CONTEXT: THE WARS OF THE ROSES
SOURCES
Thomas More's Life of Richard (1513)
"Richard, the third son, of whom we now entreat, was in wit and courage equal with either of them, in body and prowess far under them both; little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crook-backed, his left shoulder much higher than his right, hard-favoured of visage, and such as is in states called warlike, in other men otherwise. He was malicious, wrathful, envious and from afore his birth ever froward ... He was close and secret, a deep dissimuler, lowly of countenance, arrogant of heart, outwardly coumpinable [friendly] where he inwardly hated, not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill; dispiteous and cruel, not for evil will always, but after for ambition, and either for the surety and increase of his estate."
And so on. This is the portrait of Richard that was taken up by the chroniclers Hall (The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke) and Holinshed (Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland). Where More charts Richard’s rise to the throne, the chroniclers add his descent into disgrace and defeat, providing history in a more medieval sense than we are used to today – a pageant of the lives of great men and houses, exemplifying moral lessons: the Wheel of Fortune is relentless, pride must have a fall, the evildoer eventually meets with his just deserts. In this mentality, even the alleged physical deformities have a moral significance, as outward signs of inner ugliness. For a dramatist, then, More and the chroniclers provided a fully worked-out cartoon villain, complete with motives (‘not for evil will always, but after for ambition’), and vivid details: for example, Shakespeare’s depiction of the scene in which Richard entraps Hastings and orders his execution - ‘Talk’st thou to me of ifs?’ (3.4.75) – closely follows the account of the same scene in More.