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Richard III (view source)

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''Made glorious summer by this son of York.'' }}
 
[[In Which a Trope Is Described|In Which]] [[RichardofRichard of Gloucester|Richard, Duke of Gloucester]], decides to become king by Being Extremely Evil. It works pretty well until it doesn't.
 
With the possible exception of ''[[The Taming of the Shrew (Theatre)|The Taming of the Shrew]]'', this is the earliest-written of [[William Shakespeare (Creator)|William Shakespeare]]'s plays to still be commonly performed today.
 
The play opens as Edward IV lies dying. Hoping to prevent the generation of dynastic warfare that ended with his (second) ascension to the throne from starting up again, Edward calls together all of England's powerful factions and makes them shake hands and promise to be nice to each other and his young son once he croaks.
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Once Richard murders his wife so that he might marry his niece, the remaining non-villainous members of the cast finally DO manage to notice the pattern and band together under some guy who hasn't even appeared in the play yet, and, with a night before assist from the ghosts of everyone Richard has had killed, successfully kill Richard in battle and install Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, on the throne. The play is decidedly slanted against Richard -- for one thing, though it seems he did have some kind of noticeable deformity, it was certainly minor and in no way disabling, and for another, so far as we know the real Richard didn't run around delivering cool monologues about what a [[Magnificent Bastard]] he was. The play is even more slanted ''for'' Henry Tudor -- that is, what little we actually see of him, since he only turns up in the final act.
 
Trivial note: For all of the eighteenth and much of the nineteenth century, any ''Richard III'' performed on stage was not Shakespeare's, but a reworking penned by [[Colley Cibber (Creator)|Colley Cibber]], which included only about 800 of the original's 3600 lines, excised several characters (including Clarence and Queen Margaret), and added a large amount of new material.
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This page is exclusively concerned with the play by Shakespeare. For the historical Richard III, please see [[RichardofRichard of Gloucester]].
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=== Tropes in ''Richard III'' include: ===
 
* [[And Your Little Dog, Too]]: The final straw leading to open rebellion is when Richard tries to forcibly marry his niece.
* [[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 AdderBlackadder]]'' 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.
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: "Off with his head! So much for Buckingham." For many years one of Richard's most iconic lines -- but not part of Shakespeare's play. It was added in 1700 by leading-man [[Small Name, Big Ego|Colley Cibber]].
* [[Big Bad]]: Richard
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* [[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!"
* [[Kavorka Man]]: Despite Richard being deformed and a [[Card-Carrying Villain]], he still manages to woo Anne... over the corpse of her first husband's father, King Henry VI, whom Richard had killed prior to the events in the play.
* [[King Onon 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.
* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Richard.
* [[Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal]]: Buckingham helps Richard to the throne; in return, Richard promises him an extra title of nobility. When Richard refuses to grant it to him, he soliloquizes, "Made I him king for this?" and runs off to join the nascent rebellion.
* [[A Nazi Byby Any Other Name]] / [[Putting Onon the Reich]]: Both extensively used in the 1995 Richard Loncraine film version starring Ian McKellen
** Richard's coronation scene was straight out of ''Triumph of the Will''
** In this version, Edward IV is heavily implied to be [[The House of Windsor|Edward VIII]], while his wife Elizabeth and the rest of the Woodvilles are played by Americans, suggesting Wallis Simpson. The Earl of Richmond and Princess Elizabeth rather resemble Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
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* [[Red Right Hand]]: The Richard character being a hunchback (which, incidentally, his historical counterpart was not).
* [[Regent for Life]]: Richard
* [[Remember the New Guy?]]: Practically two thirds into the story, Richmond suddenly shows up and he and his wife are treated as if they have been in the story the whole time, and need no introduction or explanation. (Because, to an Elizabethan audience, they wouldn't have; he's Queen Elizabeth's grandfather.)
* [[Rightful King Returns]]: Richmond
* [[Smug Snake]]: Hastings does little to hide his hate of the house of Lancaster, only pretends to be friendly with them in front of Edward IV, celebrates the fact that Rivers, Dorset and Vaughan are going to be executed by Richard and refuses to listen to Stanley about his visions of Richard decapitating him, saying that Richard and Duke Buckingham would never turn against him. Unfortunately for him, he makes the mistake of refusing to support Richard's claim to the throne and only realizes it when it's far too late.
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* [[Those Two Bad Guys]]: The two killers sent to off Clarence are a proto-example of this.
* [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]: The Little Princes
* [[Unaccustomed Asas I Am to Public Speaking]]: Richard's claim that people hate him because he's plain-spoken and incapable of flattery.
* [[Villainous Valor]]: Richard at the end of the play.
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Richard
* [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]]: Richard again.
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Richard has one in the final act when confronted by the ghosts of his victims.
* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: The opening lines are a pun on "Sun of York" (the commonly used symbol of the Yorkists, more so than the White Rose) and Richard describing himself as a "son of York".
** I think he's referring to his brother King Edward when he talks about the "son of York".
* [[Written Byby the Winners]]: Not the play, but it's pretty obvious what Shakespeare was drawing on.
* [[The Wrongful Heir to Thethe Throne]]: Richard tries to convince everyone of this, claiming that his nephew is unfit to rule, and that he's only taking the throne for the good of the kingdom.
 
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