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Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;
Not separated with the racking clouds,
But severed in a pale clear-shining sky.
See, see—they join, embrace, and seem to kiss,
As if they vowed some league inviolable.
Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.
In this, the heaven figures some event. (2.1.26–32)
Richard addresses these lines to Edward upon seeing a vision of three suns resolving into one. Both brothers see this phenomenon as symbolic, but the nature of the symbolism is ambiguous. Richard’s initial interpretation is that the suns symbolize “some league inviolable.” Edward is quick to agree, saying it must mean that York’s sons should stand together. However, Richard’s language seems strategically vague. What is the “league” he references, and what is the nature of the unspecified “event” it prefigures? Furthermore, it’s notable that even as Richard observes the three suns coming together, he uses the language of distinction: “separated,” “severed.” Instead of being a sign of unity, then, the three suns may well foretell of familial divisions to come—first through the announcement of the death of their brother, the earl of Rutland, and later through George’s change in loyalty and Richard’s plot against Edward.
And yet, methinks, your grace hath not done well
To give the heir and daughter of Lord Scales
Unto the brother of your loving bride.
She better would have fitted me or Clarence,
But in your bride you bury brotherhood. (4.1.50–54)
Richard speaks these lines to Edward, who, after gloating about his new bride, has just mentioned his plan to arrange a marriage for her brother. Both Richard and George are annoyed that Edward has let his newfound power go to his head, and here Richard points out how he’s betrayed his brothers by neglecting his duty to help them marry well. The final line in this quote foreshadows that break that will come soon after. When Edward insists that he is the king and that he will “not be tied unto his brother’s will” (4.1.65), George withdraws his loyalty and leaves to join the Lancastrian cause. In this way, a fraternal rift has direct implications for the civil war already threatening to tear the kingdom apart.
I had no father, I am like no father;
I have no brother, I am like no brother;
And this word “love,” which graybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another
And not in me—I am myself alone. (5.6.80–84)
These lines come from the middle of Richard’s second major soliloquy in the play, which takes place immediately after he has murdered Henry in the Tower. Richard begins by affirming the truth of all the terrible things Henry has just said about him. In doing so, he cites his physical abnormalities as justification for his plot to claim the throne for himself at all costs. Indeed, his monstrous body marks him as an outsider, alienated from all social and familial bonds. In the lines quoted here, Richard formally denounces all links of paternity and fraternity, declaring himself a man alone. This is the moment where Richard symbolically frees himself to act solely in his own self-interest, the horrific results of which Shakespeare dramatizes in his later play, Richard III.
