Richard III

Richard III Quotes

The classic Shakespearean play about a murderously scheming king staged in an alternative fascist England setting.

Richard: Why, I can smile... And murder while I smile!
Duchess of York: Are you my son?
Richard: Yes. I thank God, my father, and yourself.
Richard III: [to the camera] I am not made of stone.
Queen Elizabeth: I have no more sons of the royal blood for you to slaughter.
Richard III: You have a daughter.
Richard: [to the Duke of Buckingham] I am not in the giving vein today.
Richard III: A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
Lady Anne: No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
Richard III: But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
Queen Elizabeth: I see the ruin of my family.
Queen Elizabeth: [to Richard III] Tell me, thou villain slave!
[screams]
Queen Elizabeth: Where are my children?
Duke of Buckingham: Long live, King Richard!
Queen Elizabeth: Edward, my Lord, your son, our King, is dead.
Duchess of York: [to Richard III] You came on earth to make the earth my hell.
Queen Elizabeth: No doubt the murderous knife was dull before it was whetted on your stone-hard heart.
Richard III: [to Lady Anne] Your beauty which did haunt me in my sleep could make me undertake the death of all the world.
Richard III: [to the camera] Plots have I laid.
Queen Elizabeth: Shall I be tempted by the devil thus?
Richard III: Yes, if the devil tempt you to do good.
Richard III: Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.
[first lines]
Prince of Wales: Goodnight Father.
King Henry: Goodnight son.
Prince of Wales: Goodnight your majesty.
Richard: [to the camera] I'll have her, but I'll not keep her long.
Lord William Hastings, Prime Minister: If she hath done this deed, my lord...
Richard III: If! Thou protector of this damned strumpet, talk'st thou to me of if? Thou art a traitor! Off with his head. By St Paul I shall not dine until I see the same. Those who love me stand and follow me!
James Tyrell, Richard's Chief Henchman: [to Hastings] His grace would have dinner.
Lady Anne: [to Richard III] Did you not kill my husband?
Duchess of York: [to Richard III] To war take with you my most gravest curse! My prayers shall on Richard's party fight. Bloody you are! Bloody will be your end! Shame serves your life and will your death attend.
Richard III: [to the camera] Simple, plain Clarence! I do love you so, that I shall shortly send your soul to heaven. If heaven will take the present from my hands.
[his last words]
Duke of Buckingham: Made I him king for this?
[Tyrell garrotes him]
Lord Rivers: To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?
Richard III: To you, who have neither honesty, nor Grace.
[last lines]
Richard III: Let us to't pell-mell, if not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
Duke of Buckingham: My Lord protector, what should we do if we perceive Hastings will not yield to our plans?
Richard: Chop off his head.
Queen Elizabeth: But you did kill my children.
Richard III: But in your daughter's womb, I bury them: Where, in that nest of spicery, they will breed.
Young Prince: I shall not sleep in quiet at the tower.
Richard III: Why? What should you fear?
Young Prince: My Uncle Clarence's angry ghost: My grandma told me he was murdered there.
Prince Edward: I fear no Uncles dead.
Richard III: Nor none who live, I hope.
Queen Elizabeth: The King is sickly, weak and melancholy.
Lord Rivers: Have patience, sister: There's no doubt his Majesty will soon recover his accustom'd health.
Queen Elizabeth: But his physicians fear for him mightily. If he were dead, what would become of me?
Richard III: Conscience is but a word cowards use.
George, Duke of Clarence: I will send you to my brother Richard, who shall reward you better for my life than will the King for tidings of my death.
James Tyrell, Richard's Chief Henchman: You are deceived. Your brother Richard hates you.
George, Duke of Clarence: Oh, you are wrong. He loves me, and he holds me dear: Go you to him. Tell him that, he will weep.
Richard III: Madam, mother, I do humbly crave your blessing.
Duchess of York: God comfort you; and put meekness in your breast, love, charity, obedience and true duty!
Richard III: Amen;
[aside]
Richard III: and make me die a good old man! That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing.
Richard: [to the Duke of Buckingham] Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead.
Duke of Buckingham: [to Richard III] Know then, it is your fault that you refuse the supreme seat, the throne majestical. We heartily solicit you take on the kingly government of this your land. Not as Lord protector, but from blood to blood, your right of birth, your empery, your own.
Queen Elizabeth: [to Richard III] You envy my advancement and my family: God grant we never may have need of you!

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