppress communal memory. 4 In idealcircumstances, as anthropologistsand social historians have shown, burialrituals accomplish the culturalwork ofupholding and reintegratingcommunities when they arefaced with death. 5 Death rites perform,in orderto contain, the “disintegratingimpulses” which “threaten the very cohesion andsolidarity of the group”(Malinowski 47-50).In the broadestsense, funeralritual resolves the social and psychic disruptioncaused by death through the symbolic enactment of continuity– inthe immediatefamily, in the largerkin groups,and in the widercommunity. However, inpost-Reformation England, as tensions surroundingthe practice ofwailingthe deadsuggest, funerals were often sites ofdiscord, sources ofangst rather than solace. 6 This unrest arosefrom the eradicationof the doctrineof purgatory, which, as recent studiesshow, was oneof the most unsettling aspects ofthe Reformationin England. 7 It changed,almost overnight, the raisond’ etre ofceremonies forthe dead.The consequent alterations tofuneral ritual were oftensubtle yet profound.On the onehand, many practices, such as heraldic processions andbell-ringing, retained their external shapes with only minormodiŽ cations. On the otherhand, these seemingly slight alterationstransformed the meaningof the ritual. Mostchanges were designedto efface all traces ofthe doctrineof purgatory,effectively cuttingoff communion with the deadand curtailing the acceptable periodof public mourning for the bereaved.Richard L. Greaves describes the “delicateproblem” of the Elizabethan Protestants: “They wantedto curtail ceremonies andsymbols associatedwith such Catholicdoctrines as satisfactionand purgatory, but they neededto retainthe traditionalpomp as an underpinningof the social order; they hadto avoid so alienating the common folkthat Protestantism was repudiated”(695). The banners ofthe Catholicsaints were removed fromthe processions ofheraldic funerals andthe tollingbell was given anew meaning.John Donne’s memorableline, “ never send toknow forwhom the bell tolls;it tolls forthee” succinctly encapsulates this revised message (“XVII Meditation”344). The ringingbell, a relic of the MiddleAges, still signals the deathknell, butto a differentend: those whohear itareexhorted to turn inward, to contemplate their own fates,and not concern themselves with the souls ofothers forwhom they now can donothing. The outwardsign remains, butits new message of inwardness andindividuality is remotefrom its functionalorigin, which was toalert the entire community,even farmers tillingtheir Želds,to join in intercessory, shared prayers forthe souls ofthe dying.The emphasis Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 33 RELIGION and the ARTS offuneral practices thus shiftedfrom the communal andspiritual focus of intercession tothe morepersonal and secular focusof commemoration. As Keith Thomas explains, the transformationin the discourseof the afterlifealtered not only the relationshipbetween the livingand the dead,but it also changed the communities ofthe living:

Protestantdoctrine meant that each generationcould be indifferentto the spiritualfate of its predecessor.Every individualwas now tokeep his own balance-sheet, anda man couldno longer atone for his sins bythe prayers of his descendants. This impliedan altogethermore atomistic conceptionof the relationshipin which members ofsociety stoodto each other.No longer would they allocateso much oftheir resources tothe performanceof rituals primarilyintended for the spiritualwelfare oftheir dead ancestors. (603)

In contrast tothe medievaldiscourse which emphasized continuity andreciprocity between the livingand the dead,the post-Reformation construction ofdeath made the ultimateend Ž nal,with nopossibility formitigation or alteration. The bereavedhad no hope of helping their lovedones throughcompassionate intercessory prayeror weeping. As Michael Neill putsit, intercession was a“liturgyof remembrance,” irrevocablysilenced bythe Reformation:the livingcould no longer “intervene onbehalf of the dead;each man’s deathhad become : : : aprivateApocalypse, whose awfulJudgment could never bereversed. The deadmight still call uponthe duty,love, and pity of the living,but the new theologyrendered all such emotionpainfully ineffectual” ( Exeunt 180).This separationbetween the livingand the dead,Eamon Duffy pointsout, is evidentin the revised funeralservice: “itis nottoo much tosay that the oddestfeature of the 1552burial rite is the disappearance ofthe corpse fromit” (475). The banishment ofthe bodyfrom the burialrite suggests early Protestantism’s deepanxiety overany hint ofa communicative link between the worldof the deadand the community ofthe living. Tomany Protestants the change meant againin godliness,a cleansing ofthe church fromcorrupt, pagan-inspired practices, anda nascent sense ofnational identity. 8 Butto many others itwas disturbing,not only on the personallevel, butalso in terms ofthe largersociety. The Catholic system ofintercessory prayer,despite religious corruption, had served importantpsychological andcommunal functions in England.It had Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 34 Katharine Goodland keptthe memory ofthe deceased alivein the community andgiven the livinga sense ofspiritual agency in the heavenly destiny oftheir lovedones, thus providinga legitimate,cyclical patternof cathartic ritualfor the bereaved.The concept ofpurgatory had evolved over a millennium, embracingpre-existing practices, andencompassing avast, mutuallysupporting community that hadbecome deeply ingrained in English culture. 9 The complexity ofthis evolutionis evident in the reformers’account ofthe Lancastrian funeral.For they refer tosuch ritualgestures as kissing the corpse,and openly invoking and wailing for the deadas both“ popish”and “ heathenish.”These actions were perhapstolerated, butnever ofŽcially sanctioned bythe medievalCatholic church. Such accommodationwas possiblebecause, on adeeplevel, bothintercessory prayerand wailing for the deadare grounded in similar ideas about the afterlife.Moreover, there is astrongafŽ nity between weepingand prayer. MargeryKempe, who weptfor hours on end to assuage the sufferingof souls inpurgatory, is the most well-known example ofthe medievalidea that tears, like prayers,could be offered for the dead. 10 “Wailingthe dead”thus seems tobe an earlierpractice that was partiallyacculturated toChristian doctrine. Because “wailingthe dead”was an oralpractice rather than aliterary genre,the evidence forits existence as an indigenousEnglish custom rests primarilyin twotypes ofsources: ofŽcial denunciationsof the practice inchurch records andsermons, andthe popularCorpus Christi cycle plays.Scholars have longrecognized medievalEnglish dramaas acollaborativecultural ritual designed to reconcile local customs with Christiandoctrine and biblical history. Using recent research onthe genre ofarchaic lament, Peter Dronkeargues that the women’s laments inmedieval drama “ drawupon archaic kinds ofwomen’ s lament”(111). Anyone familiarwith the representationof Mary inthe medievalEnglish cycles, especially the N-Town cycle, knows that she is hardly the stoic Mary ofthe Gospel accounts. The N-Town Mary mournsviolently forher son,tearing her hair,throwing herself onthe ground,and interrogatingeven Godhimself as towhy her son must sufferand die. In the N-Town Lazarus episode,Martha and Mary Magdaleneperform similargestures attheir brother’s tomb.Dronke’ s sensitive studyof these representations focuses onhow similartheir vernacular poeticsare to archaic lament. He notes the lovefor life invested inmotifs in which Mary laments the decay ofChrist’ s physical beauty;the frequentuse ofdirect address, a prominentrhetorical featureof archaic lament; and Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 35 RELIGION and the ARTS

1.Enguerrand Quarton, Avignon Pietà,oilon panel, c. 1455.Musé e du Louvre,Paris.

Mary’s “unredeemablegrief” which prevails overthe Christianpromise ofsalvation. The women’s laments in medievaldrama evoke the archaic genre of lamentationfor the deadin otherstriking ways. In the N-town Burial and Lazarus plays,the women’s gestures recall those ofthe ancient practice. Mary cradles Jesus’body and mourns over him. Martha and Mary, preventedfrom kissing their brother’s corpse,kiss the groundinstead. They alsoattempt to remain atthe gravesite,but are reprimanded bytheir consolers. Their laments embodyall the rhetorical features ofarchaic lament: apostrophe,cursing, andgestures ofself-mutilation, such as tearingthe hairand throwing themselves onthe ground.These moments, inacommunal dramadesigned for and produced by a diverse community,I propose,provide glimpses intopopular medieval mourning andburial practices that hadbeen tenuouslyembraced by the Christian construction ofdeath. OfŽcial denunciationsof “ wailingthe dead,”such as that foundin the Lancastrian recordextend tothe endof the sixteenth century and providefurther evidence ofits existence as an ethnic culturalpractice. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 36 Katharine Goodland

2.Roger van derWeyden, Lamentation ,oilon panel, c. 1441.UfŽ zi Gallery, Florence.

The post-Reformationsuppression of purgatorial practices resultedin the loss ofritual justiŽ cation for mourning and ignited concern over the appropriatedemonstration of grief, ever an areaof social scrutiny. On the onehand, sorrow was considerednatural, an expected, even obligatoryresponse tothe loss ofa lovedone. On the otherhand, sorrowcould be excessive, self-indulgent,and construed as contrary to faithbecause itwas believedto stem fromdoubt about the resurrection. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 37 RELIGION and the ARTS

Especially duringthe early years ofthe Reformation,parishioners were exhortedto refrain from “ wailingthe dead.” Two sermons deliveredby high-ranking prelates within sixteen years ofeach otherframe the periodin which the Reformationgained its Žrst footholdin England, and demonstrate this signiŽcant change inthe ofŽcial policyon publicdisplays of grief.In 1535John Longland,Bishop ofLincoln andstaunch upholderof the royalsupremacy ofhis king, Henry VIII, delivereda sermon inwhich he encouragedhis congregation toempathize with the three Marys, joiningthem toweep over Christ’ s body:

Yonderit lyes, yonderis hys bodye,in yonder tombe, in yondersepulchre. Lett us goothidre, lett us wepe with these Maryes, lett us turneand wynde thys bodyeof Christe,lett us turne itthys wayes andthat wayes, toand froo,and pytussely beholdehit. And what shall we fynde. We shall fynde abloodybodye, a bodyfull of plages and woundes.Not that hit nowe is fuulof woundesand plages, ornowe deede:but y[e]t thowe oughtestnowe as the tyme ofthe yere falleth, with the churche toremembere this body.Howe it was forthe broken,howe itwas for the rente andtorn, howe bloodyit was, howe fullof plages,and howe itwas wounded.And inrecollection andremembrance therof,wepe and lament, forit was doonfor the. (RSTC16795.5, sig. R4)

In Longland’s sermon the three Marys performtheir traditionalrole of mourningfor the dead.His imagerysuggests that they areshrouding the bodyin its windingsheet while they weep.He exhorts his parishioners tojoin the three mourningwomen, weeping and winding the bodyin their minds,picturing it as woundedand bleeding. At the very moment in his sermon that this conceptionof deathseems tocontradict Christian doctrine,Longland reminds the faithfulthat the bodyis notnow deador fullof wounds. Their tears areinstead commemorative and empathetic: they leadto compunction for sin, apenitentialact appropriateto Lent. As Eamon Duffyexplains, the phrase “pytussely beholde”is “the technical term formeditation on the Passion : : : the liturgyis beingused here asa triggerfor penitential meditation” (37). The weepingof the three Marys forChrist provides the emotionallink between mourningand memory, guidingthe appropriateresponse ofall Christians,whose sins were the cause ofChrist’ s painfulsuffering and death. This sermon delineates the Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 38 Katharine Goodland pedagogicalfunction of the tears ofthe Virginas well. As Duffyexplains, the Virgin’s griefwas “notan endin itself,but : : : ameans ofarousing andfocusing sympathetic sufferingin the heart ofthe onlooker.In this literalcompassion, this identiŽcation, with the sufferingsof Christ by sharing the griefof his Mother,lay salvation”(259). Less than twodecades afterLongland urged his parishionersto iden- tifywith asorrowthat was identiŽed as feminine andweep over Christ’ s deathin publiccommunion, Matthew Parker,who would eventually be- come the Archbishop ofCanterbury,chastised his congregationto reform their attitudestowards the dead.In his 1551funeral sermon forMartin Bucer,he exhorts his listeners, “itagreeth not with the rules offaith, fora christian man tobewayle the dead.For who can deny that tobe againstfaith, which isatly forbiddenby the scriptures?”He refers tothe practice as “wommanish wayling,and childish inŽrmite” admonishing his congregationto renounce mourningaltogether, for,

itis bothunseemly andwicked touse any howlingor blubberingfor him, unlesse we desireto be accounted creatures rather with beastly naturethen furnishedwith the use ofreason: to be deemed Heathen peoplerather then truechristians: enviouscaitives then wel meaning friends:void of hope and faith, not understanding our happyestate, andpersons doubtfuland uncertain oftheir salvation,rather then constant beleevers undoubtedlyem- bracingand crediting the infallibleworde of God, therby as bya ruledirecting all andevery ouractions, thoughts andaffections, and valiantly subduingand entirely tri- umphingover our imbecillity andweaknes. 11

The twosermons donot differ signiŽ cantly intheir underlyingChristian doctrine.Both afŽ rm the promiseof the Resurrection. What has changed is their respective tolerance forgrief. Whereas Longland’s sermon encouragesweeping, Parker’ s completely denounces grief.As G.W. Pigmanpoints out, “ Parker has donenothing but equate grief with impietyand unmanliness,” he has no“ sympathy forthe plightof the bereaved”(30). Indeed, in the second partof the sermon, as Pigman pointsout, Parker idealizes MartinBucer andblames the livingfor his death:“ Bucer’s deathis asign ofGod’ s wrath, andwe must confess our wicked anddetestable lives, repent,beg pardon, and amend them. The allowance ofgrief for ourselves quickly becomes grieffor the wickedness Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 39 RELIGION and the ARTS which causedBucer’ s death. : : : Bereavement is aformof punishment” (31).Tears forthe deadare guilty tears. In late-sixteenth-century England,these guiltytears areinextricably associatedwith women,and especially with the VirginMary, the embodimentof Catholic piety. Matthew Parker’s sermon typiŽes what G.W. Pigmancalls “rigorism,”characteristic ofthe prevailingattitude towardsgrief in the early years ofthe Reformation.“ Rigorism,”as Pigmannotes, prohibits and condemns all grieffor those who have diedvirtuously and are therefore (presumably) in Heaven (27).Others, like HughLatimer, Miles Coverdale,and John Jewel arguethat grief is permissible,but should be moderate. What constituted“ moderate” mourning,however, was highly subjective.As Pigmanpoints out, “unrestricted mourningnever Žnds atheologicalchampion, but some advocatesof moderation insist uponmourning as anecessary expression ofhumanity” (27). Almost withoutexception, however, “excessive” mourningis synonymous with femininity andpopery. 12 Two “sample” consolatoryletters, seventy-four years apart,both addressed to men, demonstratethat, while what constituted“ moderate”mourning varied widely, immoderate mourning(however deŽned) was always gendered female.Georgius Macropedius’ Methodus deconscribendis epistolis (1543), areligioustreatise that reached awideaudience in England,includes a section onconsolation,in which he providesa sample letter toa grieving man.The letter shames the man,telling him that he behaves like a woman:

youdo your father nogood, you do yourself harm, and youdisturb your wife, your children, andall who loveyou; youcause everyone togrieve. You must cease weeping,if youdesire us all,who bewailyou more justly than you bewailyour father, to control our tears. Don’t, I pray,let us beexposed to the ridiculeof ill-wishers wholaugh at yourtears, which have own like awoman’s. 13

Several generationslater, Gervase Markham’s Hobsons Horse-Load ofLetters (1617)includes asample consolatoryletter that ismuch moresympathetic tothe emotionsof the bereaved;nevertheless, excessive mourningis still pejorativelyidentiŽ ed with female sorrow:

Thoughyou may seeme (vertuous)to have aworthy cause ofmuch lamentationand teares, having lost such aSonne,of whom almen conceived greathope, and his Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 40 Katharine Goodland

own towardnesses promisedwith an assurance they should notbe decieved; yet, ifwith judgementand truth taking away the veile ofpassion which blindethour reason, we lookenever [sic: for‘ neaer’] intoit, there will small or nocause appeareof such immoderategrieving: a few dropsare timely andwell becomminga friendly Hearse; but,continuall languishment, as ifyou would dissolve into tears,like Niobe,shew either much weaknesse ofman in you,or else bewray feareand ielousie, of you Sonnes undoubtedand happie deliveries fromthis earthly prison, intoa place ofeverlasting joyand delight. 14

While the established church underElizabeth compromised,retaining vestiges ofearlier ritual, it invalidated the underlyingstructure of shared empathy andremembrance, especially inthe Žrst decades afterthe Reformation.Open expressions ofgrief were viewedas effeminate,“ heathenish”and “ popish,”because such mourningsuggested communicative links with the dead,as well as with Romeand the medievalCatholic past. Although sermons andletters fromthe last decades ofthe sixteenth century indicatea moretolerant attitude towards grief,the communal structure which hadgiven itlegitimacy hadbeen dismantled.The dramaticpower embodied in Shakespeare’s weeping, widowedqueens is especially intriguingin the context ofthis cultural ambivalence overmourning for the dead.For in Richard III,Gloucester carries the forward-looking,atomistic post-Reformation attitude towards deathto the extreme, while the mourningwomen repeatedlyobstruct his progresswith their vigils forthe dead. 15 The bodythat was banished fromthe church funeralritual takes the stagein Richard III in the form ofthe deceased KingHenry VI, becomingthe literalemblem ofthis con ict. The lamentations ofthe widowedqueens are strikingly similarto those ofthe holy women in medievalEnglish drama.But Shakespeare’ s characterization ofthem alsoweaves togetherallusions to classical drama, the Easter liturgy,Celtic mythology,and, as the Lancastrian visitation recordshows, actualmourning practice. This complex andsubtly layered representationof mourning mothers suggests that Shakespeareseems to beconcerned notwith the loss ofaparticularreligious doctrine, but with the loss ofpublic mourning as acommunal formof memorialization. Richard III explores the ramiŽcations ofthis change. For,as the play suggests, the abilityto mourn as acommunity –toacknowledge the politicaland moral consequences ofthe past,not simply in the form Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 41 RELIGION and the ARTS

3.Thomas Lant, Funeral ofSir Philip Sydney, Plate 2, Sequitur celebritas &pompafuneris ,London,1587.

4.Thomas Lant, Funeral ofSirPhilip Sydney, Plate 16, Sequitur celebritas &pompafuneri ,London,1587. ofprivate compunction, but also in apublicforum that allows the expression ofintense grief– isessential tothe functioningand continuity ofa cohesive society. Certainlyintercessory prayerand weeping over the deadwere notthe only formsof public memorialization in England.Even as Elizabethan ofŽcials descended uponthe countrysideto investigate abuses ofmourning ritual, the Queen supportedever moregrand funeral pageantsfor her aristocrats.The funerals ofSir Philip Sidney and Mary Queen ofScots areperhaps the most well-known examples ofhow she deployedthese pageantsto manipulate communal memory. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 42 Katharine Goodland

5.Thomas Lant, Funeral ofSirPhilip Sydney, Plate 15, Sequitur celebritas &pompafuneris ,London,1587.

As RonaldStrickland observes,“ aristocratic funeralpractices served as animportantform of propagandain supportof the dominantaristocratic ideologyand the existing social hierarchy”(19). Although Elizabeth’ s reignwas ostensibly atimeof “ smooth-fac’d peace”( Richard III 5.5.33), civil andreligious strife simmered justbeneath the surface andaround the edgesof the kingdom.Elizabeth executed her Catholiccousin, Mary Queen ofScots in February1587. Sir Philip Sidney died Ž ghtingin the lowcountries forthe protestantcause only fourmonths earlier.While the timingof the funeralpageant depended partly upon a lack offunds,it was alsopolitically motivated. Sidney was mournedas aProtestantchampion eightdays afterElizabeth dispatchedher Catholicrival. As Dennis Kay suggests, Sidney’s funeral“ seems tohave beenarranged at least in part tohelp maintainpublic order in the midstof the controversy surrounding the execution ofMary Queen ofScots” (69). Sir Philip Sidney’ s funeral includedan elaborateprocession with hundredsof black-clad mourners (Strickland 31).Sidney’ s processionthrough the streets ofLondon from outsideof Aldgate to St. Paul’ s Cathedralseems consciously designedto promotethe legitimacy ofthe secular ruler. While all funeralpractices areacts ofremembrance, differenttypes of ceremonies articulatedistinct personaland social needs. In early modern England,the primarypurpose of the heraldic funeralwas todemonstrate the continuityand solidarity of the aristocracy. The most publiclyvisible event ofthe heraldic funeralwas the grandprocession in which the Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 43 RELIGION and the ARTS embalmedbody of the deceased was carriedthrough the streets. The canopiedhearse was atthe heart ofthe cortegewith relatives, townsfolk, nobleman,governmental andreligious ofŽ cials andthe poor,organized accordingto rank fromfront to rear. Aristocratic funeralpageants thus reinforcedthe status quo,representing the existing social hierarchy in processionalform. The hoodedblack-crepe robesworn byall in the processionwere referredto as “mourning.”But, as Jennifer Woodward notes,this was apublicperformance and not a vehicle forthe channeling ofgrief: “ the primarypurpose of the heraldic funeralwas social and concerned with the publicpersona of the deadnobleman, rather than the burialof his privatebody. The church ceremony was aboutthe transfer ofthe undyingtitle, not taking leave ofthe dead”(35). It is not surprising,then, that in the majorityof aristocratic funerals mourners were rarely present atthe interment. Thus England was left with a highly politicizedceremony that left little roomfor the articulationand channeling ofcomplex emotionsas alegitimatepublic activity. In Richard III Shakespeareilluminates andinterrogates the difference between these twoforms of communal memorialization.For he exposes the heraldic funeralas anempty ceremony while portrayinglamentation as acommunal ritualthat possesses profoundemotional and rhetorical power.

II

The openingscene ofthe First Tetralogydraws attentionto the contrasting funeralrituals which framethe dramaticaction, establishing agenderedopposition between politically-sanctionedfuneral pageantry andthe unlawfulpre-Reformation custom of“ wailingthe dead.” Gesturing towardsthe proscenium,Bedford begins his elegy forHenry V:“Hungbe the heavens with black”(1.1.1). Poetically, his wordsimply acosmic sense ofloss, “importingchange oftime and states” (1.1.2). Literally, they pointto Elizabethan stage convention forthe performance oftragedies(Bevington 17 n.1).The roofprojecting over the stagewould have been shroudedin black, givingthe theater the ambianceof a funeralchurch (Neill 281-3).As he stands overthe corpse ofHenry V, Bedfordprophesies: “ Posterity,await for wretched years, /When attheir mothers’moist’ ned eyes babesshall suck, /Ourisle bemade a nourish ofsalt tears,/ And none butwomen left towail the dead”( I Henry VI 1.1.48-51).To warlike Bedford,women’ s laments denoteimpotence and defeat.But the concludingplay of the tetralogypresents avery different pictureof wailing women. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 44 Katharine Goodland

From the perspective ofburial rites, the concludingplay of the tetralogyencompasses astrugglebetween Richard’s will toforget the dead,to effect politicalamnesia bya perpetualorientation towards the future,and the mourningwomen whoembody the past,the insistence andintrusion of memory uponhuman action.SigniŽ cantly, the women’s communal lament inAct Fouris the only uninterruptedmourning ritual inthe entire tetralogy. Richard imaginesa worldwhere the deadare beyond the reach of the living,and the livingare thus released fromthe claims ofthe past; he thinks that the worldis free forhim to“ bustlein” (1.1.152). In his openingsoliloquy he conŽdently declares that because his Lancastrian foesare dead, they cannot affect him:“ And all the cloudsthat lowr’d uponour house / In the deepbosom of the ocean buried”(1.1.3-4). But inthe very next scene LadyAnne proveshim wrong,confronting him with Henry VI’scorpse,the literalembodiment of the Lancastrian dead. Richard makes much ofhis success inwooing her, butthe scene also shows that he cannot escape ordismiss the presence ofthe dead.For the entire play,even as he cuts his pathto power, the women impede his progresswith the memory ofthe deadand the wrongs ofthe past. Margaretmaterializes fromthe otherside of the channel; the women stagea mourningritual outside the towerof London; and the deadrise upto curse Richard in his sleep onthe eve ofthe Battleof Bosworth. The wailingwomen andthe worldof the deadembody a moralforce that prevents Richard fromsevering himself fromthe past,a pastthat ultimatelyoverwhelms anddestroys him. 1 Henry VI and Richard III,the openingand concluding plays ofthe First Tetralogydeploy funeral ritual as embeddedmetaphors for the state ofthe kingdomand hence the dramaticaction (Neill, “Exeunt” 168).Aristocratic funeralpageants reinforced the status quo,representing the existing social hierarchy in processionalform (Strickland 19).As Huntingtonand Metcalf explain,royal funeral procession promoted the politicalideology of the king’s twobodies: “ the funeralhas a three-part diachronicstructure that relates tothe sociological/political issue ofsuccession. And this riteof passage progression is animated bya synchronic oppositionbetween the immortaldignity ( dignitas) of the kingshipand the mortalremains ofthe king;an oppositionthat is radicalat Ž rst, ambiguousduring the procession,and resolved at burial”(172). The stabilityof the kingdomis most precariousduring the procession,when the dignitas,the politicaland social bodyof the king, is ina transitionalstate (Huntingtonand Metcalf 162-5).The elaborate funeralmarch forHenry V,ledby the powerfulDuke of Bedford,which Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 45 RELIGION and the ARTS inauguratesthe tetralogy,contrasts with the maimedrites forHenry VI, ledby the murderedking’ s disenfranchised daughter-in-law,heralding the tetralogy’s imminent conclusion. Shakespeare’s departurefrom his sources emphasizes this contrast, forthe real Anne Neville was nowhere near the funeralof Henry VI(Bullough146; Saccio 166 n.). Contrastingrhetorical rites accompany the contrasting funeralproces- sions. In 1 Henry VI,the Dukeof Bedford delivers aeulogyfor warlike Harry,while in Richard III,LadyAnne performsan obsequiouslament forhis son,the saintly Henry VI. Bedford’s elegy mimics Tudorpo- litical funeralpageantry, while Anne’s pietà-like lament summons the Catholicimages and rituals of England’ s medievalheritage. Evoking the Blessed Virginweeping over Christ’ s torturedbody, she “pour[s]the helpless balmof [her] pooreyes” into his wounds(1.2.13). These proces- sions differin form,but they arealike in their lack ofcompletion. Both processions areinterrupted, leaving the status ofthe dignitas unresolved andthe state ofthe kingdomin turmoil. Neill arguesthat in 1 Henry VI, “Henry V’sfuneral : : : memorialize[s]a heroic pastand : : : enact[s] the formsof politicalorder that the subsequentaction will shatter,”while in Richard III,the maimedroyal rites forHenry VIperform“ aritualdisplay ofhumiliation : : : which announces an alreadyshattered frameof order” (“Exeunt,”170-171). But in 1 Henry VI the Bishopof Winchester and the Dukeof Gloucester bicker throughoutHenry V’sfuneralceremony, exposingthis heraldic pageantas aveneer foran alreadyfragmented kingdom.A messenger furtherdisrupts the dirge,heralding incipient chaos with his news of“ Sadtidings : : : outof France” (1.1.58). He informsthem that “Guienne, Champagne,Rheims, Orleance /Paris, Guysors, Poitiers,are all quitelost” (1.1.60-1). The messenger’s dispatch undermines Henry V’sheroic statureand renders suspect Bedford’s ele- giachyperbole, for it suggests howprecarious is the achievement ofa man whose “deedsexceed all speech,”who “ ne’er liftup his handbut conquered”(1.1.15-16). In the openingscene of I Henry VI,the funeralprocession that purportedlyenacts continuity,the survival andimmortality of the dignitas, insteadmanifests discontinuityand discord. It divulgesthe pettyquarrels ofthe noblesand subverts the notionthat Henry Vhas subdued France duringthe very ceremony designedto memorialize that conquest. Furthermore,the twice-arrested processionnever reaches its destination, andtherefore the ambiguityof the king’s estate andthe succession ofthe throne arenever resolved. The interruptionsof Henry V’sfuneralpageant thus underminethe dignityand accuracy ofBedford’ s elegy.Lady Anne’ s obsequiouslament Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 46 Katharine Goodland forHenry VI, in contrast, is notas meek as itmight Ž rst appear.It is true,as Phyllis Rackin observes,that none ofthe female characters in Richard III appearson stage in battledress, as doJoan andMargaret in the Henry VI plays (“Engendering the Tragic Audience”60). Nevertheless, Anne’s rolein Henry VI’s funeralprocession is nota simple domestic stereotype.On the onehand, like Seneca’s Megara,to whom she is comparedby Harold Brooks, she is agrievingwidow (728). Unlike Megara,however, she doesnot weep at an altarin an enclosed space. Shakespeareputs her in motionacross the stage,which alsorepresents civic space, the openstreets ofLondon.He makes her the chief mourner, incommand of the armedhalberds guarding Henry VI’s funeralcortege. Anne leadsa militaryprocession, however attenuated,and she therefore recalls the female antagonistsof the earlierplays (Grubb120). “LadyAnne transgresses the customary class andgender rules of heraldic funerals which held that mournersshould be the same sex, and near in degreeto the deceased (Woodward17).” Her positionas chief mournerdenotes her royallineage and claim tothe throne,underscoring the illegitimacy ofEdward’ s reign.Her funeralprocession signiŽ es that the rites oflawful succession remainunresolved because the trueking (Henry VI) remains unburied.Halting twice tolament “Th’untimely fall ofvirtuousLancaster” (1.2.4), Anne furtherdelays Henry VI’s burial. Violatingthe strictures ofpoliticalfuneral pageantry, Anne, like Antigone beforeher, stages her griefin the publicsphere, directly engagingand subvertinga potentpolitical form. The openingwords of her thirty-two line lament questionthe ethos ofthe heraldic funeral,which attempts tojustify death in the name ofan abstract principle:“ Setdown, set downyour honourable load / If honourmay beshrouded in ahearse” (1.2.1-2).Her mourningincludes all ofthe characteristic featuresof the genre ofrituallamentation for the dead:the direct addressof the corpse, the establishment ofkinship, the narrativeof the death,and the call forvengeance. The iconographyof the scene evokes boththe mourning Magdaleneand the Pietà. In contemporarypoetic renditions of Mary Magdalene’s sorrow,she weeps fora knight whose woundsbleed, just as Anne weeps overHenry VI’s wounds(Grubb 124-6). Anne addresses the corpse with colloquialepithets suggestive ofindigenous custom. She refers tothe king as“key-cold”(1.2.5) and “ Paleashes” (1.2.6). She self- consciously refers tothe illegitimatenature of her ritual:“ Beit lawful that Iinvocate thy ghost/ Tohear the lamentations ofpoor Anne” (1.2.8-9).Her apostropheimplies the beliefthat the deceased king will hear andanswer her cries. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 47 RELIGION and the ARTS

After the characteristic openinginvocations, Lady Anne establishes her relationshipto the deadking and recounts his murder.She deŽnes her kinship with the king,referring to herself as “Wifeto thy Edward, tothy slaughter’d son,/ Stabb’d bythe selfsame handthat made these wounds”(1.2.9-11). As she pours“ the helpless balmof [her] pooreyes” into Henry VI’s seepingwounds, she curses “the hand that madethese holes”and the “heart that hadthe heart todo it” (1.2.14-15),wishing aworse fateto Richard than “toadders, spiders, toads,/ Or any creeping venom’d thing that lives”(1.2.19-20). Anne self-consciously refers toher tears as ineffectual,but her Magdalene- like compassionand compunction resonate throughoutthe remainder ofthe play,effecting achange inQueen Elizabeth. Moreover,several characters inthe playview oathsas speech-acts andfear their power. Anne herself later believes she has “prov’d the subjectof [her] own soul’s curse”(4.1.80), while Margaret’s curses make Buckingham’s hair stand onend (1.3.303). These fears arelinked tothe ancient belief that women’s laments invokeotherworldly reciprocal vengeance, abelief that is reinforcedwhen Richard appears.The moment evokes classical tragedywhile alsoresonating with lingeringpopular beliefs. In Aeschylus’ Libation Bearers ,when “the deadman is lamented,the punisherappears” (Seaford92). Similarly, in Shakespeare’s Richard III,LadyAnne’ s laments forthe deadking conjurethe “punisher,”Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Richard isbothscourge and scapegoat for the civil strife that has tornthe Plantagenet clan forgenerations. 16 MoresigniŽ cant than the implication ofthe supernaturalor magicalpower of LadyAnne’ s lament, however, is the suggestionthat her mourningritual is relatedto communal memory andtherefore the politicalwill ofthe society. As thoughconjured by Anne’ s curses, Richard interruptsher ritual, commandingthe Halberdsto set downthe corpse in amanner that parallels the openingof the scene: “Stay,you that bearthe corse, and set itdown”(1.2.33). The actionteeters onviolence asRichard threatens the resisting Halberdswith death:“ Villains, set downthe corse, or, bySaint Paul, / I’ll make acorse ofhim that disobeys”(1.2.36-7). A single halberdiercontinues toresist: “My lord,stand back andlet the cofŽn pass”(1.2.38). Richard intensiŽes his threats: “Unmanner’d dog, [stand]thou when Icommand./ Advance thy halberdhigher than my breast,/ Or bySaint Paul I’ ll strike thee tomy foot,/ And spurn uponthee, beggar,for thy boldness”(1.2.39-42). The threat ofviolence in the encounter between Anne andRichard recalls the violence ofthe medieval Herod plays.Just as the women in the Herod plays curse the soldiers,so Anne curses Richard andchastises her Halberds,implicitly Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 48 Katharine Goodland pointingto her superiormoral courage: “ What,do youtremble? Are you all afraid?/ Alas, Iblameyou not, for you are mortal, / And mortal eyes cannot endurethe devil”(1.2.43-5). Just as the mothers ofthe Herod plays denouncethe soldiers,so Lady Anne condemns Richard:“ Avaunt, thoudreadful minister ofhell! /Thouhadst butpower over his mortal body,/ His soulthou canst nothave; Therefore begone” (1.2.46-8). While Richard succeeds inobtainingthe corpse bythe endof the scene, Anne’s curses provetrue by the endof the play,when the king’s soul haunts Richard in his sleep. Anne uses her on-stageaudience as witnesses toher appealto justice. She pullsthe shroudfrom the corpse,forcing Richard to“ Beholdthis patternof [his] butcheries”(1.2.54), and come face toface with death. The SaintlyKing Henry’ s woundsbleed in the sight ofhis murderer:

Ogentlemen, see, see deadHenry’ s wounds Open their congeal’d mouthsand bleed afresh! Blush,blush, thou lump of foul deformity, For‘ tis thy presence that exhales this blood From coldand empty veins where nobloods dwells. Thy deedsinhuman andunnatural Provokesthis delugemost unnatural. (1.2.55-61).

Traditionally,corpses were believedto bleed in the sight oftheir murderers(Brooks 728). Anne’ s wordsthus holdRichard accountablefor his deed,and the on-stageand theatre audiences witness her indictment. Unmoved bythe bodilyrage of the bleedingcorpse, Richard turns Anne’s lament intoa gameof courtship. He tries anumberof different arguments towin her, buttheir debatedoes not shift untilhe appeals totheir mutualPlantagenet descent. This shift inhis favoris signaled bythirty-three lines ofuninterrupted speech, which counterbalance andexceed Anne’s openingsoliloquy of thirty-two lines. Once again, Richard’s courtshipof Anne forces him intothe past.In orderto win her sympathy, he recounts the deaths ofhis own father andbrother. He uses Anne’s compassionatenature against her, telling her that even in “that sadtime [when his father andbrother were murdered]/ [his] manly eyes didscorn an humbletear” (1.2.163-4). Her beauty,however, has “madethem blindwith weeping”(1.2.166). Richard then forces her intoa false dilemmaby implying that arefusalto slay him will mean that she desires him:“ Take upthe swordagain, or take upme” (1.2.183). She attempts toevade him, replying, “ Arise, dissembler! ThoughI wish thy death,/ Iwill notbe thy executioner”(1.2.184-5). By feigningcontrition Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 49 RELIGION and the ARTS andimplying a movement towardscompassion and re-integration of the kingdom,Richard successfully uses Anne’s best traitsagainst her. At the endof the scene, he asks her toleave her “saddesigns /Tohim that hath most cause tobe a mourner”(1.2.210-11). She releases the corpse tohim, expressing her beliefthat his tears have beensincere: “With all myheart,and much itjoys me too,/ Tosee youare become sopenitent” (1.2.219-20). Though Richard gloatsover his conquest,his apparentvictory overAnne costs him.In orderto convince her ofhis sincerity, he assumes responsibilityfor the bodyand plays alongwith her ritual,assuring her that he will “wet [KingHenry’ s] gravewith [his] repentant tears”(1.2.215). On the onehand, Anne symbolically transfers powerto Richard when she relinquishes the bodyto him: the remains ofthe legitimateking embodythe immortal ethos ofthe kingdom,which is now inRichard’ s power.On the otherhand, this transfer shows that even Richard cannot ignorethe ritualand literal presence ofthe dead.

III

From the moment Anne confronts Richard with the literalembodi- ment ofthe Lancastrian dead,the pastbegins to consume the stage.In the next twoscenes, the ocean ofRichard’ s openingsoliloquy contin- ues toyield up the “secrets ofthe deep”(1.4.35). As ifin response to Anne’s capitulationand Richard’ s maltreatment ofher husband’s corpse, Margaretemerges mysteriously fromthe otherside of the channel, hov- eringaround the edgesof the actionlike aghostcaught between the realms ofthe livingand the dead.Bringing the weight ofthe deadwith her, she ignitesmemories ofpast wrongs. She materializes amidthe wrangling ofthe royalfamily, as Richard attempts toaccuse Elizabeth ofsecuring Clarence’s andHastings’ imprisonment. Like Richard,Mar- garetaddresses the audiencein theatrical asides,inserting her perspective between the othercharacters’ lines anddrawing the audienceinto collu- sionwith her. From the moment she appearson the stage,she inuences the action. When she appears,the disputebetween Richard andElizabeth shifts froman argumentabout the present toa debateabout the past.In her asides,Margaret resumes where Anne ceased, cursing Richard as a “devil”for killing her “husbandHenry inthe Tower,/ And Edward, [her] poorson, at Tewksbury” (1.3.118-19). Before she manifests herself tothe Yorks, she seems toenter their consciousness, as Richard reminds Elizabeth that her Žrst husbandwas slain “In Margaret’s battleat SaintAlbons” (1.3.129). Richard andElizabeth take turns decrying each Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 50 Katharine Goodland other’s hypocrisy, causing Elizabeth tobemoan her fateas England’s queen. Elizabeth’s self-pity compels Margaretforward. When she hears Elizabeth sigh,“ Alittle joyenjoys the queenthereof, / ForI amshe, and altogetherjoyless” (1.3.154-5), she exclaims, “Ican nolonger hold me patient”(1.2.156). She indicts them all:“ Hear me,you wrangling pirates, that fall out/ In sharing that which youhave pill’d fromme! /Which of youtrembles notthat lookson me? / If not,that Iamqueen, you bow like subjects, /Yet that,by you depos’ d, youquake like rebels?”(1.3.157- 61).Margaret Ž nds noally inthe family.They uniteagainst her, bringing upher own evil acts which endedin the destructionof her family.She, inturn, accuses them ofhypocrisy: “What?were yousnarling all before Icame, /Readyto catch each otherby the throat,/ And turnyou all yourhatred now onme?” (1.3.187-9). In her isolation,she queriesthe universe, “Cancurses pierce the cloudsand enter heaven?”(1.3.194). Havingno other recourse, she curses each ofthem inturn. Buckingham is oftwo minds abouther curses. He tells her “curses never pass /The lipsof those that breathethem inthe air”(1.3.284-5), but moments later,after she exits, he confesses, “My hairdoth stand onend to hear her curses”(1.3.303). The scene recalls the efŽcacious curses ofthe mothers in the me- dieval Herod plays.However, Shakespeare’ s playembodies ambivalence concerning the supernaturalpower of the mourningwomen’ s curses. Many,but not all, of Margaret’s imprecationsare fulŽ lled. The dialogue interrogatesthe economy ofsupernatural justice, while suggestingthat communal mourningmay still serve an importantsocial function.Every- onein the roomhas beenpublicly held responsiblefor their pastactions. Nothingis resolved inthis scene, butMargaret, like Anne beforeher, has called boththe livingand the deadto account. Margaret herself has beenheld accountablefor her pastdeeds as well. The overallmovement ofthe playsuggests that the collective social conscience, however painful andvolatile, possesses an objectiveagency that plays an importantrole inhuman morality. In the next scene, Clarence’s dreamre ects the inuence ofMar- garet’s uncanny presence. The English channel andthe “melancholy  ood : : : which poetswrite of”(1.4.45-6) merge in his purgatorialnight- mare.In his dream,he imaginesdrowning and being unable to “ yield [his] ghost”(1.4.37). He awakens, tormentedby visions ofthose he wrongedduring the “wars ofYork andLancaster” (1.4.15), memories that arestructurally relatedto Margaret’ s emergence inthe previous scene. Filled with remorse,he confesses tothe keeper as thoughto a Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 51 RELIGION and the ARTS priest:“ Ah, Keeper,Keeper, I have donethese things /(That now giveevidence againstmy soul)”(1.4.66-7). When Brackenbury enters, he attributesClarence’ s apparitionsto the disorientingeffects ofmourn- ing,which interfere with the forwardchronological movement oftime: “Sorrowbreaks seasons andreposing hours, / Makes the night morning andthe noontidenight” (1.4.76-7). In Richard III the women’s laments embodythe objectivemoral force that disruptsthe forward,linear move- ment ofhistory, Ž guredin Richard andin the politicalfuneral procession that inauguratesthe tetralogy.Clarence’ s purgatorialdream of drowning inthe channel andsuffering torment inthe “envious ood”(1.4.37) fore- shadows bothhis andGloucester’ s deaths,events that areengendered bythe women’s mourningvoices. Their wordsare made  esh when the bodiesof the deadrise andovertake the stageon the eve ofthe Battleof Bosworth.

IV

LadyAnne’ s publicconfrontation with Richard andMargaret’ s public assault onthe Yorkist courtpoint to the inextricable connection between mourningand politics. A complementary sequence ofprivate scenes of sorrowdemonstrates the symbioticrelationship between familyand state. The lack ofcompassion among the members ofthe royalhousehold is thus the ethical analoguefor the shattered kingdom. In Act One, Scene Three, Queen Elizabeth, in privateconference with her brotherand older sons, laments her growingawareness that her husband’s failinghealth endangers her family.Rivers, Dorsetand Grey attemptto console her, naively observingthat the only harm that will ensue is her sorrowat the loss ofsuch alord(1.3.7). But Elizabeth accurately perceives otherwise: “The loss ofsuch alordincludes all harms”(1.3.8). Elizabeth knows that Richard,now the LordProtector- elect, “loves not[her]” (1.3.13). Because the personalis political,she knows that she will lose her politicalprotection if her husbanddies. Her entire family,and the heirs tothe throne in particular,will bevulnerable toGloucester’ s devouringambition. While this scene foreshadowsthe future,it also yields importantinsights intoElizabeth’ s politicalacumen. When her husband’s deathleaves her awidow,her apprehensionsare provencorrect. In Act Two,Scene Four,she learns that her brotherand eldest son “[a]resent toPomfret” (42) as Gloucester’s politicalprisoners. Her sighs employnot domestic, but political and military imagery: “ Ay, me! Isee the ruinof my house:/ The tigernow hath seiz’d the gentle hind;/ Insulting tyranny beginsto jut / Uponthe innocent andaweless Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 52 Katharine Goodland throne./ Welcome destruction,blood, and massacre! /Isee (as ina map)the endof all”(2.4.49-54). Elizabeth’ s exclaims arenot inarticulate sobs,but an accurate assessment ofthe precariousand violent world ofpolitics. Far frombeing a passive,suffering victim, Elizabeth, like the Duchess ofYork andQueen Margaret,is notduped by Richard’ s theatrical manipulations.While Richard succeeds in wooingLady Anne with crocodiletears, signiŽ cantly, he never attempts such tactics with these women. Elizabeth is politicallyastute, but she lacks LadyAnne’ s andthe Duchess ofYork’ s compassion.In the early stages ofthe play,Elizabeth is indifferentto the plightof others. When MargaretŽ rst appears, Elizabeth feels nopity for the agedqueen’ s sufferingbecause she feels the events donot concern her: “Inever didher any [wrong]to my knowledge”(1.3.308). She ignoresthe fact that she has “all the vantage of[Margaret’ s] wrong”(1.3.309), as Richard correctly pointsout. In the course ofthe playElizabeth learns compassionfor others throughher own experience ofgrief. Because she is the most politicallyastute, of all the characters save Richard,the re-integrationof the kingdomdepends uponher movement fromselŽ sh indifference toempathetic participation inthe human community.This developmentmanifests itself clearly in Act Two,Scene Two andthe openingscene ofAct Four. In Act Two,Scene Two,the Duchess ofYork, Clarence’ s children, andQueen Elizabeth, grieveover the tragicfulŽ llment ofElizabeth’ s prophecy.Richard has circumvented the king’s stay ofexecution, resulting inClarence’s murder.Clarence’ s unlooked-fordeath has caused KingEdward to die of fear and remorse. The ensuing scene ofgrief doesmore than evoke pathosfor Richard’ s victims: itreveals the lack of compassionamong the York familymembers. It openswith Clarence’s children asking their “grandam”why she “weep[s] sooft, and beat[s] her breast”(2.2.3), and concludes with Elizabeth, the children, andthe Duchess dowagerbewailing their losses in unison.Elizabeth enters in extreme distress, “her hairabout her ears,”crying tothe Duchess, “Edward,my lord,thy son,our King is dead!”(2.2.40). Clarence’ s children tell Elizabeth they donot pity her: “Ah, aunt!you wept not for ourfather’ s death : : : Yourwidow-dolor likewise beunwept” (2.2.62-5). By the endof the scene, the Duchess’s maternal mourningsubsumes and unites their sorrowin her ancient grief:“ Alas! youthree onme,threefold distress’d, / Pourall yourtears. I amyour sorrow’ s nurse, /And I will pamperit with lamentation”(2.2.86-8). The Duchess’s wordsevoke medievalEnglish lyrics andimages of the Virgin’s Compassion.She is characterized as the embodimentof maternal mourning,a sorrowthat Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 53 RELIGION and the ARTS possesses healing power.She will nurse their sorrows in twointerrelated ways: she nourishes them sothat they have fullexpression, andshe cures them byallowing them that expression. This moment connects tothe underlyingcultural concern ofthe play– anxiety overthe repression of this formof communal mourningin English society. When LadyAnne, the Duchess ofYork, and Queen Elizabeth meet in the openingscene ofAct Fourand attempt to see the princes in the tower,they arefurther united in shared sorrow.The scene hearkens back tothe medievalResurrection plays when the three Marys unitein their search forJesus’ body. Just as Mary Magdalenewanders towards Christ’s sepulchre when she meets Mary Salomeand Mary Jacobi,so, in the Duchess’s words,Lady Anne “wander[s] tothe Tower,/ On pure heart’s love,to greet the tender Prince”(4.1.3-4). When the women ask tosee the heirs tothe throne,a reluctant Brackenbury prevents their entry, andwith aslipof the tonguehe betrays what the futureholds: “By yourpatience, / Imay notsuffer you to visit them, /The King hath strictly charg’d the contrary”(4.1.15-17). He corrects himself, “I mean the LordProtector” (4.1.19), and Queen Elizabeth retorts,“ The Lordprotect him fromthat kingly title! /Hath he set boundsbetween their loveand me? / Iamtheir mother;who shall barme fromthem?” (4.1.19-21).“ Just as the mourningmothers ofmedieval drama embody what the plays construe as bothnatural and divine justice, so the weeping queens in Richard III appealto an early modernidea of anatural,familial sense ofjustice andmorality.” The Duchess insists, “Iamtheir father’s mother,I will see them”(4.1.22). When Queen Elizabeth andthe Duchess failto persuade, Lady Anne attempts touse her positionin the royalfamily to gain entry: “Their auntI amin law,in lovetheir mother;/ Then bringme totheir sights. I’ll bearthy blame,/ And take thy ofŽce fromthee onmy peril” (4.1.23-5).The mothers’arguments furtherrecall the mourningof the three Marys atthe sepulchre. Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess, andLady Anne, each establish their familialrelationship to the princes: mother, grandmother,and aunt. In the N-Town Announcement to theThree Maries , the holy women authorizetheir laments forChrist by announcing, in hierarchical succession, their kinship with him.This rhetorical structure is arecognized featureof archaic lament. The shared empathy among the medievalMarys atChrist’ s tombinforms the scene in Richard III outsidethe towerof London. For the women’s shared sufferingunites them forthe Žrst timein the play. Unlike Elizabeth, whofelt nopity for Clarence’ s orphanednephews, Anne loves Elizabeth’s sons as ifshe were their mother.The scene Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 54 Katharine Goodland establishes the difference between Anne andElizabeth beforeuniting them in ashared empathy that contrasts with the bitterness and indifference exchanged earlierbetween Margaretand Elizabeth. Stanley enters toannounce that Anne “must straightto Westminster, /There to becrowned Richard’s royalqueen” (4.1.31-2). Lady Anne assumes the blamefor abetting Richard’ s rise topower, aware of the tragicirony that she has “prov’d the subjectof [her] ownsoul’ s curse”(4.4.80). Elizabeth, forthe Žrst time,discovers sympathy forthe plightof another, even this womanwho will soonsupplant her as queen.She tells Ann, “Poor heart,adieu, I pitythy complaining”(4.1.87). Anne replies.“ Nomore than with my soulI mournfor yours” (4.1.88). This scene suggests that communal mourninghas the powerto unite and heal the kingdomas the women beginto share the burdenof their sorrows. Elizabeth knows that Stanley’s news means the deathof her sons, whoare already entombed in the tower:“ Ah, cut my lace asunder, /That my pentheart may have some scope tobeat, / Or else I swoonwith this dead-killingnews” (4.1.33-5). Even in the extremity ofher anguish,however, she remains lucid.She insists that Dorset, her eldest son,“ outstripdeath” (4.1.41), by crossing the sea to“ live with Richmond,from the reach ofhell” (4.1.42). Her advicesaves her son’s life,and prevents her fromdying “ the thrall ofMargaret’ s curse, /Normother, wife, nor England’ s countedqueen” (4.1.45-6). Lord Stanley calls Elizabeth’s counsel “Full ofwise care”(4.1.47), implying a link between compassionand knowledge. In the same moment that the women come togetherin empathy,Stanley beginsto design the military strategy that will eventually defeatRichard. He tells Dorset:“ Take all the swift advantageof the hours./ Youshall have letters fromme tomy son /In yourbehalf, to meet youon the way./ Benot ta’ en tardyby unwise delay”(4.1.48-51). Instead ofclouding Elizabeth’ s judgment,her griefclariŽ es her decisions andcatalyzes the actions ofthe men against Richard.

V

Like LadyAnne’ s “obsequiouslaments,” the scene ofmothers in Act 4.4,resonates with culturally-charged iconographythat derives from the genre oflamentation. The widowedDuchess has only her wicked son Richard left,while Margarethas lost everything: her crown, her husband,and her son.Queen Elizabeth’s sons have beenmurdered in the tower,and her husbandEdward is dead.She has her daughter, Elizabeth, whose royalblood makes her vulnerable,just as Anne Neville Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 55 RELIGION and the ARTS hadonce beenvulnerable. Her son Dorset,from her Žrst marriage, is marshalling Richmond’s forces againstRichard. The women lament outsidethe towerof London, the tombfor Elizabeth’ s slaughteredsons andher brother-in-law,Clarence, andKing Henry VI. It is thus a repositoryof memory reminiscent ofthe sepulchre ofmedieval Easter ritual,as well as the tombsthat continuedto crowd the interiorof English churches duringShakespeare’ s day.Sepulchres, once the central ceremonial objectsof the English CorpusChristi festivals andplays, remainedpopular stage propertiesin sixteenth-century England.As Glynne Wickham pointsout “ Henslowe couldstill Žndenough use for itto buy two in 1598” (38-9). The iconographyof the scene conjures layeredimages of England’ s culturalinheritance. As three mourning women ata sepulchre, Old Queen Margaret,the Duchess ofYork, andQueen Elizabeth simultaneously evoke the triplegoddesses of Celtic legend,and the three Mariesof medieval cycle dramaand the Easter liturgy(Grubb 124-6). The playreverberates with echoes ofthe Easter service, the church season inwhich the Herod plays were traditionally performed. Scholars have traced many sources forthe scene, fromSeneca’ s Troades and the Quem Queritis tropeto the holy women ofmedieval drama.The common element ofthese sources is their representation ofthe culturalpractice ofpublicly wailing the dead.Sitting on the groundas thoughencircling agrave,the weepingqueens “ Tell over [their]woes” (4.4.39) in the same manner that women inEngland for centuries lamented their dead.Elizabeth invokes her “tender babes” to“ Hoverabout [her] with [their]aery wings /And hear : : : [her] lamentation”(4.4.9-14). Like Euripides’Hecuba in TheDaughters ofTroy , whomust rise fromthe dustto fulŽ ll her obligationto lament, the Duchess sighs with worldweariness: “Somany miseries have craz’d my voice /That my woe-weariedtongue is still andmute” (4.4.17-18). Despiteher fatigue,she beginsher lament with the distinctive opening addressto the dead:“ EdwardPlantagenet, why artthou dead?” (4.4.19). Margarethovers inthe background,inserting her vengeful comments, andcreating the characteristic antiphonalexchange andstichomythic rhythm ofcommunal lamentation.Elizabeth challenges God’s justice and mercy: “Wilt thou,O God, yfromsuch gentle lambs,/ And throw then inthe entrails ofthe wolf?/ When didstthou sleep when such adeed was done?”(4.4.22-4). The women’s cries confrontthe most searching questionsof what itmeans tobe human: the natureof evil, the problem offaith, the desirefor justice, and the immense sense ofloss andsuffering inthe face ofdeath. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 56 Katharine Goodland

The Duchess developsthese paradoxesthrough antithetical thought as she refers toherself as alivingghost, aligning herself with Margaret: “Deadlife, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost, / Woe’s scene, world’s shame, grave’s dueby lifeusurp’ d, / Briefabstract andrecord of tedious days,/ Rest thy unrest onEngland’ s lawfulearth, / Unlawfully made drunkwith innocent blood!”(4.4.26-30). As she sits down,Elizabeth joins her, wishing fordeath: “ Ah, that thouwouldst as soonafford a grave/ As thoucanst yielda melancholy seat! /Then wouldI hidemy bones,not rest them here /Ah, whohath any cause tomourn but we?” (4.4.31-4). This moment,when Duchess andQueen sit uponEngland’ s soil,signals an importantdramatic shift. Their gestureof communionwith the forces ofthe universe bringsMargaret forward to join them: “If ancient sorrow bemost reverent, /Give mine the beneŽt ofsegniory,/ And let mygriefs frownon the upperhand. / If sorrowcan admitsociety, /Tell overyour woes againby viewing mine”(4.4.35-9). Margaret’ s pleaarticulates the communal purposeof rituallament. As each mournerin turn recalls her sorrows,everyone present meditateson their ownwoes. In amoment that echoes the readingof the obitsduring the CatholicMass forthe dead,the women beginnaming the seemingly endless list ofnames of their lost husbandsand sons: the generationsof Edwards andRichards andRutlands and Henrys, whodied killing oneanother in England’ s longcivil war. MargaretidentiŽ es the Duchess as the source ofEngland’ s misery: “From forththe kennel ofthy wombhath crept /Ahell-hound that doth hunt us all todeath” (4.4.47-8). She relishes the sight ofthe aggrieved Duchess: “Oupright,just, and true-disposing God, / Howdo I thank thee, that this carnal cur /Preys onthe issue ofhis mother’s body, /And makes her pew-fellow with others’moan!” (4.4.55-8). Although Margaretis gloating,her words,especially the reference tothem as “pew- fellows[,]”emphasize that the women aresharing each other’s burdens as thoughthey were mourningtogether in church. This gesturetowards commiserationis reinforcedwhen the eighty-year oldDuchess, whose lifeextends back tothe endof Henry V’sreign,reminds Margaretof their common Plantagenet familyties: “ OHarry’s wife,triumph not in my woes! /Godwitness with me,I have weptfor thine” (4.4.59-60). Whereas Margaretmarried into the Plantagenet clan, the Duchess, like LadyAnne, is ofPlantagenet descent. Bothshe andLady Anne were borninto the houseof Lancaster andmarried into the houseof York. At the same timethat the Duchess expresses empathy forMargaret, she alsoasserts the seniorityof her grief.Her wordsof sorroweffect asubtle Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 57 RELIGION and the ARTS change in Margaret,who now asks the women to“ Bearwith [her]” hungerfor revenge (4.4.61). Butthough she threatens revenge, what Queen Margaretseems to desiremost is asympathetic audienceto witness her rageand grief. She recounts her sorrows andpoints out that Elizabeth, who “didst usurp[her] place”now “[u]surp[s]the justproportion of [her] sorrow” (4.4.109-10).Having unburdened herself, Margaretbegins to leave for France, butElizabeth calls her back:“ Othouwell skill’d in curses, stay awhile,/ And teach me how tocurse mine enemies!”(4.4.116-17). Margaret’s response is Žlled with painfulirony: “ Forbearto sleep the [nights],and fast the [days];/ Comparedead happiness with livingwoe; /Think that thy babeswere sweeter than they were, /And he that slew them foulerthan he is./ Bett’ring thy loss makes the badcauser worse; /Revolving this will teach thee how tocurse” (4.4.118-23). Elizabeth imploresher notto leave: “ My wordsare dull, / O,quicken them with thine!”(4.4.124). As she exits the stage,Margaret acknowledges atlast their shared sufferingwith her Žnal line:“ Thy woes will make them sharp andpierce like mine”(4.4.125). The only uninterruptedburial rite in the entire First Tetralogy, the scene ofritual lamentation completes the actionof mourning that untilnow has remainedunresolved, altering the ethos ofthe conict andeffecting the turningpoint in the play.The moralforce that empowers Richmond andcripples Richard derives fromtheir laments. Like Aeschylus’Electra, whose cries summon andempower Orestes toavenge his father’s death,so Shakespeare’ s wailingwomen seem to summon Richmond toseize the throne ofEngland. As the observations ofseveral critics indicate,this is apowerfullyritualistic moment. The women’s voices, in the wordsof Joan Parks, “retell the history ofthe Warof the Roses as accumulationand repetition” (6). They rise toa crescendo inwhich “the names return,but the identitiesthey stand for vanish ina blurof sound. We feel surroundedby the dead”(Leggatt 46).The women’s chanting elicits what Dennis Kaydescribes as the sonorouseffect ofthe Catholicreading of the obits,with its seemingly endless namingof names (2).Critics have decriedthese communal laments as “mere monotonesof complaint” (Hammond 110), and an “undifferentiatedchorus ofritual lamentation, curse, andprophecy” (Rackin andHoward 116), but the women’s cries illuminaterather than efface their differingnatures andcontrasting worldviews (Grubb127). The Duchess andthe Queen areskeptical aboutthe cosmic efŽcacy ofcursing andlamentation, but nevertheless recognize its rhetorical and emotionalpower. The Duchess asks Elizabeth, “Why shouldcalamity be Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 58 Katharine Goodland fullof words?” (4.4.126). Elizabeth explains with alegalmetaphor, that wordsare “ Windy attorneys totheir client’s woes,/ Aery succeeders of [intestate] joys,/ Poorbreathing orators of miseries, /Let them have scope! thoughwhat they will impart/ Helpnothing else, yet dothey ease the heart”(4.4.127-131). Elizabeth’ s statement suggests that mourning serves the importantfunction of “ easingthe heart.”She is skeptical of its supernaturalpower, but Ž nds that itnevertheless serves an important function:it eases the heart.The overallmovement ofthe playsuggests that the easingof the heart encompasses bothpersonal and communal moralagency. Recognizing that iflaments can ease the heart,curses can troublethe soul,the Duchess commands, “If sothen, benot tongue- tied;go with me/And in the breathof bitterwords let’ s smother /My damnedson that thy twosweet sons smother’d /The trumpetsounds, be copiousin exclaims”(4.4.132-5). Empowered by their grief,the Duchess andthe Queen successfully disruptRichard’ s militaryprocession. Structuraldramatic symmetry underscores that the women’s sorrow makes them formidableopponents to Richard. Just as Richard had interruptedAnne’ s mourningritual, so the Duchess andthe Queen now succeed inhalting Richard’ s procession.Richard acknowledges that they have impededhis progress:“ Whointercepts me in my expedition?” (4.4.136).Richard againpays tributeto the rhetorical forceof the women’s voices when he tries todrown them outwith his trumpets anddrums: “ Aourish,trumpets! strike alarum,drums! / Let notthe heavens hear these tell-tale women /Railon the Lord’s anointed.Strike, Isay!”(4.4.149-51). His almostcomical attempts tosilence the women endwith him beingsilenced byhis mother.When she tells him she will never speak tohim again,the best response he can conjureis “So!”(184). His weakening eloquencesigniŽ es anotherimportant shift in the play,for he ismomentarily stied by his mother’s rageand grief. He stands mute as she curses him:“ Bloodythou art; bloody will bethy end./ Shame serves thy lifeand doth thy deathattend. (4.4.195-6). These arethe Duchess’s Žnal wordsto her son.After she exits, Elizabeth “say[s] Amen toher” (4.4.198-9). Shakespeare again employs structural symmetry toilluminate the transfer in dramaticagency from Richard tothe women.The remainderof the scene between Richard andElizabeth hearkens back tothe “keen encounter of : : : wits”(1.2.115) between Richard andAnne. In contrast tothe earlierscene, however, Richard never gainsthe upperhand. Elizabeth repudiateseach ofhis arguments.Richard attempts toswear by“ the timeto come!” (4.4.387), butElizabeth pointsout that he has “wronged[that] in the timeo’ erpast” (4.4.388).Like the melancholy oodthat drownedClarence, the past Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 59 RELIGION and the ARTS overwhelms Richard.The “babblingdreams” that “affright”his soul (5.3.308)on the eve ofbattle seem tobe engendered by the women’s “copiousexclaims.” Like their laments, his “conscience hath athousand several tongues,/ And every tonguebrings in aseveral tale,/ and every tale condemns [him]for a villain”(5.3.193-5). As the Duchess prophesied,her sorrowfulprayers Žght onthe adverse partyand his end is bloody. The placement ofthe women’s lamentations priorto the appearance ofthe ghosts suggests that they have awakenedthe spiritsfrom their otherworldlyslumber to“ sit heavy on[Richard’ s] soul”(5.3.131), while bringingto Richmond the “sweetest sleep andfairest-boding dreams / That ever ent’red in adrowsy head”(5.3.227-228). Just beforehe goes intobattle, Richard notices that “the sky dothfrown and lour upon [his] army,”dropping “ dewy tears”upon him (5.3.283-4).The cloudshe thoughtwere buriedin the openingscene have beenwith him all along. Richard’s psychomachic nightmarehovers between twoworld views: aresidualarchaic beliefthat “wailingthe dead”provokes divine justice, andan emergent early modernappeal to conscience as the cause ofhaunted sleep. Because the nightmare is represented rather than narrated,these opposedvisions ofthe afterlifeblend ambiguously on the stage.The audiencewatches as Richard dreams,but also experiences Žrst-hand the visitationof the dead.Spanning both realms, the rhetorical powerof the women’s laments exhausts Richard.Their cries breakhis will toforget the deadand disorient his perpetualdrive toward the future. Forthey embodythe memory ofthe dead– the collective consciousness ofthe kingdom– which insists andintrudes upon the politicaland moral spheres ofhuman action.

NOTES

1Raines5-7. Cited in Cressy 401. 2All citationsof Richard III arefrom Shakespeare, TheRiverside Shakespeare . 3Seeespecially the worksby Cressy, Duffy, Greaves, Haigh, and Scarisbruck. 4Iamindebted to Michael Neill forthis concept and phrasing. In his recent book, Issues of Death ,Neill observes:“ The ritesof funeral : : : are perhapsthe mostconspicuous form through which memory isperformed (or suppressed)in the Hamlet world”(261). 5SeeHuntington andMetcalf; Seaford, esp. xi-xvi; andAlexiou. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 60 Katharine Goodland

6Greavesexplains: “ Controversy anduncertainty surroundedburial prac- ticesin the Elizabethanperiod, when anxiety wasprobably already in- tensiŽed by repudiation of extreme unction,purgatory, and satisfactory masses”(698). Greaves’ s observationsuggests that the controversy over ritualwas separate from the repudiationof purgatory. However, most ofthe disputesover the formsof funeral ritesfocused upon whether or not the rite articulated,either implicitly or explicitly,a conceptionof purgatory.In other words,opposed conceptions of the afterlifeare the sourceof mostof the disputesover ritual. 7SeeCressy, Duffy, Gittings, Greaves, Haigh, Houlbrooke, Scarisbruck, and Thomas. 8There havebeen a number ofbooks on nationalism and England. See especiallyHelgerson and Gregerson. 9SeeGeary, Greenblatt, andLeGoff. 10For the ten yearsthat her “giftof tears” consumed her, Kempewept every year onGood Friday, “ Žveer sixowyrs togedyr” for “ the sowles in Purgatory”( The Book of MargeryKempe ,57.3320;57.3326). 11Cited in Pigman30. 12I amindebted to Patricia Phillippy for this observation, which forms oneof the main linesof argument in her forthcoming book, Women, Death,and Literature in Post-Reformation England .CambridgeUniversity Press.Professor Phillippy shared with me her unpublishedmanuscript. 13G.W. Pigman’ s translation133 n. 12. 14Sig. Ks, cited in Pigman134 n. 13. 15For a studyof how Richard ofGloucester echoes reformist pietiessee Richmond. 16As Leggatt observes, “ When wesee the action[of Richard III] in its broadestperspective we realizethat [Richard] isnot justits creator but itsinstrument. He isalsoits victim” (41).

WORKS CITED

Alexiou,Margaret. TheRitual Lamentin GreekTradition .Cambridge,England: CambridgeUniversity Press,1974. Baker,Herschel. Introductionto Richard III. TheRiverside Shakespeare . Boston MA: HoughtonMif in, 1974. Bevington.David, ed. Henry VI: Parts One,Two andThree .Toronto,Canada: Bantam, 1988. Brooks,Harold F. “Richard III,Unhistorical AmpliŽcations: The Women’s Scenes andSeneca.” ModernLanguage Review 75(1980): 721-37. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 61 RELIGION and the ARTS

Bullough,Geoffrey. Narrativeand Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare . Volume V. London:Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962. Cressy,David. Birth, Marriage,and Death: Ritual, Religion andthe Life-Cycle in Tudor andStuart England .Oxford,England: Oxford University Press,1997. Donne,John. “ XVII Meditation.” John Donne.Ed.John Carey. The Oxford Authors.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,1990. 344-5. Dronke,Peter. “Lamentsof the Maries:From the Beginningsto the Mystery Plays.” Idee,Gestalt, Geschicte: Festschrift Klaus von See.Studien zur europäischen Kulturtradition .Ed.Gerd WolfgangWeber. Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press,1988. 89-116. Duffy,Eamon. TheStripping of theAltars: TraditionalReligion in England,1400-1580 . New Haven CT: YaleUniversity Press,1996. Geary, Patrick J. Living withthe Dead in theMiddle Ages .IthacaNY andLondon: Cornell University Press,1994. Gittings,Clare. Death,Burial andthe Individual in Early ModernEngland . 1984. London:Routledge, 1988. Greaves,Richard L. Society andReligion in ElizabethanEngland .MinneapolisMN: University ofMinnesotaPress, 1981. Greenblatt, Stephen. Hamletin Purgatory .Princeton NJandOxford: Princeton University Press,2001. Gregerson, Linda. TheReformation of theSubject: Spenser,Milton andthe English Protestant Epic .Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press,1995. Grubb,Shirley Carr. Women,Rhetoric, andPower: TheWomen of Shakespeare’s RichardIII as Collective Antagonist .Dissertation,University ofColorado. Ann Arbor MI:UMI,1987. Hammond,Antony. Introduction. King RichardIII .The Arden Shakespeare. Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England:Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1997. 1- 119. Haigh,Christopher, ed. TheEnglish Reformation Revised .Cambridge,England: CambridgeUniversity Press,1987. Helgerson,Richard. Forms of Nationhood: TheElizabethan Writing of England . Chicago IL:ChicagoUniversity Press,1992. Houlbrooke,Ralph. Death,Religion, andthe Family in England,1485-1750 . Oxford, England:Oxford University Press,1998. ——.“DeathChurch, andFamily in Englandbetween the LateFifteenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.”In Death,Ritual, andBereavement . Ed. Ralph Houlbrooke.London: Routledge, 1989. Huntington, Richard,and Peter Metcalf. Celebrations of Death:The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual .Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press,1979. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 62 Katharine Goodland

Kay,Dennis. Melodious Tears:The English Funeral Elegy fromSpenser to Milton . Oxford, England:Clarendon Press,1990. Kempe,Margery. TheBook of MargeryKempe .Ed.Lynn Staley.Middle English Texts.Kalamazoo MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996. Leggatt,Alexander. Shakespeare’s Political Drama .Londonand New York:Rout- ledge,1988. LeGoff,Jacques. TheBirth of Purgatory .Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. ChicagoIL: University ofChicago Press, 1986. Longland,John. ASermonmade before the kynge .1535.RSTC 16795. Loraux,Nicole. Mothers in Mourning .Trans. Corrine Pache.Ithaca NY and London:Cornell University Press,1998. Malinowski,B. Magic,Science and Religion .London:Sheldon Press, 1926. Neill,Michael. “ ‘Exeunt with aDeadMarch’ : FuneralPageantry onthe ShakespeareanStage.” Pageantryin theShakespearean Theater .Ed.David M. Bergeron. Athens GA: University ofGeorgia Press, 1985. 153-93. ——. Issues of Death:Mortality andIdentity in English Renaissance Tragedy . Oxford, England:Oxford University Press,1997. Parker, Matthew. AFunerall Sermon : : : Preachedat S.Mariesin Cambridge,Anno 1551, attheburiall of : : : MartinBucer .Trans. ThomasNewton. London, 1587. Parks,Joan. “ InconclusiveHistories: The LamentingQueens of Richard III.” Unpublishedessay. Shakespeare Association of America, 1997. Pigman,G.W. Griefand the English Renaissance Elegy .Cambridge,England: CambridgeUniversity Press,1985. Rackin,Phyllis. “Engenderingthe TragicAudience: The Caseof Richard III.” Studiesin theLiterary Imagination 26(1993): 47-65. ——andJean Howard. Engendering aNation: AFeminist Account of Shakespeare’s English Histories .London:Routledge, 1997. Raines,F.R., ed. ADescription of theState, Civil and Ecclesiastical, of theCounty of Lancaster, aboutthe year 1590 .Manchester,England: Chetham Society,1875. Richmond,Hugh M.“Richard III andthe Reformation.” JEGP 83(1984): 509- 521. Saccio,Peter. Shakespeare’s English Kings .Oxford,England: Oxford University Press,1977. Scarisbruck,J.J. TheReformation andthe English People .Oxford,England: Basil Blackwell, 1984 Seaford,Richard. Reciprocity andRitual: Homer andTragedy in theDeveloping City-State . Oxford,England: Clarendon, 1995. Shakespeare,William. TheTragedy of RichardIII .The RiversideShakespeare. Ed. G.BlakemoreEvans. Boston MA: HoughtonMif in, 1974. Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 63 RELIGION and the ARTS

Strickland, Ronald.“ Pageantry andPoetry asDiscourse: The Productionof Subjectivityin Sir PhilipSidney’ s Funeral.” ELH 57(1990): 19-36. Thomas,Keith. Religion andthe Decline of Magic .London:Weidenfeld and Nicholson,1971. Wickham, Glynne. Early English Stages,1300 to 1660 .London:Routledge, 1959. Woodward,Jennifer. TheTheatre of Death:The Ritual Managementof Royal Funerals in Renaissance England,1570-1624 .Suffolk,England and Rochester NY:The BoydellPress, 1997.

Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:38:00PM via free access 64