ELIT 17 Class 8

AGENDA• Recitation• Teams 2• Lecture: – History Plays

• Discussion– Richard III • Discussion Questions• QHQs

Recitation

Shakespeare’s History Plays

The First Folio (1623) bears the title Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, dividing the plays into three generic categories, fourteencomedies, eleven tragedies, and ten histories.

The arrangement of the plays in the First Folio reflects the chronology of the events treated in each play, beginningwith King John (early thirteenth century) and ending with Henry VIII,rather than the order of composition.

Conventionally, the three Henry VI plays and Richard III are known as “the first tetralogy,” written and performed between 1589 and 1593.

The four plays Richard II, 1 and 2 Henry IV, and Henry V, written and performed between 1595 and 1599, are known as “the second tetralogy.”

These eight plays treat a continuous slice of English history, beginning late in the reign of Richard II (1398) and ending with the death of Richard III in 1485. In each group of four plays the action is closely linked, with characters appearing in successive plays and explicit references in one play to events depicted in another. 3 Henry VI begins “I wonder how the King escaped our hands,” a direct reference

to the final scene of 2 Henry VI. Both Richard III and 1 Henry IV begin with tributes to peace succeeding the ‘grim-

visaged War’ or ‘civil butchery’ presented in an earlier play.

The Roman PlaysShakespeare’s “Roman plays,” Julius Caesar (1599), Antony and Cleopatra (1606–7), and Coriolanus (1607–8), are classified as tragedies in the Folio, andgenerally accepted as such.

These plays, based on events from Roman history, resemble Shakespeare’s English histories in many respects. A play like Julius Caesar, first performed in the same year as Henry V, not only includes battle scenes staged in a similar manner, but performs a similar balancing act between fact and fiction, between fidelity to a historical source and the requirements of dramatic form.

Much modern critical attention has focused on the way Shakespeare utilized his sources in his interpretations of historical events. The characteristics of Renaissance historiography—the narrative presentation of history based on critical evaluations of primary and secondary source materials—is often compared with Shakespeare's own historiographical style.

Some critics claim that Shakespeare's attitude toward his sources was “cavalier,” but that Shakespeare, as well as the authors of his sources, were all guilty of drawing parallels and analogies, allegorizing historical figures, and telescoping historical time.

While some critics see these tendencies as “faults,” Don M. Ricks (1968) observes that sixteenth-century historiography was not bound by modern rules of objectivity and historical accuracy. Rather, it was understood that historical data should be presented in a way that made a subjective and moralistic argument.

Historical Accuracy

SHAKESPEARE’S RICHARD III• Richard III is a history play by William

Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591.

• It depicts the bloody rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England.

• After Hamlet, it is the longest play in the canon and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet is shorter than its Quarto counterpart.

• The earliest certain performance occurred on 16 or 17 November 1633, when Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria watched it on the Queen's birthday.

Who are the major players in Richard III?

Let me ask you!

MAIN CHARACTERS• Richard - Also called the duke of Gloucester, and

eventually crowned King Richard III. Deformed in body and twisted in mind, Richard is both the central character and the villain of the play. He is evil, corrupt, sadistic, and manipulative, and he will stop at nothing to become king.

• Buckingham - Richard’s right-hand man in his schemes to gain power. The duke of Buckingham is almost as amoral and ambitious as Richard himself.

• King Edward IV - The older brother of Richard and Clarence, and the king of England at the start of the play.

MAIN CHARACTERS• Clarence - The gentle, trusting brother born between Edward and

Richard in the York family. Richard has Clarence murdered in order to get him out of the way. Clarence leaves two children, a son and a daughter.

• Queen Elizabeth - The wife of King Edward IV and the mother of the two young princes (the heirs to the throne) and their older sister, young Elizabeth.

• Anne - The young widow of Prince Edward, who was the son of the former king, Henry VI. Lady Anne hates Richard for the death of her husband, but for reasons of politics—and for sadistic pleasure—Richard persuades Anne to marry him.

MAIN CHARACTERS• Margaret - Widow of the dead King Henry

VI, and mother of the slain Prince Edward. She is embittered and hates both Richard and the people he is trying to get rid of, all of whom were complicit in the destruction of the her family, the Lancasters.

• The princes - The two young sons of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth, their names are actually Prince Edward and the young duke of York, but they are often referred to collectively.

What is the Plot thus far in Richard III?

Let me ask you!

THE STORY• After a long civil war between the royal

family of York and the royal family of Lancaster, England enjoys a period of peace under King Edward IV and the victorious Yorks.

• But Edward’s younger brother, Richard, resents Edward’s power and the happiness of those around him.

• Malicious, power-hungry, and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard begins to aspire secretly to the throne—and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king.

Richard turns the king against the third brother, the duke of Clarence (whose given name is George) by telling the king of an ancient prophecy that his issue will be disinherited by one of the royal line whose name begins with the letter G. Clarence is immediately arrested and taken to the Tower. Richard goes to him, pretending sympathy, and advises him that the jealousy and hatred of Queen Elizabeth are responsible for his imprisonment. After promising to help his brother secure his freedom, Richard gives orders that Clarence be stabbed in his cell and his body placed in a barrel of malmsey wine.

Hoping to fortify his position, Richard then makes plans to marry Lady Anne, the widow of Prince Edward, the former Prince of Wales whose father is the murdered Henry VI. Edward was slain by Richard and his brothers after the battles ended, and Lady Anne and Henry’s widow, Queen Margaret, were the only remaining members of the once powerful House of Lancaster still living in England. Intercepting Lady Anne at the funeral procession of Henry VI, Richard attempts to woo her. Although she hates and fears her husband’s murderer, she is persuaded to accept an engagement ring when Richard insists that it is for love of her that he murdered her husband.

Richard goes to the court, where Edward IV lies ill. There, he affects great sorrow and indignation over the news of the death of Clarence, thereby endearing himself to Lord Hastings and the duke of Buckingham, who were friends of Clarence. He insinuates that Queen Elizabeth and her followers turned the wrath of the king against Clarence, which brought about his death. Richard manages to convince everyone except Queen Margaret, who knows well what really happened. Openly accusing him, she attempts to warn Buckingham and the others against Richard, but they ignore her.

Edward IV, ailing and depressed, tries to make peace among the factions in his realm, but he dies before he can accomplish this goal. His son, Prince Edward, is sent for from Ludlow to take his father’s place. At the same time, Richard imprisons Lord Grey, Lord Rivers, and Lord Vaughan, who are followers and relatives of the queen, and has them executed.

End of Act 2

THE ANTI-HERO

Shakespeare’s Richard III is unique among his literary characters, in that he is the main villain, but also the main character.

He admits to the audience at the beginning that he is amoral, and a villain, but the audience sympathizes with him due to his deformity and his quick wit.

Audiences cringe at the depths of his wickedness, but also marvel at the expertness with which he manipulates events to his advantage. His drive and unquenchable spirit is admirable, even when his methods are evil.

RICHARD III ON FILM

There have been several films made of Richard III – the first being in 1908! Other notable adaptions include these:• 1955 film with Lawrence Olivier• 1983 BBC television adaption

(complete)• An animated 30-minute adaption• And a 1995 film set in Nazi

Germany during WWII, with Ian McKellen as Richard

• Comedy troupe Monty Python also parodied the mincing, hunchbacked character of Richard III in a “Hospital for Over-Acting” sketch!

Activity

The opening speech is one of the most famous monologues in RichardIII, so we are going to perform it.

Practice in your groups, rotating speakers for each line.

Monologue-a long speech by one character in a play

1. Now is the winter of our discontent2. Made glorious summer by this son of York,3. And all the clouds that loured upon our house4. In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.5. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,6. Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments,7. Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,8. Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.9. Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled

front;10. And now, instead of mounting barbèd steeds11. To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,12. He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber13. To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

RICHARD Richard III, Act 1, Scene 1

14. But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,15. Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;16. I, that am rudely stamped and want love’s majesty17. To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;18. I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,19. Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,20. Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time21. Into this breathing world scarce half made up,22. And that so lamely and unfashionable23. That dogs bark at me as I halt by them—24. Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,25. Have no delight to pass away the time,26. Unless to see my shadow in the sun27. And descant on mine own deformity.

28. And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover29. To entertain these fair well-spoken days,30. I am determinèd to prove a villain31. And hate the idle pleasures of these days.32. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,33. By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,34. To set my brother Clarence and the King35. In deadly hate, the one against the other;36. And if King Edward be as true and just37. As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,38. This day should Clarence closely be mewed up39. About a prophecy which says that “G”40. Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.

What is Richard telling the audience in these opening lines?

Let me ask you!

"Now is the winter of our discontent" - Richard III by William

Shakespeare

With Laurence Olivier as King Richard

Run time 5:32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxnXgYPnKg

In Groups

• Discuss your answers to the homework questions and your QHQs.

Sir Thomas MoreShakespeare based his Richard III on the writings of Sir Thomas More author of Utopia. As a courtier to Henry VIII (the son of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor royal line – Richmond in our play), More presented Richmond and his allies in the best possible light. As a playwright under Henry VIII’s daughter, Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare kept up with tradition of glorifying the Tudors and painting their enemies as evil. Since the Tudor line had both Yorkists and Lancastrians – the adversaries in the “Wars of the Roses”– in its ancestry, neither branch is particularly depraved in Shakespeare’s version of history. Only Richard, the rejected scion of the Yorkist side is truly evil. Shakespeare’s Richard is not the true Richard of history, but the Richard of Thomas More and the Tudors.

1. Shakespeare based his Richard III on the writings of Sir Thomas More. After reading both Thomas More and Horace Walpole, who do you find more credible? Why?

2. How might More (and Shakespeare) have answered Walpole’s questions?

• On September 12, 2012, a gravesite was found beneath a excavated parking lot in Leicester, England.

• The skeleton had a severely curved spine, a metal arrow in his back, and several blows to the back of the skull.

• After extensive DNA and carbon testing, it was announced on February 4, 2013, that it was the long-lost gravesite of Richard III, who had died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

• Scientists reconstructed his face from the skull, and his bones are interred in the Leicester Cathedral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nExmaclO8ZY

Anthony Carboni and Adam Sessler, President of TheoryHead, Inc. a consultancy firm for entertainment and media, talk about the discovery of Richard III grave. 5:32

It is important, in Richard III, for the audience to understand what the Elizabethan audience would have known. Read Act 1, scene 1, lines 148-166 and analyze Shakespeare’s strategies for telling the audience of both what has already happened and the schemes Richard has devised. Does it seem forced or is it smoothly revealed?

Act 1 Scene 1 Lines 148-166

The Wooing SceneRichard’s wooing scene is in Act 1, Scene 2 lines 72 to 244. How effective is it? Analyze his arguments and his ability to mask evil under the guise of piety. Name key moments that push his agenda. Why is Lady Anne susceptible to his wooing?

Film clip on the next slide

Richard’s Wooing sceneFilmed for Shakespearean London TheatresShalt.org.ukBegins Act 1 Scene 2 line 64 runtime 7:55

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-2L5in5Q68

Read Richard III: Acts 3, 4, and 5 Post #8 1. What is the impact of the visits of the ghosts to Richard? See

act 5, Scene 3, lines 139-188.2. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience understands the

real significance of a character’s words or actions but the character or those around him or her do not. Examine these moments of dark comedy and comment on how and why they work in the play. Look at the scene between Richard and Clarence (Act 1 Scene 1) and also in Act 3 scene 2, when Catesby suggest that Richard should be crowned king in lieu of the Prince of Wales. There are several other scenes to choose from.

3. Ambition conjoined with an inherently evil nature cause Richard to embrace the role of villain, but he plays the part so fully that he eventually wreaks havoc on himself. Look at Scene 5, Act 3, lines 194-203. What is the purpose of these lines. What do we learn about Richard’s state of mind.

4. QHQ