STUDY QUESTIONS

By ANNE THROOP CRAIG

1. What is the ultimate source of the play?

2. Were there any other plays on the subject of Richard III?

3. What bespeaks the popularity of this play and the nature of its contemporaneous reception?

4. Cite a notable instance of another play on this theme, and describe it.

5. What attempts have been made to ameliorate the chronicled reputation of Richard? Has it been possible to shake the main substance of the evidence of his wickedness?

6. Analyze the several possible psychological effects of such deformity as Richard's upon character. What may be the further effects, in these cases, of marked temperamental and intellectual force such as Richard had? In this connection what can be said of the openly cruel behavior towards deformity, in Richard's day?

7. Comment upon the dramatic effect of Richard's soliloquies. Compare these with the soliloquies of others of Shakespeare's villains.

8. What ethical purport is conveyed by the disproportion of the dramatic current of action to the emphasis of the central character?

9. Of what does Dowden strikingly make Richard the symbol and type? Of what is Richmond the final token by comparison?

10. What is the explanation of Richard's successful wooing of Anne?

11. Of what dramatic importance in the motif of the play is the introduction of Margaret?

ACT I

12. How does Richard's first soliloquy reflect upon Edward? What does it forecast of his own resolves?

13. How does he contrive the imprisonment of Clarence? 14. How are the dramatic effects developed in the passage of Richard's wooing of Anne? In what attitude towards her does it leave him? In what does his self-gratulation consist?

15. Is Margaret's appearance according to fact? What is the Chronicle account of her last days?

16. What is the essential dramatic effect of her invective? Wherein is she prophetic?

17. Would Gloucester's motive have been clear enough without his soliloquy towards the end of scene iii,—(lines 324-338)? Cite similar instances.

18. What fact has been suggested as a principal cause of the breach between Clarence and Edward?

19. Describe Clarence's dream and cite its striking points.

20. Describe the scene of Clarence's murder.

21. In what passage does the Second Murderer voice an element inherent in the ethical motive of the drama?

22. What are the historical accounts of the matters relating to Clarence's incarceration and murder?

ACT II

23. What constitutes the irony of Edward's ante-mortem peace making?

24. What passage in the Chronicles touching Edward's regrets for Clarence, is used by Shakespeare with pathetic effect, in scene i?

25. What purposes does the scene between the Duchess of York and her grandchildren serve?

26. Describe the elegiac effect of the scene of the mourning women and children upon Edward's death. Instance striking lines.

27. What schemes is Buckingham brewing in his sug

gestions about the escort of the young Prince from Ludlow?

28. What does the interlude of the citizens' colloquy in scene iii serve?

29. What matters are conveyed through the childish talk of the young York in scene iv?

30. What presage do the Queen and Duchess see in the message brought them in the final scene?

31. What noblemen does Gloucester imprison on the return to London with the Prince, and why?

АСТ III

32. Where had the Queen taken her son York? Had the Cardinal and Hastings any suspicion of the designs of Gloucester and Buckingham when they persuaded the Queen to let him go to meet his brother?

33. How does the young York express his feeling for his uncle Gloucester?

34. What foreboding does the Prince express?

35. What was the import of the "divided councils" as mentioned in line 179, scene i?

36. What Lords mistrusted the appearance of this matter? What dramatic use is made of this?

37. What is Gloucester's promise to Buckingham?

38. What is the historian's account of the meeting of Hastings with the Priest in scene ii? What incident that More relates has to do with this passage, also?

39. What aspect of Richard's behavior is illustrated by the little incident of his sending for the strawberries, and his general manner upon his entrance to the council room?

40. What characterizes his behavior when he returns to the council chamber after his conference with Buckingham in this same scene?

41. What method does Richard employ to impeach Hastings?

42. What is Hastings' prophecy as he goes to meet his sentence?

43. What method do Richard and his supporters employ to avert the suspicions of the people concerning Hastings' execution?

44. What is the next move of Richard towards his end? 45. What does the Scrivener's soliloquy prove, (scene v)? How is this matter historically related?

46. What is the advice of Buckingham to Richard as to what shall be his manner of receiving the proffer of the crown? What is the outcome?

ACT IV

47. How is Queen Elizabeth's wish to see her sons received?

48. What is the import of Anne's reply to Elizabeth when she bids her go and be crowned?

49. How does Richard go about to find murderers for the princes?

50. Does he keep his promise to Buckingham? How does Buckingham retaliate?

51. What prophecy does Richard recall with regard to Richmond?

52. Describe Tyrrel's soliloquy concerning the princes' murder in the Tower. What is the historical account?

53. Who had arranged to bring about an alliance between Richmond and Elizabeth of York? What counterplan does Richard devise for his own benefit? By what crime does he clear the way for this plan?

54. Describe the striking elements of the scenes of lamentation and execration in which Queen Elizabeth, Margaret, and the Duchess of York, then Richard, take part? 55. Comment upon Queen Elizabeth's acceptance of Richard's overtures for her daughter.

ACT V

56. What transpires as a new menace to Richard?

57. What is the fate of Buckingham? How does he sum up his own retribution in his final lines?