Richard III: the Terrible Reign SMART Guide 2012
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Shakespeare’s Richard III: The Terrible Reign s m a r t November 2012 SHARING MASTERWORKS OF ART These study materials are produced for use with the Classic Players production of Richard III. AN EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH OF BOB JONES UNIVERSITY Darren Lawson as the Duke of Buckingham of Duke as the Lawson Darren Philip Eoute as the Earl of Richmond of Earl as the Eoute Philip Katharine Golightly as Lady Anne Anne as Lady Golightly Katharine Beneth Jones as Queen Margaret as Queen Jones Beneth Ron Pyle as Richard III Pyle as Richard Ron Classic Players 2012 Richard III: The Terrible Reign: Plot Summary As King Edward IV suffers declining health, his youngest living protecting their lives. He also has several of his enemies falsely brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, devises a scheme to charged with crimes for which they are executed. eliminate everyone who stands between him and the crown. The Duke of Buckingham, acting on Richard’s behalf, convinces First Richard has his other brother and the heir presumptive Londoners that the little princes in the Tower are not King to the throne, George, Duke of Clarence, imprisoned. Then Edward IV’s legitimate sons. Thus the final obstacles on Richard’s he uses his persuasive skills to woo Lady Anne, the daughter- path to the crown are removed. in-law of the late Henry VI, to marry him even though he is Although Richard seems reluctant to accept the crown, he does responsible for the deaths of her husband and father-in-law. so under the pretense that Edward IV was, in fact, illegitimate Margaret, Henry VI’s widow, pronounces a curse on Richard himself. While Richard III works to unite his supporters, one as “a murd’rous villain” and an evil spirit and denounces those by one they defect. Even Buckingham, unwilling to arrange for who stood by him in his killing spree. She predicts that heaven the murder of the princes in the Tower, revolts and joins forces has a “grievous plague in store” for them all. with Henry, Earl of Richmond, who seeks to claim the throne. Thus in the Tower of London, Richard’s henchmen drown Richard and his forces confront Richmond and his army at Clarence in a trough filled with wine. The charge Richard Bosworth Field, where Richard III is eventually killed, and makes against him is that he has sought Edward IV’s death. Richmond is crowned Henry VII, England’s first monarch in the Tudor dynasty. Richmond proclaims that after 30 years of When King Edward IV dies, Richard as Lord Protector has his civil unrest, the War of the Roses has come to an end. He will young sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard, Duke of marry Edward’s daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, uniting the York, imprisoned in the Tower of London on the pretense of houses of York and Lancaster. • Ron Pyle as Richard III; Classic Players 2012 production Buckingham: Cohort and Victim When the action of Shakespeare’s Richard III begins, the Duke of Buckingham (Henry Stafford) is Richard III’s confidant and co-conspirator in the crime spree concocted to secure the crown for Richard. Like Richard, Buckingham is ambitious and immoral. He is responsible for bringing both the young Edward V, heir to the throne of his dying father, Edward IV, and his brother, the young Duke of York, out of safety to London, where they will be killed. He imprisons Rivers and Grey, brother and son of Edward IV’s wife, Queen Elizabeth, and arranges for their execution. After the death of Edward IV, the bishops offer the crown to Richard, who feigns reluctance to accept it. It is Buckingham whose begging ostensibly persuades Richard to receive it. But later when Richard would have Buckingham devise the deaths of the young princes in the Tower of London, he recoils. Buck- ingham defects to the army of English noblemen who have flocked to the side of Richmond, who threatens to strike down the tyrant Richard in battle. Buckingham’s defection marks the first stage in Richard’s loss of control of his own destiny. On the field Buckingham is captured by Richard’s army and led away to his execution. Realizing that it is All Souls Day, the day upon which the Roman Catholic mass focuses on the Day of Judgment, Buckingham acknowledges his wrongdoing and turns Introduction to Richard III Darren Lawson as Buckingham, his thoughts toward repentance. His final words confirm that Classic Players 2012 production Margaret’s curse has fallen “heavy on [his] neck.” For over 400 years artists and audiences have admired Richard III is the final king Shakespeare depicts in his first cycle Darren Lawson as Buckingham, In the standard Shakespeare text of the play, Buckingham is Shakespeare’s Richard III. The last of England’s kings from of history plays, after three plays about King Henry VI. The Classic Players 2012 production second only to Richard III in the number of lines he speaks. • the house of York, Richard was a morbidly fascinating villain. tetralogy deals with the nation of England during the 15th century The playwright had access to a number of sources when he and the eventual fall of the house of York. It ends with the death began writing Richard III around 1592. Scholars believe that of the tyrant Richard III at Bosworth Field, which signals the Thomas More’s History of King Richard III (1513) provided rise of Henry, earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. information in biography form that served Shakespeare well. More provides the following detailed account of Richard’s In Shakespeare’s hands the tyrant Richard is a multi-faceted char- Playgoer’s Guide appearance and character: acter, at once witty and diabolical, charming and cruel. Ambition and a lust for power are the chief of his vices. His role in the play Little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crook-backed, his left is second only to Hamlet’s in Shakespeare’s canon in terms of the Early Title (Q1 title page): The Tragedy of King Richard the Subject: historical events that occurred in England from shoulder much higher than his right, [Richard was] hard- number of lines he speaks. Richard is also a forebear to Hamlet in Third, Containing, His treacherous Plots against his brother around 1471 to 1485. But Shakespeare has no regard for favored of visage, and such as is in [rulers] called [warlike], in the highly theatrical nature of his character. He brings the audience Clarence: the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes: his historical accuracy in the play. He compresses time, creates other men otherwise; he was malicious, wrathful, envious, under his spell through his soliloquies for a large portion of tyrannical usurpation: with the whole course of his detested motives, changes some of the facts of history, and exaggerates and, from before his birth, ever froward. … [To] friend the play. He is a type of Proteus, that great shape-shifter, who life, and most deserved death. some events and characters. and foe he was … indifferent; where his advantage grew he can “frame [his] face to all occasions,” “change shapes” and “add spared no man’s death whose life withstood his purpose. colors to the chameleon” [3, Henry VI, 3.4.86-88]. Date of Composition: 1592-93 Plot: Richard’s hunger for power prompts him to attempt to remove all obstacles standing between him and the Andrew Dickson makes the following observation about the Like Thomas More, Shakespeare weaves the theme of Providence Date of First Publication: 1597 throne: his brother, King Edward IV, who dies a natural relationship of Richard’s natural handicaps to his atrocious into the resolution of his plot. Once the strife between the houses death near the beginning of the play; Edward IV’s young behavior: Shakespeare’s Richard III is “extremely bold in his of York and Lancaster ceased at Richard’s death, England enjoyed Place in Chronology of Shakespeare’s Plays: probably sons, Edward, the Prince of Wales and Richard, the fourth determination to wreak revenge. … It is clear that Richard seizes the peace and fruitfulness that attended the reign of Henry VII among first four or five plays in canon of 37 plays duke of York; Clarence, his older brother; and Princess on the monstrous aspects of his appearance and makes them and his young wife Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. They Elizabeth, the oldest of Edward’s surviving daughters. • into a source of malevolent power.” In spite of modern attempts established the dynasty of the Tudors. They became the parents Setting: England around 1485 to cast Richard as a good king who has been maligned through of Henry VIII and the grandparents of Queen Elizabeth I. • the ages, he is still regarded as the epitome of arrogant tyranny. Genealogy in Richard III Edward III House of Lancaster (Red Rose) House of York (White Rose) Edward, The Black Prince Blanche John of Gaunt Katherine Swynford Edmund of Langley Richard II John Beaufort, Richard, Earl of Cambridge Henry IV Earl of Somerset John Beaufort, Henry V Richard, Duke of York Duchess of York Duke of Somerset Oldest Son Middle Son Youngest Son Edmund Tudor Margaret Beaufort, of Wales Countess of Richmond Widow of former King Henry VI. Richard III killed Old Queen her husband & son Henry VI to get the crown to Margaret his brother, Edward Anne Neville Edward, Prince of Wales RICHARD, George, Queen Elizabeth King Edward IV Duke of Gloucester Anne Neville Duke of Clarence (RICHARD III) Widow of Henry VI’s son, Edward Characters appearing in Richard III Characters discussed in Richard III Henry Tudor Married Kills King Richard III Marries Young Elizabeth to unite the Earl of Richmond Young Young Killed by Richard III House of York & the House of Lancaster Young Elizabeth & establish the House of Tudor (Henry VII) Prince Edward Prince Richard Benneth Jones as Queen Margaret; Classic Players 2012 Players Classic Margaret; as Queen Jones Benneth Richard III [In Richard III, Shakespeare] “is more concerned with moral meanings than with the recording of events.