1. The Tragedy of Richard III (BBC, The Complete Shakespeare, 1983)
This is just the best Richard. The story is told clearly...
Showing posts with label Richard III. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard III. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Richard III - Movies
Catching up from our play from a few weeks ago, it's time for a run-down of Richard III movies! Richard seems to be a fairly popular subject for the screen, so I'll be breaking my reviews up into a few different categories, starting with fairly standard adaptations of the play. I'll begin with my favorite:
1. The Tragedy of Richard III (BBC, The Complete Shakespeare, 1983)
This is just the best Richard. The story is told clearly...
1. The Tragedy of Richard III (BBC, The Complete Shakespeare, 1983)
This is just the best Richard. The story is told clearly...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Richard III - Home
Richard. And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I,—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,—
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile...
(Henry VI part 3, 3.2.1661-1671)
Although this speech is from Henry VI part 3 rather than Richard III, I wanted to highlight it as it reveals so much of Richard's character. In this portion, Richard starts off with a proposition that we, as the audience, find appalling - he wants to usurp the throne away from his own brothers. Yet, being Richard the silver-tongued orator, he soon refers to his desires in such a way that we cannot help but sympathize with him: he's lost, he yearns for the crown as his "home" - a powerful, emotional word. The passage where he speaks of being lost in a thorny wood creates such a strong image of claustrophobia and desperation, showing us that he is barely in control - a far cry from the confident manner that Richard puts on before his brothers and the court. Of course, finally, being Richard, he turns his thoughts in a way that horrifies and fascinates us - I will...hew my way out with a bloody axe. He's drawn us in by sharing the desperation of his heart - now he pushes us away. It's an extraordinary speech!
To read the whole soliloquy, click here and scroll down to line 1615. Emma posted a video of John Barrymore delivering portions of this speech, and for a performance in contrast to that, check out this video of Ron Cook as Richard in the BBC Shakespeare Henry VI part 3. The lines I quote here start at 3.05, but watch the whole speech!
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I,—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,—
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile...
(Henry VI part 3, 3.2.1661-1671)
Although this speech is from Henry VI part 3 rather than Richard III, I wanted to highlight it as it reveals so much of Richard's character. In this portion, Richard starts off with a proposition that we, as the audience, find appalling - he wants to usurp the throne away from his own brothers. Yet, being Richard the silver-tongued orator, he soon refers to his desires in such a way that we cannot help but sympathize with him: he's lost, he yearns for the crown as his "home" - a powerful, emotional word. The passage where he speaks of being lost in a thorny wood creates such a strong image of claustrophobia and desperation, showing us that he is barely in control - a far cry from the confident manner that Richard puts on before his brothers and the court. Of course, finally, being Richard, he turns his thoughts in a way that horrifies and fascinates us - I will...hew my way out with a bloody axe. He's drawn us in by sharing the desperation of his heart - now he pushes us away. It's an extraordinary speech!
To read the whole soliloquy, click here and scroll down to line 1615. Emma posted a video of John Barrymore delivering portions of this speech, and for a performance in contrast to that, check out this video of Ron Cook as Richard in the BBC Shakespeare Henry VI part 3. The lines I quote here start at 3.05, but watch the whole speech!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Richard III in Art
I think the reason that Richard III has inspired so many drawings and paintings is that the play is *so* dramatic. Dramatic even for Shakespeare, which is saying something, right? I wanted to post a few visual art pieces about Richard that I thought were particularly interesting (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons). Feel free to click to see larger versions.
The Guardian ran an article about this first painting a few years ago: "[The actor] David Garrick transfixed London in 1741 when he played Shakespeare's Richard III as a human being instead of a stagy monster. No one had seen acting like it..." Look at that extended hand - there's some commitment in movement! I think we can assume this is the scene in Act 5, Scene 5 when Richard dreams about being visited by the ghosts of all of his victims.
David Garrick as Richard III, by William Hogarth, approx. 1745
"Is there a murderer here?"
The Guardian ran an article about this first painting a few years ago: "[The actor] David Garrick transfixed London in 1741 when he played Shakespeare's Richard III as a human being instead of a stagy monster. No one had seen acting like it..." Look at that extended hand - there's some commitment in movement! I think we can assume this is the scene in Act 5, Scene 5 when Richard dreams about being visited by the ghosts of all of his victims.
David Garrick as Richard III, by William Hogarth, approx. 1745 "Is there a murderer here?"
This next is a depiction of the same scene, but by William Blake. Since it's Blake, we get all the ghosts...
Richard III Society
Tonight I was surprised to find something called The Richard III Society on the internet. It is not an international confederacy of assassination-minded dictators, nor a bad historical romance novel (either of which could be a menace to society). Rather, it is a club with the following mission:
website is here.
I find it somewhat touching that Richard has his partisans, after all this time. There seem to be plenty of them - their membership numbers are rather astonishing in fact, especially given that it'll cost you 26 quid to join up. And the most notable member would have to be their patron, the current Duke of Gloucester, whose name is actually Richard (!).
But what of the wicked Richard of Shakespeare, the "the troubler of the poore Worlds peace"? "Tudor propaganda," says the Richard III Society. Do we agree? Was the historical Richard innocent? C-Span may have the answer...
In the belief that many features of the traditional accounts of the character and career of Richard III are neither supported by sufficient evidence nor reasonably tenable, the Society aims to promote, in every possible way, research into the life and times of Richard III, and to secure a reassessment of the material relating to this period, and of the role of this monarch in English history...A whole society dedicated to vindicating and defending King Richard! Interesting, hm? Their
Richard’s infamy over the centuries has been due to the continuing popularity, and the belief in, the picture painted of Richard III by William Shakespeare in his play of that name. The validity of this representation of Richard has been queried over the centuries and has now been taken up by the Society.
The Society has over 3,500 members worldwide. It operates on many levels and is open to laymen and historians alike...
website is here.I find it somewhat touching that Richard has his partisans, after all this time. There seem to be plenty of them - their membership numbers are rather astonishing in fact, especially given that it'll cost you 26 quid to join up. And the most notable member would have to be their patron, the current Duke of Gloucester, whose name is actually Richard (!).
But what of the wicked Richard of Shakespeare, the "the troubler of the poore Worlds peace"? "Tudor propaganda," says the Richard III Society. Do we agree? Was the historical Richard innocent? C-Span may have the answer...
Friday, February 25, 2011
Richard III - Busy Bee
Richard. God take King Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to bustle in!
(Richard III, 1.1.159-160)
No one could ever accuse Richard III of being anything less than tremendously energetic. I love this line, as the picture that it paints of Richard bustling about everywhere highlights his busy, restless nature. "Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous" (1.1.33) - Richard just can't keep still.
This week, watching Al Pacino's documentary about the character, Looking for Richard (a kind of strange but interesting little film, but I digress), I particulary noted a point made by one of the scholars interviewed - that Richard had previously lived in a world of incessant war (as is so tragically shown in the three Henry VI plays), and now that the peace has come, he simply doesn't know what to do with himself.
I think this insight into Richard's character is totally right. A few weeks ago, when we were reading and watching Henry VI Part 3, I was struck by how effective Richard is as a warrior - he's charismatic, brave, inspiring, a tremendous orator, and fully committed to his father's cause. War seems to be an arena where he can excel, despite his self-conciousness about his disability.
But, when the peace comes, what will Richard do with all the ambition and energy that had been channelled into war?
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
(1.1.6-9)
Richard hates it all! He feels cut off from everything, no longer useful or important. So of course he turns to what he'd been trained up to, what he'd seen his father do his whole life: plotting to win what had always been seen as the greatest prize for the Yorks - the crown. And of course, just like what happened with his father, there's a lot of family blood shed in the process. Richard's mother touches on all of this - the father's example, the impossibility of lasting peace, the tragedy of brother against brother - in a speech where she laments her griefs and losses:
Duchess of York. Accursed and unquiet wrangling days,
How many of you have mine eyes beheld!
My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were toss'd,
For me to joy and weep their gain and loss:
And being seated, and domestic broils
Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerors.
Make war upon themselves; blood against blood,
Self against self...
(2.4.1543-1551)
Richard doesn't let the cease of "domestic broils" or the ties of family stop him. He bustles.
And leave the world for me to bustle in!
(Richard III, 1.1.159-160)
No one could ever accuse Richard III of being anything less than tremendously energetic. I love this line, as the picture that it paints of Richard bustling about everywhere highlights his busy, restless nature. "Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous" (1.1.33) - Richard just can't keep still.
This week, watching Al Pacino's documentary about the character, Looking for Richard (a kind of strange but interesting little film, but I digress), I particulary noted a point made by one of the scholars interviewed - that Richard had previously lived in a world of incessant war (as is so tragically shown in the three Henry VI plays), and now that the peace has come, he simply doesn't know what to do with himself.
I think this insight into Richard's character is totally right. A few weeks ago, when we were reading and watching Henry VI Part 3, I was struck by how effective Richard is as a warrior - he's charismatic, brave, inspiring, a tremendous orator, and fully committed to his father's cause. War seems to be an arena where he can excel, despite his self-conciousness about his disability.
But, when the peace comes, what will Richard do with all the ambition and energy that had been channelled into war?
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
(1.1.6-9)
Richard hates it all! He feels cut off from everything, no longer useful or important. So of course he turns to what he'd been trained up to, what he'd seen his father do his whole life: plotting to win what had always been seen as the greatest prize for the Yorks - the crown. And of course, just like what happened with his father, there's a lot of family blood shed in the process. Richard's mother touches on all of this - the father's example, the impossibility of lasting peace, the tragedy of brother against brother - in a speech where she laments her griefs and losses:
Duchess of York. Accursed and unquiet wrangling days,
How many of you have mine eyes beheld!
My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were toss'd,
For me to joy and weep their gain and loss:
And being seated, and domestic broils
Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerors.
Make war upon themselves; blood against blood,
Self against self...
(2.4.1543-1551)
Richard doesn't let the cease of "domestic broils" or the ties of family stop him. He bustles.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Richard III - Disability
Queen Margaret. And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy,
Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?
(Henry VI part 3, 1.4.514-516)
An integral part of Richard III's identity is his physical deformity. A hunchback, he is not only mocked about his physical appearance by people who barely know him (like Queen Margaret quoted above, who focuses on Richard's disability when talking to his father the Duke of York), but he himself is acutely, painfully self-aware of his appearance and physical challenges:
[Love] did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.
(Henry VI part 3, 3.2.1644-1651)
Looking at Richard's disability and how it shapes his character, as well as the audience's perception of him, could be an almost never-ending study. However, just one aspect of the deformity that I want to look at is the perception articulated by Queen Margaret in the quotation above - that the disability marks him as a "prodigy," meaning that his exterior appearance serves a sort of sign or portent for the state of his character. Richard's crooked outside, as it is read by his enemies, indicates a crooked soul!
Of course, Richard embraces wickedness and, fulfilling the beliefs of those who hold that the outside matches the inside, does mangle his soul and distort his concience. Could it be that Richard was really born with a worse character than anyone else? His mother does mention that he was always bad:
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious,
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous,
Thy age confirm'd, proud, subdued, bloody, treacherous...
(Richard III, 4.4.2967-2970)
However, I think it's supported by the text to read Richard's disability not as shaping him in some sort of mystical way, but rather as affecting him by setting him apart from others. Richard is constantly faced with comments and unkind words about his appearance, and based on this he allows his deformity to isolate him; he cuts himself off from certain activities and feels bitterness over the fact that he is left out.
A perfect example is his attitude towards love and women (Richard's relationship with women is a HUGE topic, which deserves a post all its own!). However, for the quick version, it's clear that he feels that his appearance is such that no woman would really want to be with him. Sad, right? This is one of the many times that we can empathize with Richard and hope that he could somehow learn to see himself in a more healthy way. BUT NO - Richard takes his unfortunate situation and makes it WORSE by taking his status as an outsider and expanding it into hatred for anyone who has anything and everything that he feels himself cut off from:
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
(1.1.19-32, emphasis added)
Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?
(Henry VI part 3, 1.4.514-516)
An integral part of Richard III's identity is his physical deformity. A hunchback, he is not only mocked about his physical appearance by people who barely know him (like Queen Margaret quoted above, who focuses on Richard's disability when talking to his father the Duke of York), but he himself is acutely, painfully self-aware of his appearance and physical challenges:
[Love] did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part,
Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.
(Henry VI part 3, 3.2.1644-1651)
Looking at Richard's disability and how it shapes his character, as well as the audience's perception of him, could be an almost never-ending study. However, just one aspect of the deformity that I want to look at is the perception articulated by Queen Margaret in the quotation above - that the disability marks him as a "prodigy," meaning that his exterior appearance serves a sort of sign or portent for the state of his character. Richard's crooked outside, as it is read by his enemies, indicates a crooked soul!
Of course, Richard embraces wickedness and, fulfilling the beliefs of those who hold that the outside matches the inside, does mangle his soul and distort his concience. Could it be that Richard was really born with a worse character than anyone else? His mother does mention that he was always bad:
Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious,
Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous,
Thy age confirm'd, proud, subdued, bloody, treacherous...
(Richard III, 4.4.2967-2970)
However, I think it's supported by the text to read Richard's disability not as shaping him in some sort of mystical way, but rather as affecting him by setting him apart from others. Richard is constantly faced with comments and unkind words about his appearance, and based on this he allows his deformity to isolate him; he cuts himself off from certain activities and feels bitterness over the fact that he is left out.
A perfect example is his attitude towards love and women (Richard's relationship with women is a HUGE topic, which deserves a post all its own!). However, for the quick version, it's clear that he feels that his appearance is such that no woman would really want to be with him. Sad, right? This is one of the many times that we can empathize with Richard and hope that he could somehow learn to see himself in a more healthy way. BUT NO - Richard takes his unfortunate situation and makes it WORSE by taking his status as an outsider and expanding it into hatred for anyone who has anything and everything that he feels himself cut off from:
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
(1.1.19-32, emphasis added)
Richard III is the Worst. John Barrymore is the Best.
If Shakespeare hasn't already convinced you that Richard is bad, bad, bad, perhaps the great actor John Barrymore can. This speech, filmed in 1929, is technically from Henry VI, part 3, but parts of it are sometimes included in Richard III performances (notably Laurence Olivier's). Check this out...
Ooooooh, scary! I'm glad I'm not related to *him*!
To appreciate how amazing-kamazing Barrymore was, compare the video above (of him being Richard) with the video below (of him being John Barrymore, on a well-behaved day). This is his introduction to the Richard soliloquy. Does he even seem like the same person?
There are a lot of Richard videos out there. But Barrymore sets the curve.
Ooooooh, scary! I'm glad I'm not related to *him*!
To appreciate how amazing-kamazing Barrymore was, compare the video above (of him being Richard) with the video below (of him being John Barrymore, on a well-behaved day). This is his introduction to the Richard soliloquy. Does he even seem like the same person?
There are a lot of Richard videos out there. But Barrymore sets the curve.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Richard III - A Villain
Richard III. As Shakespeare paints him, he is a thoroughly bad lot. The title of the first version of the play to be published, the quarto of 1597, makes that very clear, as it details his bad deeds throughout the course of the play:
THE TRAGEDY OF
King Richard the third.
Containing,
His treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittiefull murther of his iunocent nephewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation: with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death.
(Richard III)
I love that line - "his detested life." So, Richard is a murderer, a schemer, and unnaturally pitiless. Why do we care about him? Why do we listen to his many soliloquies, speeches delivered to no one but us, the audience? Why is Richard so fascinating?
Perhaps it's because, as a villain, he's fully aware and deliberate about it. No sooner have we met him again in the first speech of Richard III (he, of course, is our old acquaintance from Henry VI part 3), than he flat-out tells us of all his wicked plans: "I am determined to prove a villain" (1.1.30). I think it's this self-awareness about Richard that makes us watch him. He's decided his course, but he includes us in everything; he tells us his secrets, his jokes and his fears. He's laid the plots, but since he's told us about them, we are - perhaps unwillingly - complicit in the crimes and along for the ride.
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