History, ‘real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. … I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every age; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all’. Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (pr. 1803) (Cologne: Könemann, 1999), p. 98.

Why are there comparatively few women in Shakespeare’s history plays?

Focus on political and military power and conflict

Dominated by elite, white men

General Neglect of: domestic sphere women lower-classes minorities

Comparatively few female characters Mainly elite women Do not usually wield political power Defined in relation to men Chief roles: marriage/child-bearing

How many women’s roles are there in Richard III?

(a) 3 (b) 5 (c) 4

Five female characters : • Elizabeth, queen to King Edward IV• Margaret, widow of King Henry VI,

mother of Edward, Prince of Wales• Duchess of York, mother to King Edward

IV, Richard III, and Clarence• Lady Anne, widow of Edward, Prince of

Wales; wife of Richard III• Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of

Clarence

• Lamenters of the dead/sustaining memory of the dead and the crimes against them

• Truth-tellers/resisters of ‘official’ or male ‘lies’ about the past and present

• Prophets• Healers of division

Chief mourner for Henry VI Laments his death and draws

attention to its horror in public

Curses his killers Unafraid of Richard Speaks out about what

Richard has done

Q. Eliz. If he were dead, what should betide of me?

Riv. No other harm but loss of such a lord.Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all

harm.Grey. The heavens have bless’d you with a

goodly son,To be your comforter when he is gone.

Q. Eliz. Oh, he is young, and his minorityIs put unto the trust of Richard GloucesterA man that loves not me, nor none of you.(1.3)

Glou. Tis time to speak; my pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well:Thou slewest my husband Henry in the Tower,And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.(1.3)

The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul!

Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou livest!

And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!

No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,Unless it be whilst some tormenting dreamAffrights thee with a hell of ugly devils! (1.3)

Queen Elizabeth, Duchess of York and Clarence’s children as mourners

Competition in grief gives way to communion

Q. Eliz. Poor heart, adieu! I pity thy complaining.

Anne. No more than from my soul I mourn for yours.

Queen Elizabeth, Duchess, Margaret joined in lamentation

A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum, drums!

Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women

Rail on the Lord’s anointed.(4.4)

… take with thee my most heavy curse; … My prayers on the adverse party fight;And there the little souls of Edward’s

childrenWhisper the spirits of thine enemies,And promise them success and victory.Bloody thou art, bloody be thy end;Shame serves thy life and doth thy death

attend.(4.4)

1. Who describes Richard as ‘deformed’ and ‘unfinished’?(a) Queen Margaret(b) Queen Elizabeth(c) Richard

2. Who calls Richard an ‘abortive, rooting hog’?(a) Richmond(b) Queen Margaret(c) Lady Anne

3. What animal does Lady Anne compare Richard to?(a) a hedgehog(b) a hound(c) a fox

4. What animal does Richmond liken the dead Richard to?(a) a poisonous viper(b) a bloody dog(c) a vicious bear

Richard and self-characterisation as ‘manly’ soldier (1.2), ‘plain’ man (1.3)

Demonisation of feminine qualities/emotions such as pity

Castigation of opponents as emasculated or effeminate (e.g. Edward IV, Richmond)

He describes himself as ‘Deform’d, unfinish’d’ (1.1) and ‘halt’ and ‘unshapen’ (1.2);

Anne calls him ‘defused infection of a man’ (1.2) and ‘thou lump of foul deformity’ (1.2);

Margaret abuses him as an ‘elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!’ (1.3).

Seduction scene (1.2)

Deceiving Clarence’s son:‘And when my uncle told me so, he wept, / And hugg’d me in his arm, and kindly kiss’d my cheek’ (2.2).

Appears accompanied by clerics/feigns dedication to religion;

Says ‘nay’ to accepting the crown, while meaning ‘yes’;

Buckingham pretends that Richard’s ‘tenderness of heart / And gentle, kind effeminate remorse’ (3.7) make him reluctant to accept the crown.

Women are politically marginalised but not without influence;

They preserve memory of the past/the dead; they function as truth-tellers, prophets, critics;

They offer a way forward for society through communal remembrance and sympathy.

Richard is used to:

scrutinize the boundaries between masculine/feminine, human/beast and to explore the concept of gender as a kind of performance;

explore the concept of the self as malleable versus fixed/God-given.