Feedback Form
Quality
Research
Material!

Richard III - Queen Margaret

1) Queen Margaret has the role of prophetess in the play, but her warnings are ignored. Make a chart listing all of Margaret’s various curses and predictions. Fill in when and how they are fulfilled as you study the play.

Queen Margaret curses/prophesises the following:

3) Queen Elizabeth to live long, and be not wife, mother, or Queen (by all this, made miserable);

4) Rivers, Dorset, and Hastings to die unnatural deaths;

5) Richard III to be friends of traitors and betrayed by friends whom he will always suspicious of;

6) Richard III to be haunted by his dreams and be brought to justice by heavens means;

7) Queen Elizabeth to later wish for Margaret's help in cursing Richard III

8) That only after her prophesies are fulfilled will she be seen as a genuine prophetess

9) Margaret spares Buckingham telling him he hasn't wronged her, although she does warn him about allying with Richard. After he insults her she curses him too.

A murderous villain, and so still thou art.

________________________________________________________________

. . .

A dire induction am I witness to,

And will to France, hoping the consequence

Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.

2) Read carefully the scene where Margaret recalls the losses she, Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of York have endured (Act IV, scene iv).

O upright, just, and true-disposing God,

How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur

Preys on the issue of his mother's body,

And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan!

Queen Margaret:

Bear with me; I am hungry for revenge,

And now I cloy me with beholding it.

_________________________________________________________

Queen Margaret:

Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard kill'd him.

Duchess of York:

Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?

And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?

Queen Elizabeth mentions the death’s of Hastings, River’s, Vaughan and Grey who are all killed by Richard.

If heaven have any grievous plague in store

Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,

O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,

And then hurl down their indignation

On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! Prophecy comes true in - Act V, scene v.

To have him suddenly convey'd away.

If sorrow can admit society,

Sitting down with them

Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:

I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;

I had a Harry, till a Richard kill'd him:

Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;

Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him;

Queen Margaret: (Act IV, scene iv)

I call'd thee then vain flourish of my fortune;

I call'd thee then poor shadow, painted queen;

The presentation of but what I was;

The flattering index of a direful pageant;

One heaved a-high, to be hurl'd down below;

A mother only mock'd with two sweet babes;

A dream of what thou wert, a breath, a bubble,

A sign of dignity, a garish flag,

To be the aim of every dangerous shot,

A queen in jest, only to fill the scene. Clarence was killed by Richard’s orders. Suddenly, old Queen Margaret enters, and tells the duchess that the duchess is the mother of a monster.

Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer,

Only reserved their factor, to buy souls

And send them thither: but at hand, at hand,

Ensues his piteous and unpitied end:

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray.

To help thee curse that poisonous bunchback'd toad. She also mentions the loss of her son Rutland’s who Margaret hoped to kill.

Approximate Word count = 1869
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Simply subscribe to view this paper, and 100,000 others.

CREDIT CARD
ONLINE CHECK
JOIN BY PHONE
Members get exclusive access to over 100,000 essays.
Don't pay per page, get instant access to the whole database.

Essay's Topics

All research is for reference purposes only.

Copyright (c) 2001-2008 Mega Essays LLC, All rights reserved. DMCA