We all love a good villain and Richard is just that!
He tells us from the very outset of the play his evil intentions:
1.1
Richard (Duke of Gloucester):...therefore, since I cannot prove a lover...
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,...
and he reminds us throughout that he won't stop until he gains the crown and destroys anyone who may take it from him
4.2
King Richard:...I must be married to my brother's daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
Richard feigns religious devotion to win favor:
3.7
Buckingham: Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity;
And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
True ornaments to know a holy man.
And destroys those who show even a twinge of disloyalty:
4.2 (King Richard tells Buckingham to kill the 2 young princes and Buckingham wavers)
King Richard: The deep-revolting witty Buckingham
No more shall be the neighbor to my counsels.
Hath he so long held out with me, untir'd,
And stops he now for breath? Well, be it so.
Its hard not to compare Richard's manipulations, bullying and deceit to politics of today, which says much about Will's staying power and the relevancy of his works.
The verbal sparring between Anne and Richard and later Elizabeth and Richard is particularly entertaining though disappointingly ending in both women falling for his false charms despite the destruction he has brought to their families:
1.2
Anne: Foul devil...hence and trouble us not;
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,...
...heav'n, with lightning strike the murd'rer dead;
Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick,...
*
Anne: Oh wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): More wonderful when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself.
Anne: Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
Of these known evils but to give me leave
By circumstance to accuse thy cursed self.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
Anne: Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): By such despair I should accuse myself.
Anne: And by despairing shalt thou stand excused...
*
Anne: Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then, God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for the the wicked deed!
*
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): ...For he was fitter for that place [Heaven] than earth.
Anne: And thou unfit for any place but hell.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
Anne: Some dungeon.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Your bed-chamber.
Richard's mother even laments his evil character:
2.2
Duchess: I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd with looking on his images:
But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
*
4.1
Duchess: O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
O my accursed womb, the bed of death!
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
Whose unavoided eye is murderous.
In the end Richard endures his own karma
5.2
Blunt: He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,
Which in his dearest need will fly from him.
Some interesting fun facts about King Richard III:
Rumor has it that the English nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty may have been about Richard III who was deformed from spinal scoliosis and "fell" when he was killed on the battle field.
In 2012 King Richard III's remains were discovered underneath a parking lot in Leicester, which was the former site of the Greyfriars church where he was unceremoniously buried in 1485.
The verbal sparring between Anne and Richard and later Elizabeth and Richard is particularly entertaining though disappointingly ending in both women falling for his false charms despite the destruction he has brought to their families:
1.2
Anne: Foul devil...hence and trouble us not;
For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,...
...heav'n, with lightning strike the murd'rer dead;
Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick,...
*
Anne: Oh wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): More wonderful when angels are so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed crimes to give me leave
By circumstance but to acquit myself.
Anne: Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
Of these known evils but to give me leave
By circumstance to accuse thy cursed self.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
Anne: Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
No excuse current but to hang thyself.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): By such despair I should accuse myself.
Anne: And by despairing shalt thou stand excused...
*
Anne: Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then, God grant me too
Thou mayst be damned for the the wicked deed!
*
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): ...For he was fitter for that place [Heaven] than earth.
Anne: And thou unfit for any place but hell.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.
Anne: Some dungeon.
Richard (Duke of Gloucester): Your bed-chamber.
Richard's mother even laments his evil character:
2.2
Duchess: I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd with looking on his images:
But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
*
4.1
Duchess: O ill-dispersing wind of misery!
O my accursed womb, the bed of death!
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
Whose unavoided eye is murderous.
In the end Richard endures his own karma
5.2
Blunt: He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,
Which in his dearest need will fly from him.
Some interesting fun facts about King Richard III:
Rumor has it that the English nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty may have been about Richard III who was deformed from spinal scoliosis and "fell" when he was killed on the battle field.
In 2012 King Richard III's remains were discovered underneath a parking lot in Leicester, which was the former site of the Greyfriars church where he was unceremoniously buried in 1485.
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