Richard III

Queen Elizabeth, Anne (now Duchess of Gloucester), and the Duchess of York arrive at the Tower to visit the princes. The Lieutenant denies them entry—Richard has forbidden all visitors. The Queen protests: 'The King? Who's that?' The Lieutenant: 'I mean, the Lord Protector.' The Queen's bitter response: 'The Lord protect him from that kingly title. I am their mother, who shall bar me from them?' All three women demand entry—mother, grandmother, aunt—but the Lieutenant refuses, bound by oath. Stanley arrives with devastating news: Anne must go to Westminster to be crowned Richard's queen. The Queen nearly faints: 'Cut my lace asunder, that my pent heart may have some scope to beat.' She urges Dorset to flee to Richmond: 'Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels... go cross the seas and live with Richmond, from the reach of hell. Go hie thee from this slaughterhouse.' The Duchess of York laments birthing a monster: 'O my accursed womb, the bed of death: a cockatrice hast thou hatched to the world, whose unavoided eye is murderous.' Anne delivers a devastating speech: She remembers cursing Richard when he courted her over her murdered husband's corpse—she cursed that his future wife would be miserable. Now she IS that wife, and her own curse tortures her: 'For never yet one hour in his bed did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep, but with his timorous dreams was still awaked. Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick, and will (no doubt) shortly be rid of me.' The women part—Dorset to Richmond, Anne to coronation and death, the Duchess to her grave, the Queen to sanctuary. The Queen's final plea to the Tower stones: 'Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes... use my babies well.' The scene shifts to Richard's coronation. Newly crowned, Richard tests Buckingham: 'Young Edward lives, think now what I would speak.' Buckingham pretends not to understand. Richard becomes explicit: 'Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead, and I would have it suddenly performed.' Buckingham hesitates—this crosses even his line: 'Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord.' Richard has isolated the princes, denied them visitors, and now orders their murder. The final horror begins.