![]() disabled) will be treated badly by society, and their personality will be shaped by that. Richard himself, however, is actually arguing something else: namely, that someone who is physically unusual (e.g. This is an idea that, in more enlightened times, we obviously reject, but it’s clear Shakespeare is relying on his original 1590s audience picking up on the associations, here. And yes, ‘sun of York’ is a pun: he is the bright leader of the House of York, but he is also literally a ‘son’ of the House of York. now we are in a period of misery) but ‘Now is the winter of our discontent made into a glorious happy summer by the accession to the throne of Edward of the House of York’. He’s not saying ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ (i.e. Note that Richard’s opening line is a run-on line: we need to continue reading onto the second line to get the full meaning. They have been fighting another major royal house, the Lancastrians: members of the royal house of Lancaster, whose king, Henry VI, has been murdered so that Edward IV can take the throne. Both Edward and Richard are Yorkists: that is, members of the royal house of York. ![]() At this point in the action, he is still Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and brother to the King of England, Edward IV. ![]() At this stage, he is not King Richard III: not yet. Richard appears on the stage, alone, at the very start of the play. ![]()
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