From Richard III - anthology.

From Richard III - anthology. English dramatist William Shakespeare portrayed Richard III, king of England from 1483 to 1485, as bitter, deformed, and conniving. Scholars generally agree that Shakespeare villainized Richard to some degree for the enjoyment of Shakespeare's Tudor audience: Richard III was the last king of the house of York before the accession of the powerful and prosperous Tudor dynasty. In the famous opening lines of Shakespeare's Richard III (1592-1593?), Richard, then duke of Gloucester, sarcastically describes the quiet reign of his eldest brother, Edward IV of the house of York, and plots to defame his brother George, duke of Clarence, who is ahead of Richard in the line of succession. From Richard III By William Shakespeare I.I Enter RICHARD Duke of GLOUCESTER RICHARD GLOUCESTER: Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York; And all the clouds that loured upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our bruisèd arms hung up for monuments, Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front, And now--instead of mounting barbèd steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries-- He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass, 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. And therefore since I cannot prove a lover To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determinèd to prove a villain And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams To set my brother Clarence and the King In deadly hate the one against the other. And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle false and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mewed up About a prophecy which says that 'G' Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. Source: The Complete Oxford Shakespeare. Wells, Stanley, Gary Taylor, John Jowett, and William Montgomery, eds. © 1994. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.