The Tragedy of Richard the Third: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play

The Tragedy of Richard the Third presents the tale of a Machiavellian: Richard the Third, the archetypal villain. The Elizabethan audience would already have been biased against Richard, and modern audiences probably do not feel empathy for him either. From his wooing of Anne to the continued execution of his apparent enemies, there is little sympathy for this “bunch-back’d toad.”