Richard III is arguably the first play of Shakespeare's that features a now-iconic character. The titular Richard is a classic Machiavellian character who is unflinchingly immoral in his pursuit of greater power. Yet in spite of this he is brilliant and inexplicably charming, and has managed to captivate audiences for centuries even given—or perhaps in part because of—his penchant for bloodshed.
Shakespeare's Richard III is also perhaps the easiest entry into a larger cycle of historical plays that the Bard wrote before moving on to other subjects that would make him even more famous. This historical cycle concerns the history of England during the tumultuous years of the Wars of the...
