Language
Shakespeare is renowned for the language he used and often invented new words. Explore the way he uses rhythm and rhyme, imagery and metaphor and puns and wordplay in Richard III.
Rhythm and rhyme
Shakespeare used rhythm and rhyme in his plays for many different purposes. A strong rhythm gives the language energy. Rhythm also makes the words easier for actors to memorise. Rhythm and rhyme is used to distinguish between certain types of characters. Changes in rhythm and rhyme highlight certain aspects of tone and mood.
Analysis of rhythm and rhyme in the play
Question
During the court scene, the nobles speak in a rhythm called iambic pentameter: there are ten syllables to each line and the rhythm itself is like a drumbeat (ti-dum, ti-dum, ti-dum, ti-dum, ti-dum) – what effect does this have on the audience?
Characters that are noble, well-educated and refined speak in iambic pentameter. The words and thoughts in this quotation could almost begin a poem. In this scene, all of the characters are on their best behaviour for King Edward. The sentiments sound noble, but it is up for debate as to whether any of the characters are being honest about their feelings and intentions, although it’s fair to assume that as always, Buckingham and Richard are dishonest!
For example, Rivers promises Hastings:
RIVERS
By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,
And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.
Act 2 Scene 1
Question
Richard III does not contain a great deal of rhyme. What effect does it have when Shakespeare does use it?
In Richard III, Shakespeare sometimes uses rhyme to indicate the end of a scene or the dramatic exit of a character. These strong lines are made all the more memorable and powerful through their rhythmic structure and the simple rhyme. They stand out within a scene that contains no other rhyme. The Duchess’s last words sound like a curse, echoing Margaret’s curses from earlier on in the play.
The Duchess’ last words to her son Richard are:
DUCHESS OF YORK
Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end;
Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend.
Act 4 Scene 4
Question
What effect does the repetition of 'who' in King Edward’s speech have on the audience?
The repetition emphasises Edward’s anger and grief. He feels guilty for his brother, Clarence’s death, but he turns it around on his court, who he thinks should have given him better advice. The repeated 'who' is accusatory. The rhythm created by this repetition evokes an angry energy.
When he learns of his brother’s death he says:
KING EDWARD IV
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
Act 1 Scene 1
Question
What effect does Shakespeare using repetitions and echoes have on the audience in Richard III?
The repetition of the lines work like a chorus. They do not sound like normal speech and are not supposed to. A wife, children and a mother are left to mourn and they all feel the same loss, illustrated by the echo of their similar cries.
Three generations mourn the loss of Edward and Clarence:
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Was never widow had so dear a loss.
CHILDREN
Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Was never mother had so dear a loss
Act 2 Scene 2
Listening task
In Act 4 Scene 4, Margaret’s lines contrast strongly with the Duchess of York (Richard’s mother) and Elizabeth’s grief on hearing the news of the little princes’ death. The repetitions within Margaret’s speech sound like a chant or a spell. It is almost as if she is in a trance. Her anger and need for revenge make her sound cold and oddly inhuman. It’s as if she is hypnotising the other two women. When the Duchess and Elizabeth speak again, their grief has turned to anger and a need for revenge. They begin to sound like Margaret.
Richard III language - rhythm and rhyme
QUEEN MARGARET
Tell all your woes again by viewing mine.
I had an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
I had a husband, till a Richard killed him.
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard killed him;
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.
QUEEN MARGARET
Thou hadst a Clarence, too,
And Richard killed him.
Question
Who is guilty of most of the murders?
Richard.
Question
According to the Duchess, who is just as guilty?
Queen Margaret murdered her husband (who was also called Richard) and was an accessory to the murder of her little boy, Rutland.
Imagery and metaphor
A comparison made without using 'like' or 'as', eg 'sea of troubles' and 'drowning in debt'. are detailed comparisons that make writing and speech come alive in our imaginations. On Shakespeare’s stage there were no special effects, the stage was pretty bare except for actors, and the props were few and far between. So the writing had to paint exciting scenes in the audience’s minds.
Analysis of imagery and metaphor in the play
Question
Margaret compares Richard to a spider and compares Elizabeth’s good manners to sugar. What does this tell the audience about them?
This is a particularly powerful and visual metaphor. Margaret is being characteristically rude about Richard’s hunched and rounded deformity. He is the bottle-shaped or swollen 'spider', a dark and creepy creature. She questions why Elizabeth showers him with sweet words, which is quite unfounded if you look back over everything Elizabeth says to Richard.
Margaret demands of Elizabeth:
MARGARET
Why strew’st thou sugar on that bottled spider
Act 1 Scene 3
Question
Richard claims that the murderers cry 'millstones' – big rocks used to grind grain. What does he mean?
Instead of tears, Richard claims that the murderers cry 'millstones' – big rocks used to grind grain. He is describing how the murderers are hard-hearted and inhuman: qualities he admires.
Margaret demands of Elizabeth:
RICHARD
Your eyes drop millstones when fools’ eyes fall tears.
Act 1 Scene 3
Question
Throughout the play, Margaret often refers to Richard as a dog. What effect does this have?
In this terrifying metaphor, Richard is compared to a dog. The lambs are the princes. The description is one of vicious animalistic slaughter.
Margaret calls Richard:
MARGARET
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes
To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood
Act 4 Scene 4
Question
How does Buckingham use to present an England that desperately needs Richard’s assistance.
In this scene, Buckingham is play acting whilst Richard pretends that he is reluctant to become king. Buckingham refers to Richard as one of England’s 'proper limbs' – as though he is so royal he is actually an essential part of England’s body. Having claimed that Richard’s brother Edward was illegitimate, Buckingham goes on to refer to him and his sons as the 'scars of infamy' on England’s face. This is ironic, considering Richard’s appearance and deformity and how it reflects his evil nature.
Buckingham pleads:
BUCKINGHAM
The noble isle doth want her proper limbs;
Her face defaced with scars of infamy.
Act 3 Scene 7
Listening task
In Act 4 Scene 1, Elizabeth is distressed that she is being kept from seeing her sons. They are locked in the Tower of London. She personifies The Tower, comparing it to a cradle, a nurse, then a play-mate. Obviously, The Tower is none of those things, highlighting the lack of comfort cruelly inflicted on her little boys.
Richard III language - imagery and metaphor
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes
Whom envy hath immured within your walls,
Rough cradle for such little pretty ones.
Rude, ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow
For tender princes, use my babies well.
So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell.
Question
Who is Queen Elizabeth talking to?
Question
Whose 'envy' or jealousy is Queen Elizabeth referring to?
Question
Whose 'envy' or jealousy is Queen Elizabeth referring to?
She is referring to Richard, who has locked up the princes, not because they have committed any crimes, but because he wants the throne. In the speech, 'Envy' is personified. Richard is 'Envy'. This dehumanizes him. He is driven by sin.
Puns and wordplay
Shakespearean audiences loved jokes that involved wordplay. Puns are jokes using words that can have more than one meaning. When Richard uses words that have a double meaning, the delicious suspense is heightened. The audience are aware of Richard’s evil intentions, whilst the characters on the stage remain innocently in danger.
Analysis of puns and wordplay in the play
Question
When Rivers tries to defend Elizabeth, Richard twists his words to belittle his argument. How does he use puns and wordplay to outwit Rivers?
Richard promises Clarence:
RICHARD
What, marry, may she? Marry with a king.
Act 1 Scene 3
The double meaning is on the word 'marry' which in Shakespeare’s day was also used to mean 'indeed'. Richard is twisting Rivers’ meaning - indeed - to play on the fact that by marrying the King, Queen Elizabeth gains favours for her friends and family. It takes quick wits to twist words like this, and in doing so, he shows how much slower Rivers is.
Question
Richard teases Brackenbury when Brackenbury says that he knows 'nothing' about private royal business. What does this pun mean?
Richard promises Clarence:
RICHARD
Well, your imprisonment shall not be long.
I will deliver you or else lie for you.
Act 1 Scene 1
His words can be taken in two ways. Richard sounds as though he is going to help Clarence to get out of prison quickly. Poor Clarence innocently believes him. What Richard actually means is that he will shorten Clarence’s time in prison, by ending his life.
Question
Richard teases Brackenbury when Brackenbury says that he knows 'nothing' about private royal business. What does this pun mean?
Richard makes a pun on 'nothing' . He twists what Brakenbury says to suggest that he is having an affair with the King’s wife or mistress.
RICHARD
He that doth naught with her (excepting one)
Were best to do it secretly alone.
Act 1 Scene 1
Listening task
Richard III language - puns and wordplay
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What were I best to say? Her father's brother
Would be her lord? Or shall I say, her uncle?
Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles?
Under what title shall I woo for thee
That God, the law, my honour, and her love,
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?
RICHARD III
Infer fair England's peace by this alliance.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.
RICHARD III
Tell her the king, which may command, entreats.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
That at her hands which the king's King forbids.
RICHARD III
Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
To vail the tide, as her mother doth.
RICHARD III
Say, I will love her everlastingly.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long shall that title ever last?
RICHARD III
Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?
RICHARD III
As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
So long as hell and Richard likes of it.
RICHARD III
Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
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But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
RICHARD III
Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
RICHARD III
Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
RICHARD III
Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Oh, no, my reasons are too deep and dead,
Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their grave.
RICHARD III
Harp not on that string, madam. That is past.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Harp on it still shall I till heartstrings break.
Question
Would you describe Richard’s mood in this scene as impatient, playful, or confused?
The character of Richard III can be played in so many ways. It could be that an actor, or director wishes to show that Richard is beginning to lose control at this point, so Elizabeth’s quick-witted answers might confuse him. It could be that Richard is enjoying Elizabeth’s distress at his evil plans, and therefore his obviously immoral suggestion could be spoken in a way that shows that he is having a lot of fun at Elizabeth’s expense. It could be that he knows what he wants and is fed up of having to discuss it with Elizabeth: her answers perhaps annoy him. Try reading it in different ways and see which way you think it is most effective.
Question
Do you think Elizabeth is in charge during this exchange, or Richard?
Richard believes that he needs to marry his niece to keep a strong hold on his position as monarch. Elizabeth has this power over him – she has something, her daughter, that he desperately wants. She is also so overcome with anger and grief that it has left her with a fearlessness and that gives her power. She is not afraid of Richard, even though she has every reason to be.
Test yourself
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