3.

In his essay "Shakespeare's Richard III and the Problematics of Tudor

Bastardy", Maurice Hunt argues that in King Richard III legitimate Richard's
figurative bastardy (or baseness) is a dramatic strategy. What purpose is served
by this dramatic strategy? Which earlier dramatic genres provided a model for
this sort of villain? Elaborate.
In KR III legitimate Richards figurative bastardy serves as a dramatic strategy. A
figurative bastard is much worse than a bastard in the technical sense of the word. That
paradox is illustrated in the play by legitimately born bastard Richard and the ethical
Earl of Richmond (future Henry VII) who is tainted with bastardy in the play. As Richard
and Buckingham claim, Richard has the right to the crown because he is not a bastard in
the literal or technical sense of the word, that he is a legitimate son, but from his
behaviour and his murderous actions we learn that he is a dangerous and heartless
bastard, in the figurative sense. Unlike Richard, Richmond presents himself as a
saint, a saviour who rescues England from the despot who has taken the crown, but
Richard also taints his troops (and therefore Richmond as their head as well) with
bastardy. He calls them bastards, the scum of Bretons because he considers Richmond
politically illegitimate (once on the throne, Richard became genealogically legitimate
ruler and Richmond is technically a usurper, the throne is not empty and there is no need
for a new ruler). If the Bretons win, that political illegitimacy will lead to biological one
because they will spread illegitimacy by fathering bastards on the losers wives. Richards
feeling that he has the right to legitimate succession to the throne is a compensation
from the negative feeling of being a figurative bastard. Richard protects himself from this
negative feeling by projecting bastardy onto his imagined rivals (Edward, the nephews,
the Bretons and Richmond).
Richard is described as a human manqu, that is, as a defective person, cruel and
monstrous. When speaking to his troops, Richmond calls him base and that word
catches the tones of his cruelty and figurative bastardy (baseness) which by contrast
makes other Lancastrians, and especially Henry Tudor, who have been either labelled or
associated with bastardy appear less culpable, even in the Earl of Richmond's case not
blameable. This dramatic strategy provides the basis for the play's concluding emphasis
upon Tudor fertility and legitimacy.
The dialogue in which Richard pretends to be persuaded by Buckingham to accept the
crown is actually set-up between two Machiavels (Buckingham and Richard). But the
Mayor and the citizens of London do not pretend; they are really convinced that Richard
is the right person to take the crown. That dialogue illustrates how a stage bastard
behaves. He repeatedly insists on his own self-begotten sufficiency in overreaching
language that insolently travesties the divine 'I am'. (This is visible even in Richards
soliloquy performed after his nightmare when he says I am I or Richard loves
Richard.)
Richard shares many character traits with the stage bastards Edmund and Faulconbridge
of King John. These include a proneness to tease or scoff, cynical commentary often
expressed in an aside on dramatic action, a darkly comic or ironic sense of humour,

theatrical behaviour and speech as responses to a sense of illegitimacy; selfcongratulatory double-entendres, soliloquies suggestive of superior intellectual
complexity, a fondness for spoken interruption, expostulations, defiances, mockeries, and
expressions of incredulity; and a penchant for Machiavellian policy, made attractive by a
large capacity for personal charm. Richard shares these and other characteristics with the
Shakespearian stage bastard represented by Edmund and Faulconbridge partly because all
three figures ultimately derive from the Morality Vice. Morality play (also called
morality) is an allegorical drama that was popular in Europe especially during the 15 th
and 16th centuries, in which the characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or
vice) or abstractions (as death or youth) and in which moral lessons are taught.
(We feel that Richards (and Edmunds in King Lear) resentment is understandable.
Richard becomes a "sincere" hypocrite, who sardonically unmasks the hypocrisies of
those seemingly sincere (such as Edward IV and Richmond).)