Richard also slyly notes that it's better to forgive than to curse, because if he cursed villains he'd be cursing himself. Then Richard puts on a saintly face and encourages everyone to forgive Margaret out of Christian charity. Richard dismisses Margaret's haranguing by turning her curse against her. He brings up Margaret's cruelty toward his father and suggests that she suffers because of her own ill deeds.

Act 1, Scene 3: Richard's railing then turns to Queen Margaret, who's just emerged from the shadows.

He further suggests that Queen Elizabeth married Edward for her own advantage, and he brings up the fact that Elizabeth and her family were enemies of the Yorks (Richard and Edward's family) before Elizabeth switched sides.

Richard first denies that he hates them, then says why he hates them: they imprisoned Clarence and they're getting promotions they don't deserve, which debases the other nobles. His particular occasion for anger is the meeting with King Edward, which was suggested by somebody else because of the animosity between Richard and everyone else. He charges that because he's not full of false flattery, people think he's full of hatred. Act 1, Scene 3: A meeting of the queen's family and various hangers-on is interrupted by Richard, guns blazing.This time he's pleased as punch with himself for getting a woman to marry him despite the fact that he's hideous and has murdered her husband and father-in-law. After Anne submits to marriage and leaves, Richard gloats again. He appeals to Anne's Christian charity to forgive him, then manages to convince her to marry him, suggesting that he only killed so she could have a better husband. Act 1, Scene 2: Richard then stops the funeral procession of his victim Henry VI so he can flirt with Henry's daughter-in-law Anne, whose husband Richard just murdered.Richard alludes to some greater plot he's looking forward to. No sooner is Clarence out of spitting distance than Richard tells us he plans for Clarence to be executed, for his brother Edward to sicken further and die, and for himself to marry Lady Anne. He also takes the opportunity to slander his brother Edward as weak, saying his wife is domineering. Richard makes a big show of sympathy for him.

We then meet Richard's brother Clarence, who Richard has maneuvered to get locked up. Richard, however, turns his attentions to evil scheming. Now that the kingdom is in peacetime, all the men's efforts of war have turned to efforts of love. Act 1, Scene 1: We meet Richard already deep in plotting, though his brother just made it back onto the throne.

The murders of richard iii