Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593)
The word "beg" occurs 13 times, and "poor," 25 times in Richard III.
On the lips of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, when it is not disparaging, it is often dishonest and manipulative.
The Princes in the Tower (among others) are very concerned with avoiding the appearance of begging as a mark of weakness.
A failed assassin claims conscience leaves him a beggar (a theme that comes up again in Hamlet).
In comparison, when Prince Hamlet and others refer to him as “poor” and “beggar” (more often than any other character in that play) the contrast between Hamlet and these other royals is stark and significant.
[From title page, Richard III (cropped), from the second folio of 1632. Image via Folger Shakespeare Library. Creative Commons.]
Nizar Zouidi of the University of Hail has noted the performative aspect of Richard III: He performs the roles of script writer, actor, and director in his own show (See Nizar's abstract for his essay/chapter here.)
Richard confesses to having killed both Henry VI and Henry's son, Edward of Westminster. At Henry's funeral, as if trying to prove to himself that he can achieve an especially difficult and evil goal, he convinces Lady Anne Neville, widow of Edward, that she should marry him. She is repulsed, but he confesses love and offers her his dagger for her to kill him in revenge, as if to prove he is trustworthy. In an aside he says he will discard her before long. Later he has her poisoned so that he can glean new advantages from another marriage.
Richard sends assassins to kill his brother, George, Duke of Clarence. He arranges for the deaths of the "Princes in the tower," his nephews by his brother, King Edward IV. He has former associates among the nobles executed to secure his power.
Though sometimes listed as a history play, it is based on a distorted view of history: Henry Tudor defeated Richard III, so the house of Tudor had a strong interest in having Richard remembered as especially evil, so this is how Shakespeare portrays him.
Hamlet famously notes that a play can "hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure” (3.2). Richard is similarly concerned with mirrors after convincing Lady Anne Neville to marry him: paraphrase, he seems to say, "Hand me a mirror! Who knew a hunchback like me could be so sexy?"
Why write and perform this play about a man who would kill kings and princes, arrange for the death of his own brother and nephews, and poison his wife, so few years (5-6) after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)?
LIke Richard poisoning his wife, Mary was rumored to have arranged for the death of her second husband, and soon married the man rumored to have killed him.
Either actually, or via trumped-up charges, Mary was said to have been involved in a conspiracy to have Elizabeth killed and take the English throne.
And Elizabeth signed the death warrant for her cousin Mary's execution, later claiming she never ordered it to actually occur, that others jumped the gun (perhaps like Richard, equivocating about the death of his brother).
If original audiences allowed it, it was both a play to catch the consciences of Mary’s Catholic supporters, and to catch those of Elizabeth’s Protestant supporters as well, transcending narrow religious boundaries.
We have no way of knowing how much of this was well-known to Shakespeare. Still, it seems fitting that he would hold that mirror up to nature to show "the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."
~~~~~~~~~~
I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.
First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.
Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:
If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.
If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:
If you're interested in seeing EVERY instance of "beg" and "poor" that I found in preparing for today's blog post, go to OpenSourceShakespeare's advanced search page, and try it.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE TO COME: This is part in a new multi-part series: After I came near the end of the previous series, on the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (to the Biblical tale of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar), I decided that since no other character in Hamlet is described as often as Hamlet as begging or poor, I would investigate other Shakespeare plays to see how those two words are used - and to be open to other insights along the way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. Beg/beggar/begging/poor in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1589-91 - 3 August, 2021
2. Begging and poor in The Taming of the Shrew - 10 August, 2021
3. Begging and Poor in 1 Henry VI, 1591-92 - 17 August, 2021
4. Begging, Poor, Eve, and Protestant-Catholic Context for 2 Henry VI - 31 August, 2021
5. Begging and Poor in 3 Henry VI (1591) - 7 September, 2021
6. Begging & Poor; Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593) - 14 September, 2021
7. Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593) - 28 September, 2021 8. Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594) - 5 October, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shakespeare quotes: All quotes from Hamlet in older posts have been taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada. In this post and in the future, I will be taking them also from The Folger Shakespeare Library.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes, when taken from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading! My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
On the lips of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, when it is not disparaging, it is often dishonest and manipulative.
The Princes in the Tower (among others) are very concerned with avoiding the appearance of begging as a mark of weakness.
A failed assassin claims conscience leaves him a beggar (a theme that comes up again in Hamlet).
In comparison, when Prince Hamlet and others refer to him as “poor” and “beggar” (more often than any other character in that play) the contrast between Hamlet and these other royals is stark and significant.
Nizar Zouidi of the University of Hail has noted the performative aspect of Richard III: He performs the roles of script writer, actor, and director in his own show (See Nizar's abstract for his essay/chapter here.)
Richard confesses to having killed both Henry VI and Henry's son, Edward of Westminster. At Henry's funeral, as if trying to prove to himself that he can achieve an especially difficult and evil goal, he convinces Lady Anne Neville, widow of Edward, that she should marry him. She is repulsed, but he confesses love and offers her his dagger for her to kill him in revenge, as if to prove he is trustworthy. In an aside he says he will discard her before long. Later he has her poisoned so that he can glean new advantages from another marriage.
Richard sends assassins to kill his brother, George, Duke of Clarence. He arranges for the deaths of the "Princes in the tower," his nephews by his brother, King Edward IV. He has former associates among the nobles executed to secure his power.
Though sometimes listed as a history play, it is based on a distorted view of history: Henry Tudor defeated Richard III, so the house of Tudor had a strong interest in having Richard remembered as especially evil, so this is how Shakespeare portrays him.
Hamlet famously notes that a play can "hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure” (3.2). Richard is similarly concerned with mirrors after convincing Lady Anne Neville to marry him: paraphrase, he seems to say, "Hand me a mirror! Who knew a hunchback like me could be so sexy?"
Why write and perform this play about a man who would kill kings and princes, arrange for the death of his own brother and nephews, and poison his wife, so few years (5-6) after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)?
LIke Richard poisoning his wife, Mary was rumored to have arranged for the death of her second husband, and soon married the man rumored to have killed him.
Either actually, or via trumped-up charges, Mary was said to have been involved in a conspiracy to have Elizabeth killed and take the English throne.
And Elizabeth signed the death warrant for her cousin Mary's execution, later claiming she never ordered it to actually occur, that others jumped the gun (perhaps like Richard, equivocating about the death of his brother).
If original audiences allowed it, it was both a play to catch the consciences of Mary’s Catholic supporters, and to catch those of Elizabeth’s Protestant supporters as well, transcending narrow religious boundaries.
We have no way of knowing how much of this was well-known to Shakespeare. Still, it seems fitting that he would hold that mirror up to nature to show "the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."
~~~~~~~~~~
I have mentioned in previous blog posts that I use the Advanced Search Engine at OpenSourceShakespeare to search for instances of particular words in Shakespeare's plays. I'd like to explain how I do that, in case any of my readers may benefit. There may also be among my readers those who are much better at this than I am, so feel free to leave comments about your experience or recommendations.
First, one should note that there are some searches that might overwhelm the search engine: If a word or phrase appears too often in the works of Shakespeare, the search engine may list, alphabetically, some of the plays where that word or phrase is found, but one has to pay attention to see if other plays were cut off.
Second, some tips for narrowing the searches:
If you search only for "beg," the search will include words you don't want in which "beg" appears, such as begin, began, begun, beguile, begotten, etc. So besides searching FOR a word, it's helpful to include in the advanced search some examples of things you're NOT looking for.
If you enter "beg" as the word you're searching for, and begu as something you're NOT searching for, then this will eliminate both "begun" and "beguile." You have a limited number of options, so it can help to be a bit judicious about what you're searching for, and what you're not. Here's an example of what I did in searching for "beg/beggar/begging/beggars" in Taming of the Shrew:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MORE TO COME: This is part in a new multi-part series: After I came near the end of the previous series, on the Lazarus allusion in Hamlet 1.5 (to the Biblical tale of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar), I decided that since no other character in Hamlet is described as often as Hamlet as begging or poor, I would investigate other Shakespeare plays to see how those two words are used - and to be open to other insights along the way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
POSTS IN THIS SERIES SO FAR:
1. Beg/beggar/begging/poor in "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 1589-91 - 3 August, 2021
2. Begging and poor in The Taming of the Shrew - 10 August, 2021
3. Begging and Poor in 1 Henry VI, 1591-92 - 17 August, 2021
4. Begging, Poor, Eve, and Protestant-Catholic Context for 2 Henry VI - 31 August, 2021
5. Begging and Poor in 3 Henry VI (1591) - 7 September, 2021
6. Begging & Poor; Dust & Stones in Titus Andronicus (1593) - 14 September, 2021
7. Begging and Poor in Richard III (1592–1593) - 28 September, 2021 8. Begging and Poor in The Comedy of Errors (1594) - 5 October, 2021
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shakespeare quotes: All quotes from Hamlet in older posts have been taken from the Modern (spelling), Editor's Version at InternetShakespeare via the University of Victoria in Canada. In this post and in the future, I will be taking them also from The Folger Shakespeare Library.
- To find them in the first place, I often use the advanced search feature at OpenSourceShakespeare.org.
Bible quotes, when taken from the Geneva translation, widely available to people of Shakespeare's time, are taken from an internet source somewhat close to their original spelling, from studybible.info, and in a modern spelling, from biblegateway.com.
- Quotes from the Bishop's bible, also available in Shakespeare's lifetime and read in church, are taken from studybible.info.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to point out how the Bible may have influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading! My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.
Below is a link to a list of some of my top posts (“greatest hits”), including a description of my book project (last item on the list):
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html
I post every week, so please visit as often as you like and consider subscribing.
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