Richard & Anne's confrontation

During the procession of her dead husband, Anne is confronted by Richard. She reacts in hatred and horror to Richard's presence and curses him as the treacherous murderer of her husband and father. Richard denies his involvement in the murders and  although Anne curses Richard bitterly he tries to woo her by feigning gentleness and persistently praising her beauty. 

 The following are some of the insults in this scene :

Anne: "What black magician conjures up this fiend."

"Avaunt, thy dreadful minister of hell "

"Villain, thou knowest nor law of God nor man"

" Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make No excuse current but to hang thyself"

"Dost grant me, hedgehog?"

" And thou unfit for any place but hell"

Although in the beginning of scene 2 Anne bitterly curses Richard and he in fact has admitted to killing both her father and husband at the end of scene, she wheres his ring and is engaged to be married to him. 

Act one, Scene three

Queen Elizabeth enters the stage with members of her family and tells them she is fearful because her husband King Edward 6^th only grows sicker each day and a recovery is not likely. She is also fearful because her two sons are too small to gain control of the throne after their father has passed and Gloster who is hostile towards her is in line to gain it.

 The duke of Buckingham and Stanley the earl of Derby. They report that King Edward is doing better, and that he wants to make peace between Richard and Elizabeth’s kinsmen, between whom there is long-standing hostility. Gloster enters the room with Hastings, complaining bitterly about the lies which "they" tell the king. When asked who "they" are, Gloster accuses the queen's brother, Lord Rivers, and her two sons. He then blames them for the recent imprisonment of Lord Hastings, and for the current jailing of his brother Clarence. Queen Elizabeth is outraged at these suggestions, and threatens to tell the king.

Queen Margaret arrives and in an aside she says that Elizabeth has her to thank for the throne and calls Gloster a devil for the murders he has committed. Margaret, bitter about her overthrow and the killing of her family by the people who stand before her, begins to curse all those present. She prays that Elizabeth will outlive her glory, and see her husband and children die before her, just as Margaret has. She curses Hastings, Rivers, and Dorset to die early deaths and finally, she curses Gloster, praying to the heavens that he will mistake his friends for enemies and that he will never sleep peacefully.

 The entire company is summoned into King Edward's chambers. Richard remains behind and meets with two murderers whom he sends to kill Clarence. 

Act one, Scene 4

Scene 4 opens with an imprisoned Clarence telling Brakenbury about the dream he had the night before. Clarence dreams about setting sail to France with his brother Richard. Aboard the ship Richard stumbles and when Clarence reaches to help him up he is flung into the sea where he drowns slowly. Clarence tries to forget about this dream but cannot escape the terrible feeling of drowning repeatedly and has yet another bad dream.

Clarence asks Brakenbury to stay with him while he sleeps. Brakenbury agrees, and Clarence falls asleep. Suddenly, Gloster’s hired murderers enter unannounced. They hand Brakenbury the warrant that Gloster gave them, a legal document that orders Brakenbury to leave them alone with Clarence, no questions asked. Brakenbury then proceeds to leave the room. Left alone with the sleeping Clarence, the two murderers debate how best to kill him. Both suffer some pangs of conscience, but the memory of the reward Gloster offers them overcomes their uncertainty. 

Clarence awakes and meets the murderers and pleads for his life. Clarence begs them to go to Gloster who will reward them for spring his life. One of the murderers reveals that it is in fact Gloster who hired them to kill him which leaves Clarence in disbelief. One of the murderers hesitates to kill him but the other stabs him and disposes of the body in the wine Keg next door. The two then flee the scene.

Act One, Scene two

We are introduced to scene 2 with Lady Anne walking down the street accompanied by gentlemen bearing halberds to hold the coffin of her late husband King Henry 6th. She has them set the coffin down and begins to express her grief over the King’s death. In expressing her grief she curses any future children which Richard might have, and prays that after Richard's death his future wife will know even more grief than Lady Anne currently feels.

Gloster then enters and is immediately attacked by words of hatred from Anne for his role in the death of her husband. Following through with his plans to marry her, he tries to woo her by saying how lovely he thinks she is. However, Anne continues to scorn him after each attempt. Gloster finally admits he killed her husband but with the crafty excuse that he did it so that he alone could love her. Gloster bends down on his knees and tells her to kill him if she cannot forgive him to which she replies, "I will not be thy executioner." 

Gloster proceeds to asking her hand in marriage and surprisingly Anne agrees. He expresses his surprise in a soliloquy which brings the scene to an end.

Summary of Act 1 scene 1

In Act 1 scene 1 Richard delivers a soliloquy where the audience are made aware of his plot to gain the throne. He is then visited by his brother Clarence who is to be imprisoned. We learn that the reason for this imprisonment is because someone told King Edward that a person with a name starting with the letter "G" would cause his family to lose the throne. Since Clarence's full name is George, Duke of Clarence, he was considered to be a prime suspect. Richard cunningly informs Clarence that the accomplice to this prophecy is Queen Elizabeth.

The two’s conversation is interrupted by Brakenbury who admonishes that by order of the King, no one is to be in conference with the imprisoned.  Gloster then reassures him that they only speak in good word of the King and Queen Elizabeth. Clarence is then taken away and Gloster reveals that he will have him permanently removed in order to clear the path for the throne for himself.

Having just been freed Lord Hastings emerges from the Tower and tells Gloster of the King’s illness and how close he is to death. When Hastings departs Gloster then plots to have King Edward kill Clarence this will put Richard into a position where upon Edward's death he can assume the throne. He also plots to marry Lady Anne , who is the widow of Edward, Prince of Wales and the daughter-in-law of Henry VI, whom Richard has both killed. 

Richard 3rd Soliloquy

In Act 1 Scene 1, the play opens with Richard Ш conveying his thoughts to the audience in a soliloquy which proves to be very important. In this soliloquy the audience is made aware of his physical deformity and his future plans which we will see unravel during the course of the play.

Gloster’s soliloquy is significant because he informs the audience of his physical features. We learn that he is ugly and has a hunched back, he also expresses his difficulty in finding love because of the deformity. This soliloquy’s importance is shown because the audience learns that Gloster’s deformity and inability to find love fuels him to become a villain. This dramatic convention is also important because it reveals Gloster’s plans to set his brothers Clarence and King Edward against each other then have them both killed in order to secure the crown for himself. He also reveals his plans to marry Lady Anne, this he believes will help him in his plot to gain the crown. This plan may seem uncanny since Gloster killed both Anne’s father and her husband a fact noted by Gloster himself but he is determined to see his plans through saying, “the readiest way to make wench amends is to become her husband and her father.”

The soliloquy sets the stage for the play in that the entire plot of the play is built closely around it. The audience will see plans made in the soliloquy unknot during the play and witness the consequences of the said plans.