Richard III

This act features menacing foreshadowing of the play’s violent turning point—the deaths of the young Prince Edward and his brother—creating a mood of increasing dread and urgency as Richard gains more and more power through The Dangers of Manipulation and Deceit. Shakespeare draws upon historical allusions to England’s past to suggest that Richard is the culmination of an ancient conflict, but also that historical memory will not vindicate his actions. Furthermore, Shakespeare portrays the young princes as innocent, clever children who could have grown up to be good kings, increasing the sense of injustice and tragedy when they are killed.

Shakespeare’s historical references connect Richard’s actions to the conflict over the throne of England that began during the reign of Richard II. In one notable scene, Queen Elizabeth’s supporters are imprisoned at a castle called Pomfret, but their dialogue draws attention to how the prison was previously the sight of Richard II’s murder. Rivers, the queen’s brother, gives a speech about the long legacy of The Violent Cycle of Civil Unrest in England:

O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,

Fatal and ominous to noble peers!

Within the guilty closure of thy walls,

Richard the Second here was hacked to death,

And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink (3.3.8-13).

Rivers connects his own impending death to the death of the former king, who was thought to have been murdered in prison after he was deposed by Henry IV and then forced to abdicate. In Shakespeare’s later historical plays, the second tetralogy, he portrays Richard II’s death as a sort of original sin that plagues Henry IV throughout his reign. Henry V, on the other hand, restores Richard II’s body to a proper tomb, therefore working to mend the wound in England’s political institutions begun by his father. Rivers’s lines indicate that Shakespeare also saw Richard III’s tyrannical actions as the ultimate culmination of the weakening respect for the monarchy.

Another historical reference in these chapters explores the theme of historical memory and legacy, contributing to the tragic feeling that Prince Edward’s glory has been cut too short. When Prince Edward first arrives in London, he visits the Tower of London with his uncle Richard. The two discuss the tower’s origins as a supposed construction of the Roman commander Julius Caesar, prompting the young boy to remark:

That Julius Caesar was a famous man.

With what his valor did enrich his wit,

His wit set down to make his valor live.

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror,

For now he lives in fame, though not in life (3.1.85-89).

Prince Edward’s remark hints that memory and legacy will endure for longer than a human lifespan, subtly hinting that the story of Richard’s evil actions and Prince Edward’s virtue will outlive them both. Therefore, Shakespeare suggests, Richard will lose in the long run because he will be remembered poorly, while Prince Edward will be beloved despite his short life.

Richard’s interactions with the young princes underscore how worthy they might have been for the throne had they lived. Prince Edward’s younger brother, the Duke of York, mocks his uncle through clever wordplay, indicating his intelligence and bravery. In one quip, he demonstrates that he might possess even greater rhetorical prowess than the silver-tongued Richard:

RICHARD: What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK: I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

RICHARD: How?

YORK: Little (3.1.124-127).

Alongside their clever defiance of Richard, the two young princes are confirmed to be virtuous and properly Christian. When Buckingham visits the princes at the Tower of London, he observes that the young prince is far more chaste and pious than his father, a reputed lecher. Buckingham’s words employ verbal irony as he says “this prince is not an Edward! / He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed / But on his knees at meditation” (3.7.72-74). While Prince Edward is literally an Edward, having been named after his father, his behavior demonstrates that he could have been a more holy and thoughtful monarch. These details increase the sense of impending tragedy: Shakespeare establishes that the young princes would have made great kings, but that their greatness was cut short by Richard’s ambition for power.