Richard III by William Shakespeare (Illustrated)

By William Shakespeare

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘RichardIII’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Shakespeare includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘RichardIII’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Shakespeare’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786562722

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 (baptised) - April 23, 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the Bard of Avon. His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Book preview

The Complete Works of

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

VOLUME 4 OF 74

Richard  III

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2012

Version 6

COPYRIGHT

‘Richard  III’

William Shakespeare: Parts Edition (in 74 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 272 2

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

William Shakespeare: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 4 of the Delphi Classics edition of William Shakespeare in 74 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Richard  III from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of William Shakespeare, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of William Shakespeare or the Complete Works of William Shakespeare in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

IN 74 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Plays

1, Henry  VI, Part 2

2, Henry  VI, Part 3

3, Henry  VI, Part 1

4, Richard  III

5, The Comedy of Errors

6, Titus Andronicus

7, Taming of the Shrew

8, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

9, Love’s Labour’s Lost

10, Romeo and Juliet

11, Richard II

12, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

13, King John

14, The Merchant of Venice

15, Henry IV, Part I

16, Henry IV, Part II

17, Much Ado About Nothing

18, Henry V

19, Julius Caesar

20, As You Like It

21, Twelfth Night

22, Hamlet

23, The Merry Wives of Windsor

24, Troilus and Cressida

25, All’s Well that Ends Well

26, Measure for Measure

27, Othello

28, King Lear

29, Macbeth

30, Antony and Cleopatra

31, Coriolanus

32, Timon of Athens

33, Pericles

34, Cymbeline

35, The Winter’s Tale

36, The Tempest

37, Henry  VIII

38, The Two Noble Kinsmen

The Lost Plays

39, The Lost Plays

The Sources

40, The Plays’ Sources

The Apocryphal Plays

41, Arden of Faversham

42, The Birth of Merlin

43, King Edward  III

44, Locrine

45, The London Prodigal

46, The Puritan

47, The Second Maiden’s Tragedy

48, Sir John Oldcastle

49, Thomas Lord Cromwell

50, A Yorkshire Tragedy

51, Sir Thomas More

52, Fair Em

53, Mucedorus

54, The Merry Devil of Edmonton

55, Edmund Ironside

56, Thomas of Woodstock

57, Vortigern and Rowena

The Adaptations

58, Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

The Poetry

59, The Sonnets

60, Venus and Adonis

61, The Rape of Lucrece

62, The Passionate Pilgrim

63, The Phoenix and the Turtle

64, A Lover’s Complaint

The Apocryphal Poetry

65, To the Queen

66, A Funeral Elegy for Master William Peter

67, Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music

The Criticism

68, The Criticism

The Biographies

69, Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear by Nicholas Rowe

70, Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters by Henry Norman Hudson

71, Life of William Shakespeare by Sir Sidney Lee

72, Shakespeare’s Lost Years in London by Arthur Acheson

73, The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote by Charles Dudley Warner

Resources

74, Resources

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Richard  III

This history play is believed to have been written in 1591 and depicts the Machiavellian rise to power of Richard III of England.  Richard III concludes Shakespeare’s first tetralogy and it is considered by many to be one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.  After Hamlet, it is the longest play in Shakespeare’s canon, being rarely performed unabridged, with minor characters often being removed entirely from the drama.

The play begins with Richard describing his brother King Edward IV’s accession to the throne and his own devious schemes to usurp it from him.  Shakespeare presents Richard III as a murderous and deformed hunchback, far exaggerating the real life person.  The main source of the play is Hall’s chronicle known as Union.

The front page of the first Quarto, 1597

The ‘infamous’ Richard III

CONTENTS

Dramatis Personæ

Act I. Scene I.

Act I. Scene II.

Act I. Scene III.

Act I. Scene IV.

Act II. Scene I.

Act II. Scene II.

Act II. Scene III.

Act II. Scene IV.

Act III. Scene I.

Act III. Scene II.

Act III. Scene III.

Act III. Scene IV.

Act III. Scene V.

Act III. Scene VI.

Act III. Scene VII.

Act IV. Scene I.

Act IV. Scene II.

Act IV. Scene III.

Act IV. Scene IV.

Act IV. Scene V.

Act V. Scene I.

Act V. Scene II.

Act V. Scene III.

Act V. Scene IV.

Laurence Olivier in the 1955 film adaptation

The 1995 film adaptation, with Sir Ian McKellen in the title role

Dramatis Personæ

KING EDWARD THE FOURTH.

EDWARD, Prince of Wales; afterwards King Edward the Fifth, & RICHARD, Duke of York: Sons to the King.

GEORGE, Duke of Clarence, & RICHARD, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard the Third: Brothers to the King.

A young Son of Clarence.

HENRY, Earl of Richmond; afterwards King Henry the Seventh.

CARDINAL BOURCHIER, Archbishop of Canterbury.

THOMAS ROTHERHAM, Archbishop of York.

JOHN MORTON, Bishop of Ely.

DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

DUKE OF NORFOLK.

EARL OF SURREY, his Son.

EARL RIVERS, Brother to King Edward’s Queen.

MARQUESS OF DORSET, and LORD GREY, her Sons.

EARL OF OXFORD.

LORD HASTINGS.

LORD STANLEY, called also EARL OF DERBY.

LORD LOVEL.

SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN.

SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF.

SIR WILLIAM CATESBY.

SIR JAMES TYRRELL.

SIR JAMES BLOUNT.

SIR WALTER HERBERT.

SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower.

SIR WILLIAM BRANDON.

CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a Priest.

Another Priest.

Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire.

TRESSEL and BERKELEY, Gentlemen attending on Lady Anne.

ELIZABETH, Queen of King Edward the Fourth.

MARGARET, Widow of King Henry the Sixth.

DUCHESS OF YORK, Mother to King Edward the Fourth, Clarence, and Gloucester.

LADY ANNE, Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, Son to King Henry the Sixth; afterwards married to the Duke of Gloucester.

LADY MARGARET PLANTAGENET, a young Daughter of Clarence.

Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts of those murdered by Richard the Third, Soldiers, &c.

SCENE. — England.

Act I. Scene I.

London.  A Street.

Enter GLOUCESTER.

Glo.  Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house   5

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

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.   10

Grim-visag’d war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front;

And now, — instead of mounting barbed steeds,

To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, —

He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber

To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.   15

But I, that am not shap’d for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;

I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;

I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,   20

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

Deform’d, 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;   25

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,

Have no delight to pass away the time,

Unless to see my shadow in the sun

And descant on mine own deformity:

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,   30

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain,

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,

By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,   35

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 mew’d up,   40

About a prophecy, which says, that G

Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes.

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.

Brother, good day: what means this armed guard   45

That waits upon your Grace?

Clar.        His majesty,

Tendering my person’s safety, hath appointed

This conduct to convey me to the Tower.

Glo.  Upon what cause?   50

Clar.        Because my name is George.

Glo.  Alack! my lord, that fault is none of yours;

He should, for that, commit your godfathers.

O! belike his majesty hath some intent

That you should be new-christen’d in the Tower.   55

But what’s the matter, Clarence? may I know?

Clar.  Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest

As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,

He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;

And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,   60

And says a wizard told him that by G

His issue disinherited should be;

And, for my name of George begins with G,

It follows in his thought that I am he.

These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,   65

Have mov’d his highness to commit me now.

Glo.  Why, this it is, when men are