Shakespeare, Richard III-VIII
God and conscience
Richard himself is absolutely amazed at his ability to seduce Lady Anne. Why is he so amazed? What obstacles did he have to overcome? Let’s quickly look at his soliloquy:
I.ii.231-268
GENTLEMAN Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
RICHARD
No, to Whitefriars. There attend my coming.
⌜Halberds and gentlemen⌝ exit ⌜with⌝ corse.Was ever woman in this humor wooed?
Was ever woman in this humor won?
I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What, I that killed her husband and his father,
To take her in her heart’s extremest hate,
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of my hatred by,
Having God, her conscience, and these bars against
me,
And I no friends to back my suit ⟨at all⟩
But the plain devil and dissembling looks?
And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since
Stabbed in my angry mood at Tewkesbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,
Framed in the prodigality of nature,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
The spacious world cannot again afford.
And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince
And made her widow to a woeful bed?
On me, whose all not equals Edward’s moiety?
On me, that halts and am misshapen thus?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
I do mistake my person all this while!
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marv’lous proper man.
I’ll be at charges for a looking glass
And entertain a score or two of tailors
To study fashions to adorn my body.
Since I am crept in favor with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
But first I’ll turn yon fellow in his grave
And then return lamenting to my love.
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.
He exits.
So what did he have to overcome? Both God and her conscience. The role of conscience in this play is very important. The word conscience appears a total of 13 times in the play. The most substantial comment on the conscience is provided by the second murder: