Well,
this isn’t quite literary news per se, but when I think of Richard III, I
don’t necessarily think of the historical king, but the character in
Shakespeare’s play titled after him. First
the news. As you may have read, the
remains of King Richard III were recently discovered and confirmed in 2012, and
so a proper burial is now in order. From
the Catholic News Agency:
In preparation for the
reinternment of the remains of Richard III, a 15th century English king whose
body was only recently rediscovered, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster
has offered Compline and a Requiem Mass for the late monarch.
“This evening we fulfil a
profound and essential Christian duty: that of praying for the dead, for the
repose of their eternal souls,” Cardinal Nichols preached during a March 23
Requiem Mass said at Holy Cross Priory in Leicester.
“The prayer we offer for
him this evening is the best prayer there is: the offering of the Holy Mass,
the prayer of Jesus himself, made complete in the oblation of his body and
blood on the altar of the cross, present here for us on this altar.”
Richard III was born in
1452, and reigned over England from 1483-1485, when he died in the Battle of
Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York; he was succeeded by
Henry VII, founder of the House of Tudor.
His corpse was buried
without pomp, and subsequently lost. It was found in 2012 under a parking lot
in Leicester, 30 miles south of Nottingham, on the site of Greyfriars, a
Franciscan friary dissolved during the English Reformation.
Richard
III’s reign obviously predates the Protestant Reformation, and so is a
Catholic. I’m not sure if it’s
obligatory, but his remains should have some sort of Catholic blessing as a
religious closure. Again from the CNA article:
His body has been kept at
the University of Leicester, and was processed to Leicester Cathedral, an
Anglican church, on Sunday.
That evening, Cardinal
Nichols led a Compline service at the cathedral, during which Richard's coffin
was sprinkled with holy water, and incensed.
“This sprinkling with
holy water is a reminder that King Richard, at the beginning of his life, was
baptised,” the cardinal reflected. “He was thereby called to live as a follower
of Jesus Christ.”
“The deepest intentions
of Richard have always been hard to fathom. Yet that is often true for many of
us. Within the depth of his heart, amidst all his fears and ambitions, there
surely lay a strong desire to provide his people with stability and
improvement.”
Cardinal Nichols noted
Richard's achievements, including a development of the presumption of
innocence, the concept of blind justice, the practice of granting bail, and
translating laws into the vernacular, while adding that “nevertheless his reign
was marked by unrest and the fatal seepage of loyalty and support.”
“All of this reminds us,
if we need reminding, that baptism does not guarantee holiness of life or
saintliness of nature. But it gives a fundamental and enduring shape to a
journey through life, in all its struggles and failures.”
He recalled Richard as a
man of prayer and “anxious devotion,” who composed a surviving prayer and
established chapels.
“We pray that, being
brought into the presence of that Divine majesty, Richard may be embraced by
God’s merciful love, there to await the final resurrection of all things in the
fullness of time.”
When
the Cardinal said that “ the deepest intentions of Richard have always been
hard to fathom,” he is referring to the nature of Richard III’s character. Richard has come down in history as an evil
Machiavellian who killed people on his way to the crown. I’m no historian here, especially of English medieval history, but whether Richard was as truly evil as history remembers
him seems to be in dispute. Richard III
ultimately lost in a power struggle which resulted in a civil war, and, since
the winners in history tend to write the history, of course every possible negative
was placed on Richard. But even more significantly
I think Shakespeare fossilized our perception of Richard III when he took history’s view
and developed a most enticing character, a character not only malicious, but
enjoyably malicious because you can see the working logic of his malice in his
brain, if you will. It’s a great play because the evil Richard III comes alive to the audience. The perceptions we moderns have of Richard
III has been formed by the play.
I’m
not going to quote character developments in the play, but I do want to quote
that last scene, since it is tinged with religious reverence for the dead. It’s Act V, Scene V, and the Battle of
Bosworth is coming to an end, and the two antagonists, Richard III and Richmond,
who will become king with the victory, meet.
It is also worthy to note that in the previous scene Richard could have
run off in the face of defeat but decides to fight to the end.
SCENE V. Another part of
the field.
Alarum. Enter KING
RICHARD III and RICHMOND; they fight. KING RICHARD III is slain. Retreat and
flourish. Re-enter RICHMOND, DERBY bearing the crown, with divers other Lords
RICHMOND
God and your arms be
praised, victorious friends,
The day is ours, the bloody
dog is dead.
DERBY
Courageous Richmond, well
hast thou acquit thee.
Lo, here, this
long-usurped royalty
From the dead temples of
this bloody wretch
Have I pluck'd off, to
grace thy brows withal:
Wear it, enjoy it, and
make much of it.
RICHMOND
Great God of heaven, say
Amen to all!
But, tell me, is young
George Stanley living?
DERBY
He is, my lord, and safe
in Leicester town;
Whither, if it please
you, we may now withdraw us.
RICHMOND
What men of name are
slain on either side?
DERBY
John Duke of Norfolk,
Walter Lord Ferrers,
Sir Robert Brakenbury,
and Sir William Brandon.
RICHMOND
Inter their bodies as
becomes their births:
Proclaim a pardon to the
soldiers fled
That in submission will
return to us:
And then, as we have
ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white
rose and the red:
Smile heaven upon this
fair conjunction,
That long have frown'd
upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me,
and says not amen?
England hath long been
mad, and scarr'd herself;
The brother blindly shed
the brother's blood,
The father rashly
slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been
butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and
Lancaster,
Divided in their dire
division,
O, now, let Richmond and
Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of
each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance
conjoin together!
And let their heirs, God,
if thy will be so.
Enrich the time to come
with smooth-faced peace,
With smiling plenty and
fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of
traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these
bloody days again,
And make poor England
weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to
taste this land's increase
That would with treason
wound this fair land's peace!
Now civil wounds are
stopp'd, peace lives again:
That she may long live
here, God say amen!
Exeunt
Look
how Catholic those lines are, especially “ta’en the sacrament.” Of course Shakespeare has the excuse of
setting a play in pre-Reformation England, and so for verisimilitude has the
excuse to incorporate Catholic language, but he didn’t have to. One of these days I will pull all the
evidence together to show Shakespeare was a Catholic, but until then you’ll
have to take my word.
And
so, my prayers for Richard III. May he
have embraced Christ in the end and asked for forgiveness of his sins.
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