Richard III

Reading strategies: Consider your audience Underline annotations in text List of characters on a separate sheet Make a brief plot summary after each scene Bracket questions and interesting moments Check your understanding against a plot synopsis online   Consider: We have been manipulated only by the opening soliloquy The characters in the play have been manipulated all their lives   The son/sun of York "to see my shadow in the sun" Feels lower than his brother Placed there by nature, like his deformity   Makes Lady Anne complicit; he is successful at making others complicit in his crimes throughout the play   The Players Elizabeth: Formerly Lady Grey Comes to the King in Act III of Henry (Part 3) to beg for the property of her lost husband The King asks her to be his queen and she resists at first, but she turns on a dime like Anne and Richard III The King had a wonderful marriage lined up with a French Queen but threw it away to marry Elizabeth --> outsiders Rivers: Elizabeth's brother Elizabeth's sons by Lord Grey Dorset Grey She also has two sons by Edward Edward (Prince of Wales) Richard (Duke of York) The Grey Family Treated with superstition by jealously of how fast the family had risen and will rise "An heir and a spare" Richard III Confirms his hostility by charging the Grey Family with low birth -- "jacks" "wrens" Charges them with belatedness due to their prior alliance with the Lancastrian line Elizabeth -- heir of York by marriage Rivers -- Lancastrian on the Grey side   Richard's voracity Act 3 of 3 Henry VI -- Richard's first great soliloquy 3.2.124- (pg. 728) Set-up: Edward has made his play for Lady Grey despite flying in the face of all that was politically shrewd and cautious Henry VI is still alive, as is Henry's son; throne is still being contested Edward is not even secure on the throne Bemoaning all the people in his way to his kingdom, and all those they might sire "I'll cut the causes off" Arguing his hope and consolidating his determination "Love foreswore me in my mother's womb" Logic of generation as an impression of the parent as in wax A lust for revenge on humanity to make all suffer what he has suffered "home" = identity "I can add colors to the chameleon" He can camouflage himself to any situation better even than the chameleon Constancy in a world that subjects a world of people to such a dizzying sequence of events Margaret: A chorus; a choral commentary A great wielder of power in the Henry VI plays because her husband was weak Her suffering represents a collective conscious The bad conscience of civil war Her suffering has not erased her sins, but she has seen both sides of slaughter: triumph and defeat No one pays attention to her; like a ghost; a leftover Reality: fled to France to be a deeply undesirable pensioner of the King of France's court Richard divides his enemies so that they get rid of one another for him 1.3.- Richard argues his own virtue while continuing to incriminate the Grey family of the danger of Clarence   I played a key role in making him what he is and in making you what you are; you have no legitimate claim to be what you are   Who's in, who's out, what I'm going to do; what that makes me = identity   Clarence was not originally on the side of his brother Edward He promised his father-in-law, Warwick, to fight on the other side When he converted to Edward's cause, he broke faith with his father-in-law in order to keep faith to a brother Civil War of a kind; an elaborate history of treachery   Busy = machination Our sovereign king: Henry VI Medieval Doctrine of divine right The King's Two Bodies -- Ernst Katorowicz The King was anointed by God as God's chosen Therefore, the King embodied the nation God's will The nation Body Natural: human Body Mystical: impervious to sickness and immortal Related to the Body Politic A collective body: "the King is dead, long live the King" indicates no discontinuity; that power has been smoothly transferred into the heir and God's will is not disrupted Problematic theory when there are multiple contenders for the throne Problematic when the King is foolish Problematic when the King is too young to speak, e.g. Henry VI in his infancy   So long as the Divine Right King lives, he cannot be denointed; so because they follow the anointed King, they are not inconstant, even if the anointed King changes   Elizabeth marries Henry VII -- Tudor The Tudor Kings -- incredible constancy: Henry VII (1485-1503) Henry VIII (1503-1547) Edward (1547-1553) Bloody Mary (1553-1558) Elizabeth (1558-1603) 45 Glorious Years English was at peace 1588 -- Spanish Armada attacks but they were beaten No Civil War; Profound religious change instead -- incredible flip-flopping: 1533/4 - Oath of Supremacy; Separation from Rome Affected not only life on earth, but afterlife; ability to enter Heaven In 25 years, 4 different official religions (War of the Roses: 30 years): Roman Catholicism English Catholicism (Henry VIII)-- monasteries dissolved, transfer of property Protestantism (Edward) Roman Catholicism -- (Mary) begins burning protestants; counter-reformation Moderate protestant -- (Elizabeth) Anglican Settlement made no one happy Each religion was represented as the all-encompassing, only religion Stratified generations, separated families from Heaven       This is Lady Anne's alternative to Richard III   Richard III: Captstone to a tetrology History: (1455-85) Wars of the Roses 30 years of civil war Immediately preceded by 2 years of peace after the 100 Years War (1337-1453) England v. France Separation of England and France was costly in terms of human life and wealth No standing army; the soldiers were impressed into service; usually abandoned; not properly clothed or fed; lived on plunder of the land they occupied; no pensions, no benefits; often maimed and wounded; became beggars upon the parishes These grim results were due to fighting royal families Civil War Dynastic wars Who was going to rule England Who had the best claim to the crown What it was that England comprised Norman Conquest (1066) Since this time, France and England had been one; all nobility had estates on both sides of the English channel "I scarcely know myself" Reflect the identity struggle of England in this time period     A moment of immense danger