Richard III: Difference between revisions

They all do, and everyone lives happily ever after.

 

 

With the aid of the Duke of Buckingham, and to the great delight of Lord Hastings and the rest of nobility, upon Edward IV's death his younger brother, Richard, after taking a brief detour to successfully woo the widow of a man he killed, quickly has several of the Queen's relatives arrested and executed and sends the young princes off to the Tower of London.

=== Tropes in ''Richard III'' include: ===

 

* [[Age Lift]]: In various productions, he's been played by 47-year-old [[Basil Rathbone]], 48-year-old [[Laurence Olivier]], 51-year-old [[Vincent Price]], 46-year-old [[Peter Cook]]<ref>(it's ''[[Black Adder]]'' but it still counts)</ref>, 56-year-old [[Ian McKellen]], and also 56-year-old [[Al Pacino]]. It should be noted that Richard was only ''33'' when he died at the battle of Bosworth Field, and only five years older than his usurper, [[Henry VII]], who, unlike Richard, is usually played by a reasonably young actor. Then again, Shakespeare's Richard starts appearing in the ''[[Henry VI]]'' plays, as an adult, at a time when the historical Richard would have been a toddler, so playing him as older even in his own play makes a certain amount of sense.

* [[Big Bad]]: Richard

* [[Bury Your Disabled]]: Type 2, but of course Richard III is hardly helpless.

* [[The Caligula]]: Once Richard kills the princes, he really starts to become one of these.

** C.S. Lewis wrote in an essay on the English language that that was actually [[Have a Gay Old Time|a mistake in usage]]. Villain at the time meant "commoner"; and by pejorative extension "ruffian" (kind of like the word "redneck" in America). So it could be interpreted as, "If everyone thinks I'm just a common thug, by golly I'll show them how [[Badass|scary a thug ]] I can be". Interpret that thought [[Your Mileage May Vary|how you will]].

* [[Cassandra Truth]]:

* [[Irrevocable Message]]: Edward's execution order for Clarence, sort of...

* [[Karmic Death]]: Richard, who after spending the entire play scheming to gain the crown ends the play (and his life) with the line "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"

* [[King On His Deathbed]]: Edward IV's illness creates this situation at the beginning of the play, since Edward's son is too young to be an effective ruler, and Richard not-yet-III devotes a great deal of his energy to knocking off everyone who'd be a more respectable regent than himself.

* [[The Late Middle Ages]]: Set in this period, and helping to establish its bad reputation.