Richard III

Richmond prays: 'O thou, whose captain I account myself... put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath.' He sleeps peacefully. Then the ghosts come—all of Richard's victims. Prince Edward: 'Think how thou stabbed me in my prime of youth at Tewkesbury. Despair therefore, and die.' Henry VI: 'My anointed body by thee was punched full of holes. Think on the Tower, and me.' Clarence: 'I that was washed to death with fulsome wine... by thy guile betrayed.' Rivers, Grey, Vaughan—all curse Richard. Hastings: 'Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake.' The two young princes: 'Dream on thy cousins smothered in the Tower... let us be laid within thy bosom Richard, and weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death.' Anne: 'That wretched Anne thy wife, that never slept a quiet hour with thee.' Finally, Buckingham: 'The first was I that helped thee to the crown, that last was I that felt thy tyranny... Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death.' Each ghost curses Richard, then blesses Richmond. Richard wakes screaming: 'Give me another horse, bind up my wounds! Have mercy Jesu.' His famous soliloquy begins: 'O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me?' 'What? do I fear myself? There's none else by. Richard loves Richard, that is, I am I.' 'Is there a murderer here? No; yes, I am.' His conscience breaks him: 'My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, and every tongue brings in a several tale, and every tale condemns me for a villain.' The devastating realization: 'I shall despair, there is no creature loves me; and if I die, no soul shall pity me.' Even he recognizes: 'Nay, wherefore should they? Since that I myself, find in myself, no pity to myself.' To Ratcliffe: 'O Ratcliffe, I fear, I fear.' 'Shadows tonight have struck more terror to the soul of Richard than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers.' Meanwhile, Richmond wakes refreshed: 'The sweetest sleep, and fairest boding dreams that ever entered in a drowsy head.' 'Me thought their souls, whose bodies Richard murdered, came to my tent and cried on victory. I promise you my heart is very jocund.' Richmond's oration: 'God, and our good cause, fight upon our side... a bloody tyrant, and a homicide... one that slaughtered those that were the means to help him.' 'God, and Saint George, Richmond, and Victory!' The contrast is total: Richard haunted by guilt, Richmond blessed by justice.