Richard III: SCENE I. London. A street.

Enter GLOUCESTER, solus
GLOUCESTER
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY
Brother, good day; what means this armed guard
That waits upon your grace?


This opening scene of Richard III by William Shakespeare tells the audience what to expect of the play’s main character. In this speech, Richard is admitting to all the horrible things he is planning on doing. He delves into many different aspects of his dark nature – his negativity, his jealousy, his hate, and his duality. With this, Richard adds “I am determined to prove a villain,” which provides much insight on how this play is going to unfold.
This passage shows how openly evil Richard is. The first line of Richard’s speech, “Now is the winter of our discontent,” expresses his complaints of this time of peace. Winter is known to be barren, cold, and bleak, all adjectives that can be used to describe Richard as well. He continues by describing war in high regards, and how, unfortunately to him, the need for raising arms is no longer needed. Also, Richard conveys his envy of those who are empirically better looking than him, since he is, “Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,” and so much so, “That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.” This hideous man blames nature for the way he is. However, it seems that his disconcerting looks match his black heart interior. Because Richard realizes how much he hates the times he is trapped in, he is willing to make arrangements that will kill his brother Clarence and make himself king. This is one of the aspects that make Richard a truly evil person. His duality causes people to trust him, but then he tells the audience his real intentions in various asides. In other words, he plans to fool everyone make them believe he is a virtuous man, when, in reality, he is nothing of the sort and wishes never to be.
Perhaps the best stylistic component of this opening speech is at the very end, when Richard says, “Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here/ Clarence comes.” The use of dive and down in these lines describe how he is quickly sending his true intentions deep within him so that they are hidden to those he wants to deceive, in this scene, Clarence. This line exhibits the duality of Richard. This entire time, Richard is giving an entire speech of his evilness, and by the end of his unpleasant introduction, it shows how his words are already a foreshadowing for what is to come.