The Lide and Death of King Richard Iii

The life and death of King III
Act One, Scene 1,2 and 3

In the first scene, Richard, the duke of Gloucester, appears at the stage alone.
He says that after a very long civil war (Tewksbury battle), peace has returned to the royal house of England. As King Edward IV now possesses the throne, the royal house is celebrating, except for Richard III as he complains about being deformed and ugly, not made for love.
“But I,-that am not shap’d for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking glass;” … “Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time into this breathing world scarce half made up….”
He also includes in his monologue a briefing of his plot against his brother Clarence, who comes before him as heir to the throne of England. Therefore, Richard wants to set Clarence and Edward IV in deadly hate the one against the other by planting rumours to make Edward suspicious of Clarence.
Richard has just succeeded in having Clarence arrested and as a prisoner is how he walks onto the stage, guarded. As Clarence is not allowed to talk, he is taken to the Tower of London.
Having just been delivered, Lord Hastings tells Richard that King Edward IV is sick and cannot hope to live much longer.
At the end, he also comments about his plot to marry Lady Anne, the widow of Edward, the son of Henry VI and Queen Margaret, whom Richard as just killed in the Battle.

In the second scene, Lady Anne enters the scene while some men carry the open coffin of Henry IV. Lady Anne laments the death of the king and then curses any future children which Richard III might have.
Then Richard III enters the stage and tries to woo her praising Anne’s gentleness and beauty. But she scorns him after every attempt. He confesses that he has killed her husband so that he alone could love her. Finally he proposes marriage and succeeds in her to wear is ring. Anne says that she may take the ring but that she will not give him her hand.
He finally...