King Richard The Third Research Paper

Shakespeare's literary genius has captured the hearts of men since the early 1600s. His infamous saying, “No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.” (Shakespeare 11) has left us breathless. Through the pages of his mastery, we can travel back in time to the events leading up to the coronation of King Richard the Third. How accurate is the history behind this tragic tale? Various scholars argue that Shakespeare's play was inspired by the legends of King Richard the Third, rather than the actual historical accounts of Richard's life. However, inadequate amounts of evidence of this era, including the reign of Richard the Third, have survived to this day to confirm their theories. Therefore, the question remains, should Shakespeare's

For instance, “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York; and all the clouds that loured upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.” (Shakespeare 3). This particular quotation is in reference to the War of the Roses and it is foreshowing the victory of the family of York, even though the Lancaster family ultimately wins in the war. Although the documented historical accounts found in “The Tragedy of King Richard the Third” are skewed, specialized scholars are capable of drawing conclusions of what the monarchy of England would have been similar to during Richard’s time. However, they can only do this by comparing Shakespeare’s play to other documentations of King Richard the Third’s life. This method verifies that the historical accuracy in “The Tragedy of King Richard the Third” is slightly skewed and that it is chronologically out of order. This caused countless historians to scoff at the idea of changing Shakespeare’s play from a tragedy to a history in the 1800s, approximately two hundred years after Shakespeare’s death. In a corresponding letter to the Ricardians we can perceive the opposition to this change from one of its members when saying that Shakespeare’s play is a, “Very good Shakespeare, but very bad history.” (Correspondence 21). He continued his letter with the following explanation, “Shakespeare’s chronological errors

We can determine an author’s literary priority by asking a simple question. What is the most important thing for the author? We can see what Shakespeare’s literary priorities are when we examine the history and characters of his play. To Shakespeare, a dramatic effect is more important than a historically accurate documentation, in his play, “The Tragedy of King Richard the Third”. In this play, we can tell that extra drama is added to create plot twists and advance the play. Shakespeare was an extremely skillful drama writer; it was his passion in life. Therefore, we can assume that he took pride in his work. Artists are not content with leaving anything in its original state. They have to alter it to give it their own person twist. Shakespeare was an artist. Art is that act of creating wonderful works from inspiring circumstances. Richard the Third was his inspiration. Shakespeare molded his story and created his own work of art. James A. Moore, a Shakespearean scholar and a Shakespeare Society member, indicated that, “Elizabethan history plays, including Shakespeare’s Richard the Third, were never intended as strictly historical documents, except in the chauvinistic sense that such plays exploited received history for dramatic effect.” (James A. Moore 2). Even though this play does contain historically accurate events, they are skewed and out of chronological order. This truth, paired with the fact that