Following my
summaries of Act I and II, this is the seven scenes of Shakespeare’s Richard
III of Act III.
Act III
Scene I
Prince
Edward was disappointed for not finding his mother and brother welcoming him.
Buckingham persuaded Cardinal to pick up Duke of York from the sanctuary, and
the two brothers reunited. Richard insisted they both stayed up in the Tower.
Meanwhile, Buckingham and Richard gathered allies to realize their plan; they
would hold two councils the next day at the Tower. They sent Catesby to
approach Hastings.
Prince Edward and Duke of York in the Tower |
Scene II
Lord Derby
was scared and sent messenger to Hastings, but Hastings was sure that there’s
no danger as Catesby was a double agent for their advantage. Hastings rejected
to join Richard, and he heard that Queen’s relatives were going to be headed.
Scene III
Lord Rivers,
Grey and Vaughan were executed by Ratcliff at Pomfret.
Scene IV
In the
council, Richard trapped Hastings by showing that he has been bewitched by
Queen and Mistress Shore (which has been Hastings’ after King’s death).
Hastings who naturally defended his mistress, was called traitor by Richard and
was finally sent for death.
Scene V
Richard sent
for Lord Mayor, accused Hastings for being traitor in front of him, and asked
for his protection from citizens’ complaint. Richard then sent Buckingham to
spread a good fake story about Prince Edward being a bastard son and lustful
man to London citizens. Richard also sent for a priest and a learned bishop,
then wrote order to forbid anyone seeing Prince Edward and Clarence’s children.
Scene VI
A scrivener
(=professional copier) stated openly that he had an official indictment of Lord
Hastings that he would read aloud in public outside St. Paul Cathedral.
Scene VII
Buckingham
had spread the story of how bad Edward was and how fit Richard was to be King
of England. When Lord Major and citizens came to propose Richard to be King, he
pretended to accept it difficultly through such a ‘show’! At the end, it was
the citizens who forced Richard to be King, not the other way round. What a
clever and sleek game!
~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think?