!THE TRAGEDY OF RICHARD THE THIRD WITH THE LANDING OF EARLE RICHMOND AND THE BATTELL AT BOSWORTH FIELD (ca. 1592-93)
RICHARD III had been published six times before its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio. These occurred in 1597 (Q1), 1598 (Q2), 1602 (Q3), 1605 (Q4), 1612 (Q5) and 1622 (Q6). Copy for Q1 was likely a communal memorial reconstruction of the play to replace a missing promptbook. Each successive quarto was a reprint of its predecessor. F was apparently set from an independent manuscRIPt (foul papers or transcRIPt thereof) as well as from one or more annotated copies of the derivative quartos (Q3 & 6). In many ways, the early Q1 represents a later (theatrical) state of the text, whereas the later F may be closer to Shakespeare’s original intentions.
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!!X AXIS (abscisses): 3888 lines
The FOLIO’s text of R III very nearly follows the standard subdivision of ACTS & SCENES (there were none Q1-6). I write “very nearly” because F does NOT subdivide Richard’s final rise to power (3.4 in F, but 3.4-7 in the standard subdivision); neither does it subdivide the fall of Buckingham from the death of the Princes in the Tower (4.2 in F, but scenes 4.2 & 4.3 in the standard text); nor does F subdivide the final action at Bosworth Field (5.2 in F but 5.2-5 in standard text). The difference seems to be that F does not subdivide actions or sequences that may have been conceived as dramatically continuous. If these are indeed “authorial”, then the Folio’s subdivision may be indicative of Shakespeare’s sense of dramatic “pacing”.
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Folio’s divisions of ACTS and SCENES
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1.1: line 1 (reads “Scene begins at line 1”)
1.2: line 172
1.3: line 461
1.4: line 835
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2.1: line 1119
2.2: line 1270
2.3: line 1431
2.4: line 1485
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3.1: line 1568
3.2: line 1793
3.3: line 1932
3.4: line 1963
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4.1: line 2470
4.2: line 2587
4.3: line 2769
4.4: line 3347
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5.1: line 3370
5.2: line 3403
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FINIS @ line 3888
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!!Y AXIS (ordonnées):
Entrances & exits of Characters
According to their order of appearance.
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• (2,80) reads "enters at line 2, exits at line 80".
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• (3833, [RIP] 3842)
reads “enters at line 3833, dies and exits on line 3842”. RIP at the end a character’s list indicates (or confirms) his/her decease. In the case of RICHARD III, some characters enter AFTER their deaths. Such entries are prefixed by “Ghost”.
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• (3578,[3638])
in the absence of stage directions, entry reads “character enters at line 3578 and “probably” exits at line 3638”
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• PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS are capitalized.
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RICHARD (later King Richard III)
(3,171) (207,406) (507,834) (1171,1269) (1374,1430) (1570,1792) (1988,2011) (2029,2049) (2082,2197) (2213,2268) (2313,2469) (2588,2699) (2727,2768) (2908,3346) (3431,3452) (3485,3684) (3737,3823) (3833, [RIP] 3842) RIP
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CLARENCE
(44,123) (836, [RIP] 1104) RIP (Ghost 3578,[3638])
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HASTINGS
(129,153) (1122,1262) (1374,1420) (1600,1638) (1674,1735) (1794,1931) (1964,2081) RIP (Ghost 3596,[3638])
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Lady ANNE
(174,420) (2471,2586) RIP (Ghost 3614,[3638])
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QUEEN ELIZABETH
(462,799) (1121,1262) (1306,1420) (1486,1567) (2471,2586) (2779,3220)
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Rivers
(462,799) (1121,1262) (1307,1420) (1933,1962) RIP (Ghost 3587,[3638])
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Grey
(463,799) (1933,1962) RIP (Ghost 3587,[3638])
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Dorset
(463,799) (1121,1262) (1307,1420) (2475,2586)
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BUCKINGHAM
(481,799) (1123,1269) (1374,1430) (1570,1792) (1919,1931) (1964,2011) (2029,2049) (2082,2190) (2213,2440) (2447,2469) (2680,2703) (3371,3402) RIP (Ghost 3625,[3638])
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STANLEY (Earl of Derby)
(481,799) (1122,1262) (1374,1420) (1872,1931) (1964,2049) (2506,2586) (2639,2699) (3252,3298) (3348,3369) (3520,3550) (3843,3887)
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QUEEN MARGARET
(576,776) (2770,2897)
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Catesby
(794,799) (1122,1262) (1571,1779) (1832,1931) (2098,2197) (2272,2286) (2639,2699) (3224,3245) (3338,3346) (3485,3503) (3737,3823) (3824,3840)
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Two Murderers
(815,834) (921,1118)
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KING EDWARD IV
(1121,1262) RIP
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Ratcliffe
(1171,1262) (1375,1420) (1933,1962) (1965,2081) (2106,2197) (2589,2699) (2752,2768) (3224,3346) (3431,3452) (3485,3519) (3669,3684) (3737,3823)
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DUCHESS OF YORK
(1271,1420) (1487,1567) (2472,2586) (2779,2975)
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Son of Clarence
(1271,1420)
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Daughter of Clarence
(1271,1420) (2471,2586)
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Citizens
(1432,1484) (2269,2440) (2447,2469)
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Young Duke of York
(1486,1567) (1674,1735) RIP (Ghost 3603,[3638])
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Young Prince Edward
(1570,1735) RIP (Ghost 3603,[3638])
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Norfolk
(1965,2049) (3431,3452) (3485,3497) (3756,3823) RIP
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Lovell
(1965,2081) (2106,2193) (2589,2699)
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Scrivener
(2198,2212)
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Tyrell
(2660,2679) (2704,2743)
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RICHMOND
(3404,3430) (3453,3484) (3520,3823) (3841,3842) (3843,3887)
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Oxford
(3404,3430) (3454,3484)
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Ghost of Prince Edward (to Henry VI)
(3561,[3638])
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Ghost of Henry VI
(3570,[3638])
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!!PLOTS & COLOURING
As in the three HENRY VI plays, the overlying PLOT remains that of “The War of the Roses”. But just as 2 HENRY VI (and 1 HENRY VI, for that matter) began with an internecine struggle between LANCASTERS (i.e. Winchester & Gloster), RICHARD III — which completes the cycle — begins with a similar (if somewhat more devious) struggle between YORKS
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• The YORKISTS are:
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CLARENCE
HASTINGS
QUEEN ELZ
RIVERS
GREY
DORSET
KING EDWARD
the 2 Children OF CLARENCE
the DUCHESS OF YORK
the young DUKE OF YORK
the young PRINCE EDWARD of York.
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• The LANCASTRIANS are:
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LADY ANNE
QUEEN MARGARET
RICHMOND
OXFORD
Ghost of HENRY VI
Ghost of PRINCE EDWARD of Lancaster.
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• Though RICHARD is a YORK, he manifestly has his own agenda and party:
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RICHARD
BUCKINGHAM (until line 2703).
CATESBY
RAFCLIFFE
TYRELL
LOVELL
NORFOLK
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As the FOLIO title suggests, the main plot mostly concerns the rise and fall of king Richard III, which plot mostly follows the ACT structure of the play:
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• Act I deals with the Death of Clarence (due to Richard’s conspiracy);
• Act II, with the death of King Edward IV;
• Act III, with Richard’s rise to power (with the assistance of Buckingham)
• Act IV, with the murder of Edward IV’ children (and Buckingham’s fall from grace);
• Act V, with the rise of Richmond (i.e. Henry VII) and the death of King Richard.
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The announced marriage of Richmond with Edward IV’ daughter, Margaret, effectively unites the white and red roses thus bringing the civil conflict to an end.
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!!ACTION SEQUENCES
• Battle of Bosworth Field (3824,3843)
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!!METATHEATRE
The character of RICHARD himself (who does nothing but “act” & dissemble his way to the top of the play world) is perhaps one of the most overt occurrences of metatheatre in the whole canon. But the play also contains other tantalizing hints of a rather wilful theatricality.
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The Folio’s 3.4 (the standard 3.4-7), for instance, appears to be constructed as a series of progressively more manifest plays-within-the-play: beginning with the rather blunt dismissal & execution of Hastings, to Richard & Buckingham “appearing” as the innocent protectors & guardians of a realm under attack (F even requiring them, at TLN 2082, to appear in “armour, marvellous ill-favoured”), we end with Buckingham’s grandiose wooing of Richard before the citizens of London. This last occurrence — TLN 2271-2469 — being as close to a genuine play-within-the-play as we get in RICHARD III.
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Indeed, I sometimes wonder if — with this play’s strange mixture of medieval morality and renaissance irony — Shakespeare’s goal isn’t essentially didactic: since he almost appears to be teaching his audience how to interpret and read into, not only the very play they are witnessing, but theatre as a whole.
