Richard III Act 2 – “Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace…”

Richard III Act 2 – “Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace…”

The weeds of Richard’s harvest grow apace. Soon after the sickly King Edward IV seems to have diplomatically curbed the tide of in-fighting, Richard enters. Elizabeth’s pleas with Edward to free Clarence are met with mock outrage by Richard in an acting performance worthy of a BAFTA or an Academy Award. Richard then announces that this must be a mockery because Clarence is already dead on the command of Edward’s first order, which was not rescinded in time. Cloaked in guilt and shame, King Edward dies.

While comforting, Clarence’s young children, the duchess (Richard’s own mother) reveals that she thinks her own son Richard is evil and regrets having ever giving birth to him.

“Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,

And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile!”

Richard enters and we see his calculated manipulation continue. He is shameless and remorseless.

Just as Richard's power is on the rise, so also is Shakespeare's. Gone is the precision of consistent drum-like verse evident in the Henry VI plays. He seems to be able give each character and each scene a rhythm and even a verse style that is different and shaped by the individual perspective of each character and their dramatic circumstances. Shakespeare is able to combine formal verse reminiscent of the language of Ancient Greek playwrights like Sophocles, with Elizabethian high verse and naturalistic blank verse to emphasise the grief while giving a sense of the impending rise of Richard’s power.  Shakespeare even shifts to the ‘word on the street’ as represented by a citizen scene showing the general dread and mistrust of what the future and Richard may bring. This acts as both oracle and Chorus to what is to come.

Richard is not king yet, but he is clothed in immense power. Breaking into a scene where Clarence’s youngest son derides Richard with wit and humor, Dorset tells Queen Elizabeth that her kinsmen, Rivers and Gray are arrested, as instigated by Richard and his new ally Buckingham. Elizabeth can sense the winds have changed and she “sees the ruin of my (her) house…”. With the Great Seal of England in hand, she flees with her youngest son knowing that Richard’s reach and power is growing.