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7 - Historical legacy and fiction: The poetical reinvention of King Richard III

from PART 2 - THE PLAYS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
Marie-Héléne Besnault  and
Michel Bitot
Edited by
Michael Hattaway
Michael Hattaway
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Summary

In performance, Richard of Gloucester emerges as the complete figure of the 'chameleon' prince previously featured in 3 Henry VI (3.2.191). This essay will argue that Shakespeare poetically reworked his sources to develop further the figure of Richard III as a degenerate monster. Richard's self-proclaimed deformity, a sign both of unnaturalness and enormity, is established at the very beginning of the play when Shakespeare's brilliant strategic placing of Richard's body and large histrionic presence emerges from its famous opening speech:

I that am rudely stamped and want love’s majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph,

I that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deformed, unfinished, 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.

(1.1.16–27)

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays , pp. 106 - 125
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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