"richard 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Opposition to Richard began to mount. The king's greatest supporters among the nobility began to defect, and an exiled challenger returned to England to contest Richard's claim to the throne. Henry, Earl of Richmond (the future Henry VII), raised an army, then met Richard and his troops in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was slain and his corpse reputedly buried in an unmarked grave. Henry VII united the two warring families by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. As the first Tudor king, Henry VII succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses.

Years later, Henry VII's granddaughter, Elizabeth I, would come to the throne. But since she had no children--and was known as the "virgin" queen--what would happen to the Tudor line after her death? This was a question of great importance in Shakespeare's day, and this is why the playwright went to such great lengths to portray her family as the legitimate heirs to the throne. His description of Richard III was designed to make people think Richard was an evil man. After all, if there were threats to the legitimacy of the Tudors as monarchs, the whole question of the throne might be opened up again in another bloody war like the Wars of the Roses.

But as you can see from history, Elizabeth was indeed the last Tudor monarch. Her successor, James I, ushered in the era of the Stuarts.

^^^^^^^^^^RICHARD III: FORM AND STRUCTURE

There was no strict pattern for presenting history plays in Elizabethan times. As plays dealing with historical subjects evolved from early forms of drama and pageants, they were generally shaped into the basic five-act structure of classical tragedy. Shakespeare was no revolutionary in breaking with this pattern. His great contribution was in his use of a simple structure to deal with the complexities of his subject.

In Richard III, the story breaks conveniently into two divisions--before Richard has the crown and after. Most modern productions present the play this way, with one intermission. But the energy of the play is really structured around the five-act division.

Within that framework, Shakespeare faced a number of challenges. First of all, how do you maintain suspense in a story that had a conclusion known to almost every member of the audience? For the most part, he overcame that obstacle by presenting a string of dramatic encounters, each one ending with a degree of uncertainty. What would happen next? Would this part of the plan succeed?

Another device used by Shakespeare was that of a secondary concern, if not a fully developed subplot. The introduction of Queen Margaret and her lust for revenge opened up the question of fulfillment of her curses and prophecies. Here are two powerful forces in conflict with one another--Richard seeking power and Margaret seeking revenge.

At the highest and lowest level lies the ultimate goal--peace in the land. Richard's deliberate disruption at the beginning of the play demands a satisfying resolution at the end. But how will it occur? What mistakes will be made? The need for that peaceful resolution is never forgotten as the action moves relentlessly forward.

The playwright's aims are supported by these progressive divisions of the five acts.

ACT I: EXPOSITION. Richard reveals his personal goals. He removes his first obstacle and gains his first victory. The immediate opposition is introduced.

ACT II: RISING ACTION. The opposition solidifies. But Richard gets support when Buckingham allies himself with Richard's cause. A plan develops.

ACT III: CLIMAX. The princes are imprisoned. Richard overwhelms the opposition. He is offered the crown and accepts it.

ACT IV: FALLING ACTION. Now king, Richard must deal with rebellious forces. He devises new plans. Richmond's threat becomes apparent.

ACT V: RESOLUTION. Richmond appears. Richard's past crimes are reviewed but he does not repent. During combat, Richard is slain. The war ends. The victorious Richmond unites the two families and brings peace to England.

^^^^^^^^^^RICHARD III: THE GLOBE THEATRE

There were many theatres in London during Shakespeare's time but the most famous was undoubtedly the Globe. Built in 1599 for L600 just across the Thames River from London, it was destroyed by fire in 1613 but quickly rebuilt and remained in operation until 1644. No one knows exactly what the Globe looked like but some scholarly detective work has given us a fairly good idea.

When it was built, the Globe was the most modern example of theater design. It consisted of a three-story octagon, with covered galleries surrounding an open yard some fifty feet across. Three sides of the octagon were devoted to the stage and backstage areas. The main stage was a raised platform that jutted into the center of the yard or pit. Behind the stage was a tiring house--the backstage area where actors dressed and waited for their cues. It was flanked by two doors and contained an inner stage with a curtain used when the script called for a scene to be revealed.

Above the inner stage was the upper stage, a curtained balcony that could serve as the battlements in Hamlet or the balcony in Romeo and Juliet. Most of the action of the play took place on the main and upper stages.

The third story held the musicians' gallery and machinery for sound effects and pyrotechnics (fireworks, explosions, etc.). Above all was a turret from which a flag was flown to announce, "Performance today." A roof (the shadow) covered much of the stage and not only protected the players from sudden showers but also contained machinery needed for some special effects. More machinery was under the stage, where several trap doors permitted the sudden appearance of ghosts and allowed actors to leap into rivers or graves, as the script required.

For a penny--a day's wages for an apprentice--you could stand with the "groundlings" in the yard to watch a play. Another penny would buy you a seat in the upper galleries. A third would get you a cushioned seat in the lower gallery--the best seats in the house. The audience would be a mixed crowd--sedate scholars, gallant courtiers, and respectable merchants and their families in the galleries; rowdy apprentices and young men looking for excitement in the yard; and some pickpockets and prostitutes taking advantage of the crowds to ply their trades. And crowds there would be--the Globe could probably hold 2000 to 3000 people, and even an ordinary performance would attract a crowd of 1200.

The play you came to see would be performed in broad daylight during the warmer months. In colder weather, Shakespeare's troupe appeared indoors at Court or in one of London's private theaters. There was no scenery as we know it but there are indications that the Elizabethans used simple set pieces as trees or battle tents to indicate locations. Any props needed were readied in the tiring house by the bookkeeper (we'd call him the stage manager) and carried on and off by actors. If time or location were important, the characters usually said something about it. Trumpet flourishes told the audience an important character was about to enter, and a scene ended when all the characters left the stage. Bodies of dead characters had to be carried off, and justification was usually provided in the script. Little attention was paid to the appearance of historical accuracy in plays such as Julius Caesar or King Lear. One major difference from today was that female parts were played by young boys since it was an Elizabethan custom that women did not act.

If the scenery was minimal, the performance made up for it in costumes and spectacle. English actors were famous for their skill as dancers, and some performances ended with a dance or jig. Animal blood or red paint was used as blood and was lavished about in the tragedies. Ghosts made sudden appearances in clouds of swirling fog. Thunder was simulated by rolling a cannon ball along the wooden floor of the turret or by rattling a metal sheet.

The costumes were handsome and expensive. One "robe of estate" cost L19, a year's wages for a skilled workman of the time. But the costumes were a large part of the spectacle that the audience came to see and were designed to look impressive in broad daylight, with the audience right up close.

This structure and the conventions of such a theater offered Shakespeare a wide range of possibilities for staging his plays. Now let's take a look at how Richard III might have been performed in a similar theater when it first appeared in 1592-1593 and later at the Globe itself.