David Garrick as Richard III

Richard III

William Shakespearec. 1593
Influence22nd pct
Popularity58th pct
Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • want a great historical villain as the protagonist
  • realize it's shakespeare, and most of his stuff is great regardless

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated
Connections

The lineage through Richard III

Built Onwhat came beforeRichard IIIThe PrinceDr. Faustus

  • The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. Richard III built on it. - Richard is the canonical "Machiavel" of the Elizabethan stage — the cold, charming schemer the era built out of *The Prince* - Shakespeare names the source himself: in *3 Henry VI*, Richard vows to out-teach "the murderous Machiavel" - Machiavelli's argument — that a ruler's effectiveness, not his virtue, is what counts — is the logic Richard lives by; reading *The Prince* shows you the textbook behind the villain
  • Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. Richard III built on it. - Richard's pre-Bosworth unraveling — the haunting, the "despair and die" — echoes the damnation-language of Faustus's final hour - Marlowe had done it first: a doomed man, alone with his conscience, watching the time run out - Reading *Dr. Faustus* first shows you what Shakespeare transposed — Marlowe's private agony of the soul made into a tyrant's public collapse
See the full map
Gallery

Depicted in Art

Richard rears up sword-in-hand from his bed as transparent ghosts of his victims hover around him; the two murdered princes float at his feet, pointing up at him in accusation.

William Blake, 1806

Kean as Richard, in dark robes and crown, glares with sword in hand — the actor's signature 1814 Drury Lane role.

A muscular, half-nude Richard lurches awake in his lamplit tent, hair wild and eyes staring, his boar-emblazoned shield to his side as the unseen ghosts press upon him.

Nicolai Abildgaard, 1787

Garrick as Richard at Bosworth, sword raised, in the moment of the play's famous cry for a horse.

Nathaniel Dance-Holland, 1771

Richard, crowned and on horseback, charges into the press of foot soldiers and pikemen on Bosworth Field.

Richard, leaning forward in dark robes, presses his suit on Lady Anne as she stands rigid in mourning beside the open coffin of the dead Henry VI.

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1896

The two young princes lie asleep on a curtained bed in the Tower as the hired murderers loom over them with a pillow.

James Northcote, 1786

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$9.99$9.31

Folger Shakespeare Library

2004

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise Google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop

Please support us by purchasing through these links, at no extra cost to you!

Notable Quotes

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

Richard, Richard III
All 18 quotes, with sources →
Adaptations

Screen & Stage

Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)

AcclaimPraised by 3 notable voices
  • Al Pacino, actor and director, b. 1940: His 1996 debut documentary Looking for Richard set out to make Richard III vivid and accessible to modern audiences.
  • Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, 1856–1939: "Richard is an enormously magnified representation of something that we can all discover in ourselves."
  • Harold Bloom, Yale literary critic, 1930–2019: "Shakespeare's greatest originality in Richard III … is the hero-villain's startlingly intimate relationship with the audience."

More by William Shakespeare

  1. 11A Midsummer Night’s Dream~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·118 pagesInfluence24Popularity81ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  2. 13Hamlet~1600William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·218 pagesInfluence98Popularity96ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  3. 20Othello~1603William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·189 pagesInfluence88Popularity76ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  4. 23King Lear~1605William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·187 pagesInfluence95Popularity72ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  5. 26Macbeth~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·122 pagesInfluence94Popularity87ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  6. 42Richard II~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·160 pagesInfluence22Popularity24ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  7. 43Twelfth Night~1601William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·142 pagesInfluence20Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  8. 52Romeo and Juliet~1595William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·175 pagesInfluence88Popularity99ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  9. 54The Tempest~1611William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·119 pagesInfluence87Popularity62ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  10. 59Love's Labour's Lost~1594William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·153 pagesInfluence8Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  11. 69All's Well That Ends Well~1604William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·164 pagesInfluence15Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  12. 72Much Ado About Nothing~1598William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·151 pagesInfluence18Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  13. 77Julius Caesar~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·141 pagesInfluence21Popularity61ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  14. 78King Henry IV, Part 1~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·176 pagesInfluence22Popularity24ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  15. 80The Merchant of Venice~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·152 pagesInfluence20Popularity60ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  16. 81Measure for Measure~1604William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·156 pagesInfluence18Popularity18ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  17. 94As You Like It~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·155 pagesInfluence19Popularity58ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  18. 112Antony and Cleopatra~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·178 pagesInfluence20Popularity32ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  19. 120Richard III~1593William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·209 pagesInfluence22Popularity58ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  20. 129Henry V~1599William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·187 pagesInfluence23Popularity50ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  21. 137The Winter's Tale~1610William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·178 pagesInfluence16Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  22. 138The Taming of the Shrew~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·150 pagesInfluence16Popularity59ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  23. 142Troilus and Cressida~1602William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·186 pagesInfluence18Popularity17ShakespeareSatireEnglish
  24. 150The Comedy of Errors~1594William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·105 pagesInfluence16Popularity20ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  25. 152Coriolanus~1608William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·197 pagesInfluence17Popularity32ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  26. 156King John~1596William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·148 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  27. 163Timon of Athens~1606William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·130 pagesInfluence10Popularity14ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  28. 173The Two Gentlemen of Verona~1590William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·122 pagesInfluence8Popularity19ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  29. 174Henry IV, Part Two~1597William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·183 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  30. 176Titus Andronicus~1592William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·148 pagesInfluence12Popularity14ShakespeareTragedyEnglish
  31. 178The Merry Wives of Windsor~1597William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·156 pagesInfluence12Popularity20ShakespeareComedyEnglish
  32. 179Cymbeline~1610William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·197 pagesInfluence11Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  33. 180Pericles~1607William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·132 pagesInfluence10Popularity16ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  34. 181The Two Noble Kinsmen~1613William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·181 pagesInfluence9Popularity15ShakespeareRomanceEnglish
  35. 188Henry VI, Part 1~1592William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·154 pagesInfluence14Popularity22ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  36. 189King Henry VI, Part 2~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·182 pagesInfluence13Popularity21ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  37. 190King Henry VI, Part 3~1591William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·174 pagesInfluence12Popularity20ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  38. 199Henry VIII~1613William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·176 pagesInfluence10Popularity23ShakespeareHistory PlayEnglish
  39. Shakespeare's Sonnets1609William ShakespeareGrueling·Quick·121 pagesInfluence—Popularity—PoetsLyricEnglish