Richard III

and

arrogant sinners there yet come moments when they sink down feel a deep horror of themselves despond and despair and it may perhaps be said that in hell there occurs a constant alternation an incessant change of despair now into defiance now into despondency in single instances both together compare jeremiah seventeen verse nine the desponding hopelessness in which the sinner loses courage becomes cowardly and breaks down must not as one is often inclined to do be confounded with repentance or godly sorrow second corinthians seven verse ten not with a feeling of repentance which ever includes a hope however anxious and a longing but in boundless despair in horror of himself judas declares i have betrayed innocent blood and cast from him the thirty pieces of silver that it is no godly sorrow is clearly proved by his suicide that follows and to take an example from another sphere not in repentance but in despair king richard the third speaks while his fate is overtaking him and after he had dreamed his darker dreams of conscience which have made his heart despondent my conscience hath a thousand several tongues and every tongue brings in a several tale and every tale condemns me for a villain perjury perjury in the highest degree murder stern murder in the durst degree all several sins all used in each degree throng to the bar crying all guilty guilty i shall despair there is no creature loves me and if i die no soul shall pity me Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself find in myself no pity to myself? Shakespeare's Richard III, Act 5, Scene 3 Such sinners cannot believe in the article of forgiveness of sins.

We see, too, how, soon after his outburst of his despondency and despair, he calls himself again to defiance.

let not our babbling dreams affright our souls conscience is but a word that cowards use devised at first to keep the strong in awe and in the last words that we hear from him on the battle-ground ere he vanishes from our eyes a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse we hear both the terrific anguish of despair, the terror of death in more than a mere bodily sense, and also the demoniacally raving defiance that will not give up its cause.

... everything he wants, and it's a c- it's wonderful.

But in terms of like Shakespeare's great villains, you've got Iago, you've got Richard III-

Mm-hmm

... you've got, I think Edmund is also a fantastic-

There it was found by Lord Stanley, who set it upon Henry Tudor's head, and on the battlefield with the dead and dying round, the soldiers shouted "King Henry! King Henry! Long live King Henry!" The place is still called Crown Hill to this day.

Richard the Third had reigned two years, two months, and one day.

"And it was twenty-six months and twenty-four hours too long," said a man who lived about that time and who tells his story.

End of chapter fifty-nine.

For more than three hundred years the kings of England had been Plantagenets.

Henry the Second was the first of the Plantagenets, and he took his name from Geoffrey of Anjou, who used to wear a piece of Plantagenista in his cap.

With Richard the Third, the last of the Plantagenets died.

For Henry the Seventh, though a Plantagenet on his mother's side, was a Tudor on his father's side, and it was from his family that Henry took his name.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Pamela Nagami.

Chapter two, Richard II, part one, The French War, Wycliffe, and John of Gaunt.

It was just twelve months after the death of the Black Prince that his father, King Edward III, died at Sheen, June 21, 1377.

According to what had been determined in Parliament, Richard was immediately recognized as king.

He declared that every community had a right to protect itself, that it might detain its treasure for that purpose whenever necessity required, moreover that on gospel principles the Pope had no right to anything at all except in the way of alms and free-will offerings of the faithful.

Unselfish as his aim undoubtedly was, it was only natural that doctrines such as these should have recommended Wycliffe to the favour of the great.

Even in the days of Edward III he was a royal chaplain, and in the very first year of Richard II his advice was asked by the king's council upon the question just referred to.

On the other hand he was naturally looked upon by churchmen as a traitor to the principles and constitution of the Church, nor could he hope to escape their vengeance except by the protection of a powerful layman.

A confession, a shared aesthetic with the audience.

I mean, as with the nameless Richard III, as with Tamburlaine.

As with Faustus, the character is communicating to the audience their ambitions, setting out their thought.

This is what I'm going to do.

I remember at one point the play was Midsummer Night's Dream, because I'm a Shakespeare nut.

Then it was Richard III, because that's my

Shakespeare play.

Okay, you tried them all.

I saw Ostermeyer

do Richard III over at the King's Hall, I think it was.

Right.

I thought it was one of the greatest things I'd ever seen in my life.

Because

how do

you start Richard III? The most well-known opening line.

right and what they did was they just had this incredible um they had this kind of over title

And you did a number of productions with them.

Yeah, I did, so they did, I understudied Richard III.

Yeah.

Elizabeth and Richard III, and then I did A Christmas Carol, which is a story that I [laughs] I adore, quite frankly.

Um, I've done a, a number of productions of that and, um, yeah, and so I got to do A Christmas Carol, and then I did-

I, I was looking at a photograph from that production today.