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Worksheet based on Act 1 Scene III – Richard III
1. General Understanding
Part 1: True or False and find some evidence:
Lines 1-41 – Factions
a. Elizabeth Woodville seems only to be concerned about her own future if King Edward IV
should die.
T/F
b. Elizabeth has a close relationship with her brother-in-law, Richard of Gloucester. T / F
c. Elizabeth and Lord Stanley’s wife do not get along well.
T/F
d. Buckingham tells Elizabeth Woodville that the King is feeling better and that he wishes for
her to make peace with Richard.
T/F
Commentary
Q. Using the above answers, write one sentence summing up the relationship between the
members of King Edward’s court. (Hint: which word would best describe it – united or
divided?)
Q. What do you think Elizabeth Woodville is most worried about?
Part 2: Lines 42 – 109 – Richard’s accusations
e. Richard enters the scene and immediately accuses the Woodvilles of saying bad things
about him to the King. He accuses them of many different things. Match the accusation below
to the correct line from the scene:
Accusation
People of lower status and rank have
been promoted and given more
power.
Rich lords have lost their power;
You have been telling the king lies
about me.
My own reputation has been spoiled.
Clarence has been put in prison
because of you.
Quotation
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours
Our brother is imprisoned by your means
My self disgraced
The nobility / Held in contempt
great promotions / are daily given to ennoble those /
That scarce some two days since were worth a noble.
f. What answers does Elizabeth Woodville give to these accusations? Choose from the list
below:
the King does not listen to me anyway - the King wishes to know why you hate my family – I
have defended Clarence and argued that he should be released – You are jealous of the fact
that my friends and family have been promoted – my family have not been promoted at all by
Edward
Comment
Q. Comment on the way in which Richard enters the scene. What skills does he show here?
Edward IV wants a truce to be called between the two sides – what does the beginning of this
scene suggest about the chances of such a truce?
Part 3: Lines 110- 152
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Read the following text and fill in the correct names. Use your family tree if it gets too
complicated!
In an aside, Margaret accuses Richard of killing her husband, ……………….. and her son,
……………………….
Richard reminds Elizabeth Woodville that he had fought hard to make her husband king of
England, ………………………..
Richard also reminds Elizabeth that when she was married to her first husband, …………….,
they had fought on the opposing side for the House of …………………….
At first, Clarence had fought against his own brother (the king) and fought for his father-inlaw, …………………………….. However, he later switched sides and joined his brother.
Now place the following people in the right columns:
Fought for the House of
Lancaster
Fought for the House of York
Fought on both
sides
- The Woodvilles - King Edward IV - Henry VI - Margaret d’Anjou - Edward (Margaret’s
son) – Richard Gloucester – Clarence – Richard Neville (also known as the Kingmaker)
Q. Why do you think Richard reminds the people present of their changing loyalties?
Part 4: Lines 153-239
Margaret claims that three things have been taken from her: her husband Henry VI, her son
Edward, Prince of Wales and her own status as Queen of England.
Richard replies that Margaret is responsible for killing his brother, Edmund the “pretty
Rutland” at the Battle of Wakefield. His father, the Duke of York was also captured there.
Margaret goes to curse the people present. “Translate” the curses into modern English:
Curse
“by surfeit die your king”
“Die in his youth by like
untimely violence”
“thyself a queen … / Outlive
thy glory”
“Long mayst thou live to
wail thy children’s death”
“God I pray him, / That none
of you may live his natural
age / But by some unlooked
accident cut off.”
“Let them … hurl down their
indignation / On thee”
“The worm of conscience
Who is cursed?
Translation
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still begnaw thy soul”
“Thy friends suspect for
traitors”
Translations:
She will lose her status and live a sad and unhappy life - They will all die and live short lives.
- He will die of overindulgence - He will be troubled by his conscience and start suspecting
everyone around him. - He will die in his youth - She will live to see her children die.
People cursed (you do not have to use all of the answers):
Richard Gloucester – Queen Elizabeth Neville – Rivers, Dorset, Hastings – Buckingham –
King’s son Edward – King Edward IV – Catesby
Part 5: Lines 240- 355
Put the events in the correct order:
She offers friendship to Buckingham and warns him that Richard cannot be trusted.
Catesby tells Queen and her family that the king would like to see them.
Once she has left, Richard claims that he feels sorry for Margaret and he apologises for all the
wrongs he has done to her.
Margaret warns Elizabeth that one day she too will curse Richard.
Alone on the stage, Richard admits that he blames others for his own plots against his brother
Clarence.
She warns Dorset (Elizabeth’s son) that his new status can soon be overturned.
The two murderers enter and Richard tells them to kill Clarence quickly.
2. ACTIVITIES
a. Insults
Insults
Thou cacodemon
(evil spirit)
Gentle villain
Foul wrinkled witch
Thou hateful, withered hag.
(witch)
Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog
(disfigured by fairies, earth-eating pig)
The son of hell
Thou slander of thy heavy mother’s womb
That bottled spider
This poisonous bunch-backed toad
b. Illustrating images
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EXTRACT ONE
QUEEN MARGARET
Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
The time will come when thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse that poisonous bunchback'd
toad.
EXTRACT TWO
QUEEN MARGARET
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be whilst some tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature and the son of hell!
Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb!
Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
Thou rag of honour! thou detested—
EXTRACT THREE
QUEEN MARGARET
What were you snarling all before I came,
Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did York's dread curse prevail so much with
heaven?
That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
Their kingdom's loss, my woful banishment,
Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?
Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick
curses!
EXTRACT FOUR
QUEEN MARGARET
I'll not believe but they ascend the sky,
And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he
bites,
His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him;
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
And all their ministers attend on him.
EXTRACT FIVE
GLOUCESTER
The curse my noble father laid on thee,
When thou didst crown his warlike brows with
paper
And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes,
And then, to dry them, gavest the duke a clout
Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland-His curses, then from bitterness of soul
Denounced against thee, are all fall'n upon thee;
And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed.
3. Extension Activities
a. Looking at Irony. Fill out the grid below.
Verbal Irony: Saying one thing and meaning another.
Dramatic Irony: What is said contrasts with what happens elsewhere in the play.
Extract
Richard: “Because I cannot flatter and
look fair, / Smile in men’s faces, smooth,
deceive, and cog” Lines 47-48
Elizabeth: “I would rather be a country
servant maid / Than a great queen with
this condition, / To be so baited, scorned,
and stormèd at.” Lines 106-8
Type of Irony
Verbal
Explanation
Richard claims that because of his
physical appearance he is unable to
pretend or act a part to get what he wants,
and yet this is exactly what he is doing.
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Richard: “If I should be? I had rather be a
pedlar. / far be it from my heart, the
thought thereof.”
Lines 147-8
Richard: “I cannot blame her, by God’s
holy mother, / She hath had too much
wrong, and I repent / My part thereof that
I have done to her.”
Lines 306-8
Richard: “Marry, as for Clarence, he is
well repaid; / He is franked up to fatting
for his pains. / God pardon them that are
the cause thereof.”
Lines 313-5
Richard: “I would to God my heart were
flint, like Edward’s / Or Edward’s too soft
and pitiful like mine. / I am too childishfoolish for this world.”
Lines 138-40
Q. Comment on how the use of irony allows Shakespeare to explore the theme of appearance
and reality.
b. The Role of Margaret
Many directors cut Margaret from their
productions especially Act 1 Scene 3.
Imagine you are a stage or film director.
Argue FOR or AGAINST cutting Margaret
from your production.
How do you imagine Margaret?
Richard calls her a witch.
Is she mad or does she talk sense?
Are he curses signs of witchcraft and of
power or of a woman in emotional need?
Margaret as a Greek Chorus. The role of the
Greek Chorus was to do the following:
- offer a sense of a rich spectacle
- give main actors a break on stage
- offer important background and
summary information
- comment on main themes and actions
- guide the audience as to how they
should respond to events
How far does Margaret fulfil the above
criteria?
Women in Shakespeare’s times had little
power. Does Margaret’s appearance here
substantiate this idea or challenge it?
How many of her curses come true? Read
through the rest of the play and note down
which ones come true?
Margaret as NEMESIS.
She calls for revenge and demands justice for
past wrong doings.
Identify these elements in her speech.
Ironically, who is the agent of this nemesis?