ABSTRACT
In I. I Richard's soliloquy takes up his self-revelation in 3H6 V.6, referring to his plots against Clarence. The audience is prepared for a play of audacious Machiavellianism. Two striking instances of his cleverness are introduced successively in the arrest of Clarence and the wooing of Prince Edward's widow over the bier of her father-in-law. The (fictitious) imprisonment of Hastings is referred to (I. 1.66-80) so as to prepare for the latter's conversation with the Pursuivant in 111.2. The second scene also links the play with 3H6 in time. It proves that Shakespeare used Holinshed, not Hall, for the
statement that the King's corpse bled during its last progress. Anne could not have been there'! The scene with its many changes of mood proves how far Shakespeare had advanced in technical mastery since 3 Henry VI. In boisterousness and assurance Richard somewhat resembles Petruchio in The Shrew:
Was ever woman in this humour woo'd? Was ever woman in this humour won?
