A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!

Spoiler:  The hunchbacked Duke becomes the King and kills everyone along the way.

Including the children.

I have just finished, in the wee hours of the night right before the library is to close, watching the BBC version of Richard III. It was very true to text, and had a very straightforward interpretation. It also took a few minutes shy of four hours. However, there were things that were unexpectedly comical due to the interpretation, such as the secret combinations between The Duke of Gloucester (Richard III) and the Duke of Buckingham  as well as the severed head of the Duke of Hastings.

My favorite scene had to have been when Buckingham is trying to convince the citizens to raise Gloucester up as their king, and so tells Gloucester (in private) to appear on the balcony between two bishops while reading the Bible, then act humbly and refusingly to the demand of ascension to the throne.

Duke of Buckingham: The mayor is here at hand: intend some fear;
Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit:
And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
And stand betwixt two churchmen, good my lord;
For on that ground I'll build a holy descant:
And be not easily won to our request:
Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it.

Of course, the citizens are egged on by his humility, and end up begging him to become their king, to which he finally accepts. Not to anybody's surprise who's seen the whole beginning of the play, he doesn't take that much coercion. Even though it's known that he's killed and given orders for other murders before, and there are many rumors surrounding him, he makes sure to make himself blameless.

Duke of Gloucester: Would you enforce me to a world of care?
Well, call them again. I am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your. kind entreats,
Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
[Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest]
Cousin of Buckingham, and you sage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her burthen, whether I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load:
But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
Attend the sequel of your imposition,
Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
For God he knows, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desire thereof.

All in all, I though Gloucester/Richard's character was a complete slime ball. I wanted him to die the whole time. No really. Sometimes there is that one character that you want to die. Like Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Or Chancellor Palpatine. Or this guy.

You want to root for him in the very beginning, because he's so cunning and amusing... but then he just does so many horrible things to people that that are completely innocent, like young children and all of the other dukes, and immediately begins suspecting people and going back on every promise as soon as he's crowned that you know he has to die soon.

Good thing he does.