So today's lecture is on Richard III, a history play from the beginning of Shakespeare's career,

probably dating from 1591 to 2, and a play which is a huge success in print,

probably the largest success of a play by Shakespeare in print, six editions in quarto,

quarto those small single play, book, six editions in quarto before the first folio text of 1623.

So probably the most popular play of Shakespeare's in print,

but of course the most, by far the most popular work of Shakespeare's in print in this period is

actually Venus and Adonis. He's not a play at all. If the Elizabethans had been asked about

Shakespeare, the writer, they would have talked about Shakespeare, the poet, the poet of Venus and

Adonis. I'm going to talk a little bit more about the difference in the texts, the difference between the quarto text and the folio and the way they might be interesting for the way we interpret the play a bit later on.

But first, let's start with the question that I posed about the play at the end of last week's lecture.

The question that I'm going to try and focus on is, do we want Richmond

to win? Do we want Richmond to win? And let's start by putting that in an account of the plot.

So the plot of Richard III is a basic rise and fall political narrative. The details are probably

less important than the overall shape.

And certainly giving a synopsis of a history play plot always makes it sound enormously more

complicated than it really is. Essentially Richard rises and he falls. Richard opens the

play as Duke of Gloucester, in fact he doesn't become king until Act 4,

plots against his brother, King Edward IV, falsely accusing their other brother, George, the Duke of Clarence of treason.

Richard pretends to be friends to Clarence, but in fact sends two assassins to murder him in the Tower of London.

This is part of his overall strategy to eliminate other contenders, other political rivals.

Richard meets Lady Anne, who is mourning at the coffin of her father-in-law, Henry the 6th, not her husband,

which you might think if you watch the McKellen film, where it is a husband, but it's a bit

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