Clarence

Play

Richard III

Summary

George, Duke of Clarence, is Richard's older brother, imprisoned in the Tower on a trumped-up charge and then secretly ordered to be murdered by Richard. His dream speech before his murder — a sustained, hallucinatory vision of drowning in the sea, full of drowned treasure and the ghosts of those he wronged — is one of the most poetically extraordinary passages in the history plays. He is famously drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.

Notable Quotations

"O, I have pass'd a miserable night, / So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, / That, as I am a Christian faithful man, / I would not spend another such a night, / Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days." *(1.4)*

"Methought that I had broken from the Tower, / And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy; / And, in my company, my brother Gloucester; / Who from my cabin tempted me to walk / Upon the hatches." *(1.4)*

"O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee, / But thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds, / Yet execute thy wrath in me alone!" *(1.4)*

Cross-references