“But yet I run before my horse to market”
It is almost as though Richard has discarded royal heritage and become an average civilian.
The action of the play from the previous scene is continuous as Anne follows the corpse of Henry VI, her father-in-law, as he is carried to St. Paul’s Cathedral. As the pallbearers put the corpse of Henry and Anne walks over and starts to lament his death.
“Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament”
While Anne is lamenting, she mentions her dead husband, Edward
“Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son,”
Also during this speech, when Anne curses the murderer of her husband and father-in-law,
“O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch
That makes us wretched by the death of thee
Than I can wish to wolves - to spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venomed thing that lives
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view,
And that be heir to his unhappiness!”
I believe that Anne knows whom the murderer is because when she starts to talk about the murderers child it seems to me as though she is describing Richard and the first reaction of Richard’s mother when she first saw him. Another reason that has led me to believe that Anne knows Richard is the murder is that when she is cursing the murderer and the murderers wife she uses only male references,
“If ever he have child,”
“And that be heir to his unhappiness.”
“If ever he have wife,”
“More miserable by the death of him”
Then the reason she uses only male references could be that women might not have been thought capable of committing a single murder let alone two. As well as Anne cursing the murderer, she curses the murderers wife, should the murderer get married.
“If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him
Than I am made by my young lord and thee.”
Again, this also backs up my idea that Anne knows who the murderer is.
The stagecraft that is used is very dramatic as the stage would suddenly fill at least nine actors and, as the body of Henry VI would only be covered with a cloth, it is highly likely that blood from Henry’s wounds might have stained it. Another dramatic device used is repetition,
“O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!”
The animal imagery that Anne uses runs throughout the play,
“Than I can wish to wolves, to spiders, toads.”
As the procession is about to set off again Richard bursts in and orders the pallbearers to put Henry’s body down,
“Stay, you bear that corpse, and set it down.”
In addition, when one of the guards points a halberd at his chest, Richard says “raise your halberd and don’t dare threaten me with it!”
“Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or by Saint Paul, I’ll strike thee to my foot”
The guard backs down and Anne questions his decision but quickly covers it up by saying, “I don’t blame you, after all you are only mortal and he is the devil.”
“What, do you tremble? Are you afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.”
The imagery of the devil used by Anne throughout this section of the play is taken in calmly by Richard who uses Christian sentiments of forgiveness as a reply to all the insults thrown at him by Anne. Anne also suggests that because Richard is the devil he has caused Henry’s body to bleed again.
“O gentlemen, see, see, dead Henry’s wounds
Open their congealed mouths and bleed afresh.”
The next part of the scene entails Richard saying her beauty encouraged him to kill her husband and father-in-law,
“Your beauty was the cause of that effect:
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.”
This means that Richard would kill the entire world just to spend an hour with Anne. Richard also says that he should go to bed with Anne,
“Your bedchamber.”
In addition, that he is a better lover than her dead husband is, Edward is,
“Did it to help thee to a better husband.”
“His better doth not breathe upon the earth.”
“He lives that loves thee better than he could.”
“Name him”
“Plantagenet”
“Why, that was he.”
“The selfsame name, but one of better nature.”
“Where is he?”
“Here.”
At this remark Anne spits at Richard, so Richard tactically changes the conversation to say that she is the most beautiful thing he has seen and that if his death would make her happy then kill him but if she wont do that then marry him.
Anne, although very tempted to does not kill Richard or ask him to kill himself, instead she drops the sword. Richard questions her actions and discovers that although she wants him dead she will not kill him or wish he kill himself.
“Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.”
Having discovered Anne wont kill him, he rises and asks her to wear an engagement ring,
“Vouchsafe to wear this ring.”
Anne accepts. Richard then makes another request, that she go to his home,
“And presently repair to Crosby House.”
Again, Anne accepts this request. After Anne leaves, Richard informs the pallbearers that they should take Henry’s body to White-friars,
“No, to White-friars; there attend my coming.”
This might be to stop Anne from going to visit the grave or maybe another reason that has not been thought of yet.
After the pallbearers leave Richard, again, speaks to the audience in another soliloquy and says such things as, “There! Told you so!” and by saying,
“I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.”
He suggests that all he wanted to do was to see if he could accomplish the challenge of winning Anne. This might have been the reason Richard spoke of earlier in the play.